geologists, botanists, chemists, engi- there was much to attract all who are neers and economists were in every interested in science, and those who way successful. Thus apart from the were present will remember the Ithaca more special scientific programs, which meeting as one of the most pleasant in several subjects were very good, in the history of the association.

LEGISLATION AND SCIENCE the government-legislative, executive GOVERNMENT is becoming more and and judicial was adequate. Now, more an application of science. Poli- however, it may be urged that the tics are still largely a game and a scientific or expert functions are cotrade; the kind of science at hand is ordinate with the others. Laws may crude and is applied by the rule of be made by the congress, interpreted by thumb. But if the proceedings of suc- the courts and executed by the presicessive parliaments or congresses are dent, but they should be based on scienreviewed, there is an evident tendency tific investigations and carried out by for legislation to rest increasingly on scientific experts. expert knowledge and to require continually greater scientific skill in its execution. When the constitution of the United States was written, the threefold division of the functions of neering corporation. Its main concern

We are told that municipal government should be divorced from politics, and this is doubtless true. A municipality is primarily a business or engi

is with streets, sewers, parks and arts. While we should like to see the docks; with schools, hospitals and decimal system of weights and measpublic institutions; with water, light ures or even a duodecimal system made and the means of transportation and compulsory, it must be admitted that communication. But there are equally technical opinion is so divided that the sound reasons for keeping the govern- house can scarcely be blamed for rement of a state or nation free from jecting the measure. Of direct scienpolitics and conducting its affairs with tific interest were the bills protecting such skill and efficiency as are attain- Niagara Falls, the Mariposa trees of able. There are certain questions that California and the antiquities on the are quite outside the limits of such public lands. Although the main inscience as we now have, for example, crease in the appropriation for the Dethe desirability of more or less cen- partment of Agriculture was for meat tralization, paternalism, aristocracy, inspection, its scientific work was war or religion. The people may enlarged in several directions. The aplegitimately divide themselves into propriation for rebuilding the Military parties on such lines. Science may be Academy at West Point was increased unable to answer the question as to to $6,500,000. A lock canal at Panama whether the government should conduct carried to the height of eighty-five feet the postoffice, the express business or was decided on, and the sum of $42,the railways, but when the government 500,000 was appropriated for the work. has undertaken to manage the mails, it makes no more difference whether the postmaster general is a republican or a democrat, than whether he is a catholic or a protestant, married or single. It would be well if we could separate those questions which must for the present be settled by party government from those which should be

decided by expert knowledge, and if the latter could be settled by men having the necessary special training. And of course nearly all the executive work of the government should be done by experts, and a large part by those who are technically men of science.

The main questions before the first session of the fifty-ninth congress were concerned with the extension of federal control by the regulation of interstate commerce, and may be regarded as outside the scope of this journal. But the decisions of the congress rested, or should have rested, on statistical or

other scientific data. In the execution of the laws relating to railway rates, meat inspection and pure food, a large

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS.

WE record with regret the deaths of Dr. Henry A. Ward, president of Ward's Natural History Establishment at Rochester, and Dr. Fritz Schaudinn, recently appointed head of the parasitological department of the Institute well known for his work on the profor Tropical Diseases of Hamburg and

tozoa.

THE Ordre pour le Mérite has been conferred on Professor Robert Koch by the

German Emperor.-Dr. Ernst Mach, of Vienna, has been awarded the Bavarian Maximilian order for sci

ence and art.-Professor Simon Newcomb has been elected a member of the board of overseers of Harvard College.

-The Society of Arts has awarded its Albert medal to Sir Joseph W. Swan, F.R.S., ' for the important part he took in the invention of the incandescent electric lamp, and for his invention of the carbon process of photographic printing.'

number of trained scientific men will ANNOUNCEMENT has been made of be required. The removal of the tax the resignation of Dr. William T. on alcohol which has been denatured' Harris, commissioner of education, and will have an important effect on the of the nomination of his successor,

Dr.

to organize a Bureau of Animal Industry for that country. Dr. Salmon, who is at present engaged in scientific work in Montana, will start for South America about December 1.

THE protocol providing for the establishment of an international insti

Professor Elmer E. Brown, of the Uni- of Animal Industry, has accepted the versity of California. Dr. Harris's offer of the government of Uruguay retirement has been made possible by a retiring allowance from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. This action was taken by the trustees of the foundation under one of their rules which permits of such action in the case of extraordinary and unusual service to education. Harris has been the commissioner of education since 1889, and has, perhaps, had a larger and more intimate connection with the whole body of teachers than any other man. The offer to him of this retiring allowance was an act of the highest regard for his work and places his name at the head of the list of distinguished men who have accepted such retiring allowances from the Carnegie Foundation.-Dr. D. E. Salmon, from 1884 to 1905 chief of the Bureau

tute of agriculture at Rome, Italy, has been adopted by the congress. There are about forty governments party to the arrangement. Studies will be made of all kinds of plant life and means of extermination of insects and other pests. The institute will receive the reports of the agricultural bureaus and societies of all countries. The Italian government will supply the buildings, and the cost to other governments will be about $5,000 a year each.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY

SEPTEMBER, 1906

THE VALUE OF SCIENCE1

BY M. H. POINCARÉ

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE

THE

INTRODUCTION

HE search for truth should be the goal of our activities; it is the sole end worthy of them. Doubtless we should first bend our efforts to assuage human suffering, but why? Not to suffer is a negative ideal more surely attained by the annihilation of the world. If we wish more and more to free man from material cares, it is that he may be able to employ the liberty obtained in the study and contemplation of truth.

But sometimes truth frightens us. And in fact we know that it is sometimes deceptive, that it is a phantom never showing itself for a moment except to ceaselessly flee, that it must be pursued further and ever further without ever being attained. Yet to work one must stop, as some Greek, Aristotle or another, has said. We also know how cruel the truth often is, and we wonder whether illusion is not more consoling, yea, even more bracing, for illusion it is which gives confidence. When it shall have vanished, will hope remain and shall we have the courage to achieve? Thus would not the horse harnessed to his treadmill refuse to go, were his eyes not bandaged? And then to seek truth it is necessary to be independent, wholly independent. If on the contrary we wish to act, to be strong, we should be united. This is why many of us fear truth; we consider it a cause of weakness. Yet truth should not be feared, for it alone is beautiful.

When I speak here of truth, assuredly I refer first to scientific

1

1 Authorized translation by Professor George Bruce Halsted, Ph.D. Copyright, 1906, by The Science Press.