The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-03-05
The Gifts Of Science.

The first railway for locomotives,
which was constructed between Stock
ton and Darlington. was opened in
September, 1925. 80 that | have the
doubtful advantage of about four
months seniority over the ancestral
representative of the vast reticulated
fetching and carrying organism which
now extends its mc>hcs over the civilized
world. confess il fills me with aston
i>hment Ia think that the time when no
man could travel faster than horses
could transport him. when our means of
locOnOtiOn were no better than those of
Achilles ar of Ramses Nahum. lies
within my memory. The electric tele-
graph, rs q thing for practical Use, is
far my junior. so are arms of precision,
unless the old rifle he regarded aS such.
Again. the application to hygiene. and
to the medical and surgical treatment of
men and animals. of our knowledge of
the phenomena of para>itism. and the
very discovery of the true order of these
phenomena. is a long way within the
compass of my personal knowledge.
1t is unnecessary for me To- cnumerate
more than these four of the many rich
gifts made nv science To mankind during
the last sixty years. Arrsting the sur
vcy here. would ask if there is any
corresponding period in previous history
which can take credit for 80 many mo-
mentons applications of scientific knowl-
edge To the wants of mankind? Depre-
ciatOrs of the value of natural knOwl-
edge are wont to speak somewhat Scorn-
fully of these and such like benefactiOns
as mere additions To material welfare
must own to the weakness of believing
that material welfare is highly desirable
in itself. and | have vet To meet with the
man who prefers material i'll fare. But
even if this should he. as some may say,
painful evidence of the materialistic
tendencies incidental To scientific pur-
suits. il is surely possible, without much
ingenuity or other view of the mutual
relations of material and spiritual phe-
nomcna. 10 show that each of these four
applications of science has exerted
prodigious influence on the moral, social
and political relations of mankind. and
that such influence can only increase as
time goes on. II the Senseless antipa-
thies, born Of isolation. which formerly
converted ncighbors, whether they be-
lOnged to adjacent families or TO adj
Jacent nations. into natural enemies, are
dying away, improved means of COM
municatiOn deserve the chief credit of
the change: if war becomes less fire.
quent it will be chiefly because its hor-
rors are being intensified beyond bear
ing by the close interdependence and
community of interest thus established
between nations no less than by the i'm
prOvement Of the means of destruction
by scientific invention. Arms of pre-
cisiOn have taken the mastery of the
world out of the hands of brute force
and given il to those of industry and in
telligence. Ii railways and electric
telegraphs have rendered il unnecessary
that modern empires should fall to
pieces by their own light as ancient
empires did, arms of precision have pro-
vided against the possibility of their be-
ing swept away by barbarOus invasions.
Health means not merely wealth, not
merely bodily welfare, but intellectual
and moral Soundncss: and | doubt If,
since the time of the father of medicine.
any discovery has contributed so much
TO the promotion of health and the cure
of disease As that of the part played by
fungOid parasites i'm the animal econO-
my, and that of the means of checking
them. even though. as vet. unfortunately
il be only i'm few cases.-FrOm Pro-
jessor Huriey's .Addrrss 10 The ROYAL
Society, in Nature.