78 Journal op the Mitchell Society. [Nov. 



the spirit is there, it will show itself in spite of circum- 

 stances." 



Your speaker wishes to plead with his southern colleagues 

 for greater activity in research. Many have told me they 

 had no appliances, Liebig had none at first and later bought 

 most or that which he had from his slender stipend; Priestley 

 utilized a lens and sun's heat and discovered oxygen, Wohler 

 distilled potassium, using a bent gun barrel as a condenser in 

 in Berzelius's laboratory. Where there's a will, there's a 

 way. There is much unknown, so much to learn, and, as 

 Victor Meyer has said, there is "the gaining of gold from 

 rubbish." 



Yes, our equipment is meaner; poorer than it ought to be 

 for states now far richer than ever in their history; grown 

 rich, too, as a result of the progress of industries. Science 

 sowed the seed of the present prosperity and it is worthy of 

 rememberance, thanks, reward. And these will come. In a 

 measure, they have come. Every scientific man in the state 

 takes pride in the growth of the new biological building at 

 this institution, beneficent generosity of a prominent trustee 

 at Trinity college equipping the physics department, the con- 

 duct of the soil survey under the direction of the Department 

 of Agriculture, the Beaufort laboratory, etc. 



The importance of promoting science as the duty of the 

 states was well known to the ancients, especially the Greeks 

 and Arabs. The Prince Consort, in an address before the 

 British Association in 1859, made the following statement: 



"We may be justified in hoping * * * that the legisla- 

 ture and the state will more and more recognise the claims of 

 science to their attention; so that it may no longer require the 

 begging-box, but speak to the state like a favored child to its 

 parents; sure of his parental solicitude for* its welfare; that 

 the state will recognize in science one of its elements of 

 strength and prosperity; to foster which the clearest dictates 

 of self-interest demand." 



The endowment of any laboratory in any institution of the 

 state but helps the others. There is no such thing as com- 



