Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-01-09
THE GIFTS OF SCIENCE.
What it Has Done for the Country
During Fifty Years

What it Has Done for the Country
During Fifty Years
From Prot. Rusleys Royal Society address
The first railway for locomotives, which
was constructed between Stockton and
Darlington, was opened in September,
/ 1926, so that have the doubtful advan-
tage Of about four months seniority over
| the ancestral representative of the vast
reticulated fetching and carrying organ
\ ism which now extends its meshes over
the civilized world. ! confess ii fills me
| with establishment 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
| practical use, is far my junior. So are
arms of precision, unless the old rifle be
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
! parasitism, and the very discovery Of
the true order of these phenomena, is a
| long way within the compass OF my per-
| sOnal knowledge. lt IS unnecessary for me
to enumerate more than these four OF the
many rich gifts made by science to man.
kind during the last sixty years. Arrest
ing the survey here, / would ask if there
is any corresponding period in previous
history which can take credit for so many
momentous applications OF scientific
to the wants Of mankind. De-
preciators OF the value OF natural
knowledge are wont to speak some
what scOrnfully Of these and such like
benefactions as mere additions 90 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 III
fare. But even II this should be, as some
may say. painful evidence OF the mate
realistic tendencies incident 10 scientific
pursuits, il is surely possible, without
much ingenuity or any prejudice in favor
of one or other view OF the mutual rela-
tions OF material and spiritual pbenom-
ena, 10 show that each Of thsse four APP
plicatiOns Of science has eXerted a pro-
digiOus influence on the moral, social, and
political relations OF mankind, and that
such influence can only increase as time
goes on. u the senseless antipathies,
born Of isolation, which formerly con-
yerted neighDors, whether they belonged
20 adjacent families or 10 adjacent ma
tons, into natural enemies. are diving
away, imp owed means Of communication
deserve the chief credit Of the change. II
war becomes less IfeQuentit VIII De cnleuy
because its horrors are being intensified
beyond bearing by the close interdepend-
ence and community OF interest thus es-
tablished between nations, no less than
by the improvement Of the means OF de-
structiOn by scientific invention. Arms
OF precision have taken the mastery OF the
world out Of the hands of brute force aud
given 70 TO those Of industry and intelli-
gence. II railways and electric telegraphs
have rendered ID unnecessary that modern
empires should fall 10 pieces by their own
weight, as ancient empires did, arms or
precision have provided against the pos.
slbility Of their being swept away by bar
bar0us inyasiOns. Health means not
merely wealth, not merely bodily welfare,
but intellectual and moral sOundncss.
but / doubt u, since the time Of the father
Of medicine, any discovery has cOntribu-
ted ~ much 10 The promotion Of health
and lhe cure Of disease He that OF the part
played by iungnid parasites lu the animal
economy, and that Of toe means u check
ing them, even though, Az yet, unfOrtu-
naiolg u De- only in few cases.