The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-14
THIS CENTURY'S PROGRESS
GREAT COMPARED WITH THAT OF
PRETIOUS TIME.
President Orton's Address to the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement

can Association for the Advancement
of Science.
Alfred r. Wallace has recently made
careful inventory of the discoverie
and inventions to which the progress OF
the race is mainly due, and he divides
them into two groups, the first embrac-
ing all the epoch making advances
achieved by men previous to the pres
ent century, and the second taking In
the discoveries and advances of equal
value that have had their origin in the
nineteenth century. In the first list he
finds but fifteen items of the highest
rank, and the claims of some even OF
this number to separate place are not
beyond question. They may not really
be of epoch making character. But ne
puts into the list the following, viz.
Alphabetic writing and Arabic nota-
ton, which have always been the two
great engines of knowledge and dis
covery. Their inventors are unknown,
lost in the dim twilight of prehistoric
times. Coming after a vast interval to
LAG IOuA lCClhtli ICilluIS a. A., VIC lliiNi
the mariners compass, and in the fiji
teenth the printing press both of which
beyond question are of the same char
acter and rank as alpha bette writing
From the sixteenth century we get no
physical invention or discovery, but it
witnessed an amazing movement of the
human mind, which in good time gave
rise to the great catalogue of advances
OF the seventeenth century To it we
credit the invention of the telescope,
and, though not of equal rank, the ba-
Tometer and thermometer, and in still
another field the invention of the diff
ferential calculus the all important dis
covery of gravitation, of the laws of
planetary motion, of the circulation Of
the blood of the measurement of the
velocity of light. To the eighteenth
century we refer the more important of
the earlier steps in the evolution of the
steam engine and the foundation of
both modern chemistry and electrical
science. This completes the list.
What Is there to be added to this list?
Some would urge that Jenners discov-
cry should be included here, but this
claim Wallace would Indignantly deny.
In making such list, it is evident the
personal equation of the author I'M
doubtedly needs to be recognized and
different orders of arrangement, even
If the elements were the same, would
be assigned by different students.
And now what has the record been
since 1900? How does the nineteenth
century compare with it's predecessors?
A hfa
in scientific discovery and progress it is
not to be compared with and single
century, but rather with all past time.
In fact, it far outweighs the entire pro-
gress of the race from the beginning up
to 1900 Counting ON the same basis as
that which he had previously adopted,
Wallace finds twenty-four discoveries
and inventions of the first class that
have had their origin in the nineteenth
century, against the fifteen or sixteen
already enumerated of all past time
Of the same rank with NeWtons the
Dry of gravitation, which comes from
the seventeenth century, stands out
the doctrine of the correlation and con-
Of forces of our own centu-
ry, certainly one of the widest and most
loi lCothllS ludl Tie
mind of man has yet reached. Against
Kepler's laws from the seventeenth cen
fury we can set the nebular theory of
the nineteenth. The telescope of the
seventeenth is overbalanced by the spec
troscope Of the nineteenth. In the first
reveals to us myriads of suns, other
wise unseen, scattered through the IL
limitable fields of space the second
tells us what substances compose these
suns and maintain their distant fires
and, most wonderful of all, the direc-
ton and the rate in which each is NOV
ing. Harvey's immortal discovery of
the seventeenth century finds a full
equivalent in the germ theory of dis
ease of the nineteenth. The mariners
of the fourteenth century cas-
lily yields first place to the electric tele-
graph Of the nineteenth, while the ba-
and thermometer of the seven
tenth century are certainly less Won
derful, though perhaps not less service
able, than the telephone and phono-
graph and the Rontgen rays of our own
lay
In addition to the advances now emu
the great doctrine of organic
evolution, supported especially by the
ecapituation theory in embryology,
finds nothing to match with it in broad
sning and inspiring power in all the
past history of the race. The same can
De said of the periodic law of Mendel
Jeff in chemistry, Of the molecular the
Dry of gases, of Lord Kelvin's vortex
.heory of matter, of the Glacial Period
n geology, and of the establishment of
he origin and antiquity of man, all of
,ur own century,
Nothing can be brought from all the
past to compare for one moment in di- |
'ect application to "the relief of mans |
state" (Bacom, with the discovery of |
while by his discovery of |
surgery the name and fame |
If Sir Frederick Lister will grow to |
he last syllable of recorded time, In |
he mobilization of man and the giving |
o him the freedom of the globe. the |
always and the steamboats, of our CEN
ury are absolutely without any ele-
nents for comparison in all that the
vast has left us.--Columbus Journal.
FIRE IS NEVER NEEDED,
AND RAIN is UNKNOWN.
There are no chimneys in Lima be-