Huntsville gazette., 1886-01-30
HUMAN PROGRESS.
The Wonderful Gifts of Science During tho
Last Half Century.

The Wonderful Gifts of Science During tho
Last Half Century.
The first railway for locomotives.
which was constructed between Stock
ton and Darlington. was opened in
September, 1925, SO that l 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 meshes over the civil
ized world. / confess it fills me with
astonishment to think that the time
when no man could travel faster than
horses could transport him. when our
means of locomOtion were no better
than those. of Achilles or of Ramses
Nahum, lies within my memory. The
electric telegraph, as thing for prac-
teal use, is far my junior. SO are
arms of precision, unless the old rifle
be regarded as such. Again, the ap-
plication of hygiene, and to the medic
al and surgical treatment OF men and
animals. of our knowledge of the phe-
nomena of parasitism, and the very
discovery of the true order of these
phenomena, is long way Within the
1t is unnecessary for me 10 enumerate
more than these four OF the many rich
gifts made by science to mankind dur
ing the last sixty years. Arresting the
survey here, ] would ask If there is any
corresponding period in previous his
tory which can take credit for so many
momentous applications of scientific
knowledge to the wants of mankindp
Depreciatcrs Of the value of natural
knowledge are wont to speak somewhat
scornfully of these and such like bene-
factions as mere additions to material
welfare. | must own to the weakness
OF believing that material welfare is
highly desirable in itself, and / have
yet to meet with the man Who prefers
material i,l-fare. But even if this
should be, as some may say, painful
evidence of the materialistic tendencies
incidental to scientific pursuits, it is
surely possible, without much ingenu-
ity on any prejudice in favor of one OF
other view Of the mutual relations of
material and Spiritual phenomena. to
show that each of these four applica
tions of science has eXerted q pro-
digious influence on the moral, social
and political relations of mankind, and
that such influence can only increase
as time goes on. If the senseiess an
tipathies, born of isolation, which for
merly converted nejghbors, whether
they belonged to adjacent families OF
to adjacent nations, into natu-
raj enemies, arc dying away, im-
proved means OF communication
deserve the chief credit of the change;
if vA.r becomes less frequent it will be
chiefly because its horrors are being in
tensified beyond bearing by the close
interdependcnce and community OF in
terest thus established between nations,
no less than by the improvement Of the
means of destruction by scientific in
vention. Arms of precision have taken
the mastery of the world out Of the
hands OF brute force and given it to
those of industry and intelligence. If
| railways and electric telegraphs have
rendered it unnecessary that modern
empires should fall to pieces by their
own weight as ancient empires did,
| arms of precision have provided
against the possibility of their being
swept away by barbarous invasions.
Health means not merely wealth, not
merely bodily welfare, but intellectual
and moral soundness; and l 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 in the animal
economy, and that of the means OF
checking them, even though, as yet,
unfortunately it be only in few cases
Prof Hu1ley, IN Nature.