Year: 1872

Seience-Hts Loctpres- on "Aignt."


On Thursday last Professor Tyndall closed
his Washington lectures witEran elcauent and
powerful plea for the sustentasion of original
scientific research No man on either side
the Atlantic has done more to mako science
practical and to bring its wealth Of profound
acquisition within reach Of the humblest and
most unscientifc classes. With the true
greatness which condescends to men of low
estate he has turned aside from that brilliant
career of investigation in the domain of
radiant forces and molecular physics in which
he is o pioneer to perform the work of
lecturer and teacher. No man. therefore, has
better right to know or to plead for that
large class Of scientific laborers who, with
infinite experimental palms, pursue their pa
tient course unnoticed and uncheered and
often derided and who, while their fellow
scientists are sleeping are themselves


toiling upwards in the dark.


The argument of Professor Tyndall is that
the noble volume Of modern science when
traced back towards former ages, is discovered
to. be the outflow from the gonius of few
such men, who, Like Newton, Arago and
Thomas Young. worked solely from the love
of truth, and who never received dollars
profit from their splendid discoveries. Cut
off the corps of original Investigators and you
dry up the stream Of practical science, he
says, as surely as you would that Of river by
sealing up its fountains Never was this
II.
than in the present age of busy and restless
practically, and it is not without peculiar i'm
port in the United States, although uttered
in the high tide or golden era of technical
education and in the heydey of our colleges
and universities. The history of all scientific
advance shows that it has been carried for
ward, not by men taught and trained to sit at
the feet Of the great Gamaliels of knowledge
and to become the receptive magazines Of
their dicta, but by men who penetrated the
very wilds and trackless wastes of nature in
courageous loneliness; who have had to brave
the imperious authority of the existing priest
hood of science, and who found at last only


BY dangerous roads


path to perpetuity OF fame.


These are the men for whom the great Eng
lish lecturer alphabetically and strongly ap-
peals, and his appeal should not be made in
vain. If the great Republic is to take rank
with the highest civilizations in the develop
ment of science, and wipe off the charge Of
De Tocqueville, that republics are incapable Of
great progress in original scientific research
and great discoveries it is evident that such
men as these must be encouraged in their
arduous and trying labors. We have not q few
such earnest men scattered over the country
and men who, with the limited means of in
quiry placed before them, have evinced great
capacity. AS Professor Tyndall, however, has
remarked, they are generally burdened with
the routine duties and details of tuition or
official labor in the practical service of the
public, and have but the smallest fragment of
time left them for the prosecution of their
proper calling. Our scientific departments in
the government ore similarly crowded with
the ordinary public business, which concerns
the everyday and matter-of-fact interest of the
whole nation and cannot safely brook delay,
SO that but little opportunity is afforded
for the purely experimental and contemplative
study Of natural phenomena. This perhaps,
is just what large class Of so-called ''practi-
cal men" would have it. But time will show
their error, as it has SO often done before.
Whether Professor Tyndalr appeal penetrates
the minds and enlists the sympathy Of those
who reach the mainsprings of public opinion
and who are in position to further his views or
not, he will have discharged high and noble
mission for true science and sown seed which
will ultimately bring forth golden harvest.


Possibly there could be no better time than
this, when his powerful plea is sounding all
over America and the popular mind is tossing
with his great themes, to push forward the
long-agitated proposition for National Physi-
cal Observatory, designed for the exclusive
object Of original research in the vast fields of
SOLAR cosmical and terrestrial phenomena, and
unembarrassed by the wearing and wasting
routine of public business. This plan, SO ably
supported by the distinguished Secretary Of
the Smithsonian Institution, the friend Of
Professor Tyndall, would be another and per-
haps an improved edition Of the Royal Insti-
tuition of England, which has proved the nur-
sery Of philosophers and scientific discoverers.
The suggestion is worthy Of national attention,
and if put into execution would meet one of
the profoundest needs of American science.
1t would be q deserved compliment to the
great successor of Faraday, now in our midst,
and fitting acknowledgment of our deep
appreciation Of his mission, to crown 1t with
the erection and munifcent endowment of
such benefcent institution.


In the same connection, and by way Of en-
forcing the argument we have already ad-
vanced, we call attention to Professor Tyn-
dalrs lectures in this city, which begin to-
morrow evening The first lecture is a
general introduction to the course, dwelling
principally upon the importance of original