A\nseniae ins; 
The Utility of the Useless. Fi By 
VI.—The Utility of the Useless. Presidential Address deliveréd™by— 
Principal O. Charnock Bradley, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., on 22nd November 
ESES. 
For several reasons it isa profitable exercise to trace back a modern invention, 
or commercial appliance, to the fundamental discoveries from which it sprang. 
In the first place, the debt of commerce to pure science is thus demonstrated ; 
for it is safe to say that none of the numerous inventions and devices which 
are of such immense commercial importance in the present day could have 
come into existence had it not been preceded by one, or possibly many, 
discoveries arising out of research pursued in a purely academic spirit. But, 
as being of far more importance from the point of view of the ardent beginner 
in scientific research, the tracing of the germinal discoveries upon which an 
invention is based is of value as showing how all academic research, remote 
though it may appear from the service of mankind, may contain within it the 
germ from which is to develop an influence capable of tincturing the whole 
fabric of a nation’s existence. A moving pebble may start an avalanche. . . . 
Moreover, the history of scientific discoveries serves to remind us of those 
complex factors underlying our daily life and the research, remote or recent, 
from which they have originated. The detailed processes of every day are so 
familiar that few spare the time to remember that upon scientific discovery 
depend all the contrivances and appliances which make modern life what it 
is. Indeed, one is tempted to pen the paradox that it is of the most familiar 
we have least knowledge. In contemplating the lordly oak, or in enjoying 
its shade, we forget its origin; and, assuredly, the timber-merchant wastes no 
thought on the acorn. 
An interesting chapter in the history of science could be written on the 
opposition against which discoveries of fundamental importance and ultimate 
great commercial value have had to fight for general approval and acceptance. 
Galileo's telescope, the Darwinian hypothesis, the clinical thermometer, 
anesthetics, and a host of other revolutionising introductions have been 
opposed with a greater or lesser degree of acerbity. In the lhght of its 
modern development, it is scarcely conceivable that the electric telegraph was 
neglected for years until its possibilities were foreshadowed in a dramatic 
fashion in connection with the arrest of a murderer. On the introduction of 
the electric telegraph, the “ practical man” would have none of it, and yet in 
the short space of about half a century, the telegraph, and its younger 
relative the telephone, have completely revolutionised every-day, commercial 
and national life. However great their value may be in times of peace, in 
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