SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1884. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



With all the applause bestowed on Lieut. 

 Greely and his comrades for their self-sacrifice 

 and heroism, we hear continually the remark, 

 'I hope this is the last of arctic explorations.' 

 This is not a strange utterance to proceed 

 from those who have given no thought to the 

 magnitude of the problems involved in modern 

 polar research. Oue can even smile when a 

 person who has never considered the subject 

 says with spontaneous humanity, "Such expe- 

 ditions may be very good for science, but they 

 are very bad for men." But it is astounding 

 to read the words which are attributed by the 

 interviewer to the president of the United 

 States when he heard of the rescue of the 

 Greely party. He is reported by the New- 

 York Herald (July 18) to have said that he 

 "had never favored these explorations, as the 

 geographical and scientific information secured 

 could not compensate for the loss of human 

 life. He could not see what had been gained, 

 so far, that would justify any men, however 

 ambitious and daring, in making another at- 

 tempt." 



For the following reasons, we take a very 

 different view of such expeditions. The pub- 

 lic need to be reminded, to begin with, that 

 science is not a person, a party, or a society, 

 that has ' interests ' to promote. Science is 

 accurate knowledge, S3'stematically arranged by 

 men for the good of men. To promote science 

 is to promote an understanding of the world in 

 which man dwells. Every great discovery in 

 science sooner or later proves to be for the 

 good of man. A great philosopher once said, 

 4 There is nothing so prolific in utilities as ab- 

 stractions ; ' and, if this be true, the intimations 

 that discoveries may be ; good for science, and 

 bad for mankind,' are based upon a funda- 



Xo. 78. — 1884. 



mental error, which should always be met with 

 a protest. 



Again : there is a strong presumption when 

 ten of the most enlightened governments in 

 Christendom (England, France, Germany, 

 Austria, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, 

 Holland, and the United States) are per- 

 suaded by men of the greatest wisdom and 

 knowledge, at the suggestion of one who knew 

 by personal experience the hardships involved 

 (the explorer Weyprecht) , to engage simul- 

 taneously in a certain line of investigation — 

 we say there is a strong presumption that the 

 investigation thus proposed is of profound im- 

 portance to the world. In this case the prob- 

 lem is one which every intelligent man can 

 appreciate : it is nothing less than to increase 

 our knowledge of the physics of the globe : to 

 gather such facts, from so many places and by 

 such careful methods, as will throw light upon 

 the fundamental laws of terrestrial magnetism, 

 and upon all the forces which govern the winds, 

 the currents, and the ice-floes of the northern 

 hemisphere. The chief result in view is not 

 that which attracts the most applause ; it is 

 not the indication on our maps of a few more 

 miles of land, nor the carrying of our flag to a 

 point 'a little nearer the pole than any flag has 

 ever been : it is the addition to science of ob- 

 servations made dailv during a period of well- 

 nigh two years, in a station most inaccessible, 

 but most wisely chosen for comparison with a 

 dozen other stations where like observations 

 have been in progress. 



This contribution to human knowledge may. 

 as the decades roll on, and it becomes a part 

 of the capital of the world, yield the most- 

 abundant fruits. It was obtained, it could 

 only be obtained, by the bravery, the intel- 

 ligence, the self-sacrifice, of heroic men, sus- 

 tained by governmental aid, strengthened by 

 the consciousness that other men were else- 



