Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-09
AMERICAN LEARNED SOCIETIES
By Frederic L Haskin

these belong to some learned society
and learned Is an elastic word as thus
applied. 1t may range from the small
town historical society up to the great
national historical association, or from
some local botanical research club up
to the Agassiz and similar societies of
national scope But the spirit of re-
search is abroad in the land and it
finds interested people everywhere.
There has been much complaint
among thinking men upon the paucity
of real scientific triumphs in this
country. They see enough learned So
cieties but not enough scholarship rep
resented in them. They assert that too
great a proportion of the discoveries
of science, which are being turned to
the Unreasonable advantage of man,
is being made in Europe, one of many
examples being the mastery of the
"wireless" principle of electrical trans
mission. But Americas Franklin
brought into being the age of cleo
tricity. Joseph Henry could lay as
much claim as Faraday to the discov-
cry of electrical induction that made
possible the dynamo and it's unnum-
bered benefits to man. Americans did
much of the work that established the
theory of evolution. Draper first pho
tographed the stars, a work that has
done much to master the problems of
astronomy. Professor Newton of Yale
first showed the Importance of that
messenger from worlds unknown, the.
meteorite, through which astronomy"
yet hopes, to solve the problem of the
birth OF the universe. And Simon
Newcomb, that plain country lad who
has claimed the attention of the whole
scientific world by his researches and
his genius, is one of the two English
speaking members of the French Acad-
envy, the other being Lord Kelvin.
The expansion of the membership of
the learned societies of America dur
ing the last decade is one of the hone
full signs for the future of American
triumphs in the fields of scientific dis
covery. 1t is estimated that the mem
bership in these societies has increased
as much as onethird since the open
ing of the century, and many of the
societies themselves have been born
since that time In addition to this,
another hopeful sign is the growing
number of higher institutions for. sci
entific work and education. England
has not as many; France is outranked
by America only Germany is left to
excel us in the number of such insti-
buttons, and even Germany is gradual.
ly being overtaken.
In the past hundred years man has
been amassing new human knowledge
at greater rate than he has been
able to digest it. There are vast
storehouses of it in every center of
learning in the world that are as yet
unavailable to the great mass of stu
dents. Just at the present time there
is a wholesale movement on foot to
make it available That is one of the
works to which, the Carnegie Institu-
ton of Washington has committed it
self. Its index medicus, being an in
dex to the current medical literature
of the world, is an excellent example.
Its handbook of learned societies is
another. It's indexes to the economical
material of the United States govern
ment, and in the archives Of the vari-
Gus states and cities, serve the student
as the blazed way serves the pioneer
in the wilderness.
What is perhaps the most remark
able effort that has yet been put forth
to make the stores of knowledge avail
able is that being carried on in Eng
land under the Royal society. 1t is a
card index of the scientific literature
of the world beginning with 1901.
Some thirty nations are engaged in the
effort to make this the most compre-
hensiVe, complete index in Christen-
dom. The work is progressing slowly.
But when 1t is completed it will be so
thorough that nothing more need be
desired. lIeGG nave Deen IudIly ullIl-
culties TO encounter in the laying out
and making of this index. Nations
have had to be led to appreciate its
Importance A million details had to
be arranged and provided for. And it
is interesting to note that it is to an
American that must be given the
credit for the idea of an information
ally-made index of this nature. 1t was
Joseph Henry. first head of the Smith
sonian Institution, who made it. His
suggestion grew from one stage to
another until it has reached its pres
ent proportions.
The outlook for profitable scientific
research in America is regarded as
particularly bright today. With the
Wright brothers Offering what appears
to be the real solution of the problem
of navigating the air, the twentieth
century is starting out we'll from the
American standpoint With hundreds
of endowed institutions bringing the
tremendous pressure of unlimited re-
sources, unbounded zeal and deter
mination and infinite patience to bear
on the problems of science yet I'M
solved, there is reason to believe that
the next half century will leave no one
the right to complain that America is
a star of the second magnitude in the
armament of helpful research.
fConvrigbt lana nv Frederic J. Haskin)