IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
11 
manipulation. The tendency of the age from this point of view is 
upward, helpful, and hopeful; and the science of this age is seen 
to be humanizing and elevating in its effects. 
Such progress is not without some unavoidable evil effects. We 
always travel to permanent good through transitory ills. We 
are at present, as we always are, in a transitory period, with a 
golden age back of us, and a golden age in front of us; but the 
golden age of the future is a very different one from the golden 
age of the past. Likewise the tendency toward the combination of 
the forces in society and social life produces similar evils. A 
small business is absorbed by a large business; the large business 
is absorbed by a larger business; and the larger business is ab- 
sorbed by the largest— namely the government. Each change 
brings about a greater per cent of efficiency while a large number 
of people are thrown out of employment, and as a consequence we 
have troubles of a serious character. These, however, have been 
evanescent in the past. We have gone through many such crises 
and we have many yet to pass through. Our hope lies in the uni- 
versal scientific education. 
The history of achievements and advancements in science has 
been for the most part a history of the work of the leaders in their 
respective fields of work. They have by their indomitable zeal 
breathed the breath of life into the institutions where they have 
labored. Henry put life into the Smithsonian institution, Wash- 
ington, D. C. ; Agassiz did the same thing for the museum of 
Harvard. So does every teacher and worker in scientific investiga- 
tions, however humble he may appear to be, impress the minds 
and hearts of those with whom he associates, and help to establish 
their ideals. 
The tide of popular appreciation of scientific accomplishments 
was never so high as at the present time. This appreciation does 
not partake of the spectacular phase of science work as it formerly 
did, nor of the bread and butter phase of the subject, but it is a 
widespread and deep feeling that our present state of civilization 
is superior to that of the past, and that this superiority is largely 
due to our advancement in science. It is not so much Edison, the 
wizard, or Marconi, the magician, as it is the exhibition of organ- 
ized and trained common sense of Tyndall, Huxley, Pasteur, and 
Koch, and others that guides and governs the great mass of our 
intelligent people. 
The cultural value of science is different from that of the hu- 
manities if it may be said to have a direct cultural value at all. 
