Evening star., 1925-05-05
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

The recent meeting of the National
! Academy of Sciences stimulated so
much interest in the progress of
! knowledge-either as pure science" or
applied science"-that it's effect ap
| pears similar to that OF the newly
| invented sound-amplifier for the slim
| ulation of the ears of the deaf. This
new amplif1er not only enables the
| deaf to hear while under its direct in
| fiuence, but the increased power con-
! tinues for some time afterward. So
! even layrnen are still breathing the
atmosphere of pure science many days
after the "disagreeing doctors have
gone back to their microscopes and re-
| torts.
The National Academy is 62 years
| old, and review of the progress of
science suggests that most of the
| things known before the academy
came into, existence were discovered
| only to be contradicted or explained
away by later developments, for the
most important discoveries date with
in the three-score years aforesaid.
| x
In olden times-when some were be-
/ ing taught that the most exact of sci
ences was mathematics-one did not
hear of the theory of probabilities, :"
nor wonder over the theory of parti-
| tions." But now if one knows all that
may be figured from the aforesaid
erudition, he may discard Euclidian
geometry in accounting for the faws of
space. A.
One of the famous scholars of Eng
| land, Arthur Dendy, D. &C., F. R. S.,
| once exclaimed how delightful it
would be if we could have a society
a.
tion," and Prof. Galley of Cambridge
England), in speaking to. friends about
his brilliant mathematical work.
thanked God that he had never done
anything that was or would be of use
to anybody"
1t transpired, however, that both
scientists were joking, though voic-
ing the popular idea of the useless
ness of pure science" There is no
become the very foundation of in
valuable knowledge in the future
not merely affecting the laboratory
but the salvation of human life.
What pure scientists" refer to as
being useless" knowledge is that
which is not related apparently to
applied science of the past, but which
may become the opening door for
knowledge of unimaginable value for
future application.
&x r
Of what practical use" is biology
or zoology or embryology? Charles
Darwin recorded that in New Zea-
land clover grew but never seeded.
Years later a traveller saw that there
were no bumbie bees in New Zea-
land, and so. of course, clover could
not bear seed. Like the urbanite
who proposed to move to a farm
where he could keep a COW and have
buttermflk, and perhaps keep a bee
and have all the honey he needed,
so the traveller imported some bum
BILE bees to New Zealand, and now the
clover seed there is worth hundreds
of thousands of dollars. The bees
made the clover to fructify, for they
carried the pollen upon their wings
and legs from blossom to blossom,
and 1t could be carried in no other
way. Vegetable and animal nature
are interdependent, and there is di-
rect connection between "cabbages
and kings"
Two American scientists, Guyer
and Smith, have proved the muta-
bility of species in a way that would
have delighted Darwin. They call
1t biophysics. 1t was known that
If the blood of a different species be
injected into the blood of an animal
it would incite an agency known as
an 'antibody," or "lysin,'' which
would dissolve and destroy the for
eign substance. They experimental
with an emulsion composed of the
lenses of rabbits eyes pounded up
in normal salt solution and mixed
with the blood of fowls. The result
was lens-sensitized serum, capable
of dissolying the lens substance This
serum was injected into parent rab-
bits. and the young rabbits when
born were found to be defective in
their eyes. This lens defect persisted
through at least six generations, and