Gilpin observer., 1914-04-02
SCOUTS OF SCIENCE
(By e. Zimmerman.)


The call was strong and adventure
some men obeyed. Cortez, Bienville
Coronado, and all the long line OF
sea and land rovers with their brave
men, blazing the trails to new lands
or illimitable wealth, or seeking, like
de Soto and Ponce de Leon, land
where flowed the Fountain of Youth,
are picturesque figures in the annals
of history.
Today it is the Call of Science
that leads men to seek fame or new
truths; to leave all comfort and all
thought of wealth, in order that they
may contribute to the progress of
thought; to the enlightenment of
their fellow men.
The modern explorers, the scouts
of science, are not SO well known
as the adventuresome spirits of the
past. Their work is done in a splen-
did isolation, with no band of fellow
men to cheer them on, and occasion
ally they meet a fellow scientist
who can rejoice with them over the
discovery of some new element. The
twain who discovered radium. What
a life was theirs! If Madame Curie
has missed much of life in its joy
BUSINESS as most women see it, she
has her reward in knowing that she
has contributed lions share to the
development of science. If she had
to know that he who worked by her
side passed on and left her to pur-
sue alone the research which both
had just begun, she could not feel
aught but the call and her life since
has been spent almost constantly in
the laboratory.
Becquerel. pursuing his research,
was for months held in the grip of
strange malady. They called the
crimson spots which appeared on his
hands the Becquerel burns. He took
great risks with the X-ray that he
might give great results to his fel-
low men.
These men of today who are pursu-
ing the study of radium, the new
element. suffer hardships, run terri
BILE risks, face dangers and accom-
plish results no less great than those
OF their prototypes, the men who
dared, Of years ago. The line of en-
deavor is all toward the common
good. Explorers discovered the lands
the scientists discover the meaning
of the earth; the air and the water.
Huxley called museum library
of consultive knowledge. Every
museum is dependent upon its explor
ers for its exhibitions: just as the
laboratory is dependent on its scien-
lists for its wonderful results. To
those who discover an element and
find its uses, or even a fraction of
them, the laboratory is the field
where the results are worked out.
One is amused at the infantile par
oxysms of enemies to great men.
enlist in medical research we have
in our country today. He purchases
with his own private funds sufficient
radium to enable him to effect great
cures. He is sincere in declaring that
he is contributing his best to the
progress of medicine. the only task
master he knows. He is a man so
simple in his tastes that the income
of an average day laborer would be
sufficient to fill his personal needs.
So intense is he on the business of
life on the pursuit of a greater know.
ledge and SO filled with the inspira-
ton OF the Divine Creator Ofor DIR.
Kelly is a profoundly sincere man in
his reverence for the Greater Power
back of the wonderful universe) that
he hardly gives time to the reading
OF his daily paper. Yet, there are
those who foolishly declare that he
wishes to corner the radium of tts
world that he might reap benefit
therefrom. The only benefit Kelly
cares to reap is that which will en-
rich his fellow men; make light the
burden OF the suffering and contri
butte to the advance OF science and
medicine. And In this glorious ambi'
tion he should have the acclaim OF
a world which will be made better for
his attention to radium. He is like
a magician with the wonderful ele.
ment and he has done more to help
the progress Of medicine by the use
Of medicine than any man Of this
present century.
These scouts of science are men
who work for an aim-not name.
|Cr,nitnHO,,caRor