The sun., 1919-03-02
"A Century of Science in America" and Its Marvels

thst dstermineif thu existence Of the gas
helium IN the Atmosphere, but tomorrow
W may cross the Atlantic or 70 to Japan
IN . balloon filed with helium and w
will hail the engineer who puts the dis
ooveries Of science to practical use as the
greatest genius Of the age
~.
While it u true that science knows n
boundary lines, since its sole object is To
pursuit Of truth wherever it may b
found, and truth is universal, there ID
nevertheless q patriotic interest attaching
to the realization brought home to one by
the perusal Of a Century Of Science !.
America Of the part played by men OF
our country in shaping some Of the keys
with which the closed doors have been I'M
locked. Asa Gray, the botanist; Edward
C. Pickering, the astronomer; Henry A.
Rowland, the physicist; Alexander Agas-
siz, Nicholson, Henry Fairfield Osborne
these and q score Of other American men
of science whose names are known wher-
ever men are engaged in the search for
scientific truth sprinkle thiekly the pages
Of the book. And it is q consolation to
reflect that American scientists, as We
must believe, could not have lent them
selves and the fruits Of their research to
such base ends as those to which the Ger
mans recently perverted knowledge that
was meant to be used for the good Of
mankind and not for its destruction.
One lays down the volume, as I said in
the beginning, with something Of sense
OF awe in the presence Of the infinite
wonder Of it all and Of the powers vouch-
safed to the human mind Of cleaving
through tho accumulated debris Of
ICONS OF superstition, dogma and false
belief and arriving, now at this point and
now at that, at the solid, firm, underlying
rock of truth. Not all the detritus has
been cleared away by any means. Again
and again we find IN this book the record
Of that being mistaken for rock which
proved after all nothing but frozen sand
that thawed when the sun Of research was
turned upon it and left those who had
built thereon foundering and without
foundation for their theories. We do not
know yet even all the relations of truth
to truth, let alone all the relations of truth
to life. One may picture a glorious vista
of q wonderful world, but what shape
precisely that world will take and how
they that dwell therein will find, exactly,
ways 10 utilize the newly found truth for
their greater happiness no one as yet can
say. The one central truth TO which all
scientific research seems to be tending,
however, may give a clue to the answer.
This one truth, startling in It's implica-
tons aud sublime in It's simplicity, is that
ali matter is one.
Scientific research has not yet demon
s.ratcd the essential oneness of all natural
phenomena and forces; many and great
arc IL" gaps to DC bridged hy study and
research, by experiment and deduction,
before science can say II know" where
now few say II believe" But it is sig
niican! that both Prof. Wesley X. Coo,
contributor Of the chapter on century Of
zoology in America, and Prof. Charles
SchUchcrt, who writes the chapter on his
torical geology, should come almost to tho
identical conclusion as to the common ma
tire OF all truth.
"Thc central truth to which all these
discoveries consistently point" says Prof.
Coe, sis the unity and harmony OF all
biological phenomena, and, indeed. of all
nature, No longer does the zoologist find
any dcinarcated line separating his field
of research from that of the bOtanist or
The chemist or even Of the physicist, for
all the natural sciences obviously deal
with closely associated phenomena"
A CENTURY OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA.
BY EpWARD SALISBURY DANA, CHARLES
SchuCHE4r. HKRBERr f.. GRLGoRY, JOSEPH
HAsgBrI.. CEosoE Orls SMITH. RICHARD
SWAMI LUIL, LOUIS V. PIsssoN. WILLIAM
Il. FORD. r. Il. SosNAN, HORACE j..
wells HARRy w FOOrE JY1cu pAcH