September 12, 1SS4/ 



SCIENCE. 



247 



member of that committee came the absurd question, 

 • Would it not be a bad fix if the engine should meet 

 a cow on the track'?' 'Yes,' said Stephenson, 'it 

 might be bad |for the coo.' The dissemination of 

 truth is as scientific as its discovery. Sometimes 

 scientific men act as if truth could not be expressed in 

 the vernacular, — indeed, as if it cannot be truth un- 

 less dressed in their terminology. College men used 

 to feel that their triennial would lose character if 

 deprived of the dignity of Latin — though it was 

 often bad Latin. All this foolishness is fast passing 

 away. Already it is an honor to scientifically teach 

 science, as well as to advance its domain. Still it is 

 rarely met with, and far less understood than scien- 

 tific research. Here is a great field for immediate 

 occupancy. 



The scientific method of communicating truth 

 recognizes the fact, that in early life man's powers 

 are shaped, and too often the bulk of his knowledge 

 acquired. Hence its fundamental rule must be sim- 

 plicity in the use of language, and in the presenta- 

 tion of each truth in the concrete. This scientific 

 method is needed even to preserve classic learning 

 from disgrace and disuse. Adopted in the whole 

 domain of scholastic instruction, it would bring new 

 votaries to science, and new benefactors even to the 

 support of pure science. A better taste for all kinds 

 of literature would result. Low writing would be at 

 a discount. TVe should thus cheapen scientific litera- 

 ture, and increase museums for object-teaching. We 

 may never destroy the taste for low and degrading 

 prints by inveighing against them and thus advertis- 

 ing them, but we may create a taste for valuable 

 reading which will not be satisfied by the vile. This 

 literature cannot be the same for all persons, but the 

 scientific method should pervade it all. Morals 

 would not be excluded, but enforced; the imagina- 

 tion not neglected, but purified and elevated. The 

 body of information could not exclude any truth 

 of service to mankind. Every great subject would 

 bring its contribution shaped to scientific methods 

 and adapted to all minds, — the earth as influenced 

 by the sun and the starry world, its surface of land 

 and water, of mountains and streams and valleys, of 

 barren and productive soil, the plant life that dwells 

 upon it, the animal life it supports, the circum- 

 ambient atmosphere and its phenomena ; and man, 

 the scientific animal who makes all this ado, and for 

 whom it is made, and to whom it is given to possess. 

 The Adam of this period of scientific thought might 

 call up his several sciences, and direct each to yield 

 what it possesses for this correlation of economic 

 thought, for human instruction, guidance, enjoyment, 

 and betterment, for this evolution of science, for the 

 greatest good of man by doing its utmost for the 

 common things of daily life. Gravitation weighs 

 alike the most volatile particle and the vastest of far- 

 off stars. The laws of economic science are the same 

 to the lowly as to the great man : by them he meas- 

 ures the price of his salt, and the safeguards of his 

 liberty. 



Towards this gathering-up, for man's daily use, of 

 all the lessons of nature, the progress of the race is 



tending. Steam, the telegraph, and the telephone 

 focus all thought and action. We shall yet demand 

 of every department of knowledge, ' What good for 

 man?' Each science will have its body by itself, 

 and yet fill numerous relations to every art, and yield 

 its practical lessons to every man according to his 

 understanding and preparation. Data thus correlated 

 will meet the child, — nay, will guide the paternal in- 

 fluence and action in its behalf. But now the child, 

 in its greatest dependency, is met with the destruc- 

 tive follies of ignorance. Neglect, mistakes, or down- 

 right violations of nature's laws, often consign him 

 to the grave, or plant in him the seeds of permanent 

 disorder. Physicians may relieve his colic, or cure 

 his disease; but how rarely can they so direct the 

 nursing and training as to assure health ! If the im- 

 pairment is mental, and we go to insane-asylums for 

 advice, we learn what per cent of the cases under 

 treatment could have been prevented, and efforts will 

 be made to cure. But we want prevention, not cure. 

 We want information upon questions of food, of 

 raiment, of shelter, of air, of vocation, of occupa- 

 tion ; not for one man, or one class of men, but for 

 all men in all conditions. 



The era of this diffusion of knowledge has already 

 actually commenced. Men not engaged in scientific 

 pursuits are gradually coming to feel the necessity of 

 gathering, grouping, and generalizing the data which 

 give them a clearer measure of health, comfort, 

 pleasure, as well as the profit and loss involved. As 

 balance-sheets are studied in business, so are ques- 

 tions of finance, of taxation and public expenditure. 

 Great operations, like those in corn, in coal, in cot- 

 ton, in wool or silk, leather or lumber, in iron or 

 gold or silver, and of all the great industries, — agri- 

 cultural, mechanical, commercial, professional, — 

 demand and have their collections of statistics, and 

 their vast accumulations ready as contributions to 

 economic science. But the correlation of all these 

 and their actual results have not yet been reached. 

 Nevertheless, money sees the profits of this wisdom, 

 and is more willing to pay for it. Expert investiga- 

 tors are in demand. Public action requires it. The 

 idea of a republic in which all its citizens shall act 

 patriotically and virtuously, from free choice of the 

 right course and on their own knowledge, demands it. 

 Napoleon I. said, ' Statistics mean the keeping of an 

 exact account of a nation's affairs, and without such 

 an account there is no safety ; ' while Goethe declared, 

 ' I do not know whether figures govern the world, 

 but this I do know: they show how it is governed.' 

 America has accepted the responsibility of reporting 

 its operations, and of disseminating information for 

 the benefit of all the people. Boards of health, of 

 charity, of education, and bureaus of statistics and 

 labor, are demanded by state and nation. They are 

 becoming potent in reducing to order the chaos of 

 data so long without form and void. 



The character of the information demanded marks 

 the progress of the age. During how many ages was 

 the counting of men and the measure of their con- 

 dition undertaken solely to prepare for war! Even 

 our own colonial census was taken for this purpose. 



