The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-12-23
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

Besides the routine of an extensiv
publishing business, the history OF TN
house during this time includes mum
ber of large undertakings involving
the expenditure of vast sums of money
and years of labor by many workers
and attended with risks that only the
most far-seeing business sagaclty could
! Justify. We may presume that the
| several members Of the firm shared a
common faith in the success of these
| great enterprises, but il is fair to infer
that as the head Of the house William
II. Appleton took leading part in their
origin and execution One Of these ven
lures was the publication OF the Amer
lean Cyclopaedia, which in it's present
revised form represents an outlay of
over a million dollars and some ten
years OF time. Another undertaking,
and the one that we wish more partic-
ularly TO speak of here, was the ex-
tension OF the business in the line of
popular scientific publications.
Scientific circles in this country have
never realized the debt they owe to ID.
Appleton and Company. and especially
TO William II. Appleton, in this regard
IT is no exaggeration TO say that the
advance of science in the United States
was hastened by more than a quarter
OF a century by the enlightened and
courageous policy which led the firm 10
add this class OF books TO their lists at
the time they did. Everything appar-
entity was against it-nothing in its IA
vor. our scientific literature consisted
t..N.Y
a limited sale. Science itself was an af-
fair Of laboratories and bug collectors.
the one to be Stunned and the other
commiserated. The few utterances of
scientific men having a bearing on the
great questions OF the right interpreta-
tion OF Nature, mans relations TO his |
fellows and TO the world at large, So |
cial betterment, etc, that here and
there arrested public attention We're
received with contemptuous sneers or
secuted as the rankest infidelity. Few
who are not past middle life will find
II impossible now TO realize that this
was the general attitude toward sci
ence forty years ago but we have only
to refer the reader TO the writings OF |
the time for abundant confirmation of |
our statements
III was such conditions as these that I
the firm was called upon 70 face when |
considering the question of entering
this new field Of publication. All ordi-
nary business instincts were against il.
Scarcely publisher either here or
abroad would even listen to the pro-
posal TO risk his capital i'm such an en-
terprise Nevertheless, Mr.. Appleton.
lending an appreciative ear to the ar
guments OF the former editor of this
Journal and displaying his usual fore
sight finally decided i'm favor of the
project, which afterward resulted i'm
the Introduction Of the works of Spen.
cer Darwin, Huxley. Tyndan. RAIN
ltomanes and other distinguished
writer's to American readers A further
step In the same direction, taken later
Was We tne puohcatlon Of the International
Scientific Series. now NUMBERING SOW
eighty volumes. The scheme as origin.
ated anu shaped by Professor Youmans
was heartily seconded by Mr.. Apple.
Ion' as was also the plan Of the Popu-
Iar science neutrality-suspicious. Pom.
lar Science Monthly. 'P"'