Henry Augustus Rowland

“ We cover the atom with patches of electricity here and there and make of it a system compared with which the planetary system, nay the universe itself, is simplicity. Nay more: some of us even claim the power, which Newton attributed to God alone, of breaking the atom into smaller pieces whose size is left to the imagination. Where, then, is that person who ignorantly sneers at the study of matter as a material and gross study? Where, again, is that man with gifts so God-like and mind so elevated that he can attack and solve its problem? ”

“ But the true lover of physics needs no such spur to his actions. The cure of disease is a very important object and nothing can be nobler than a life devoted to its cure.
The aims of the physicist, however, are in part purely intellectual; he strives to understand the Universe on account of the intellectual pleasure derived from the pursuit, but he is upheld in it by the knowledge that the study of nature's secrets is the ordained method by which the greatest good and happiness shall finally come to the human race. ”

“ In a country where the doctrine of the equal rights of man has been distorted to mean the equality of man in other respects, we form a small and unique body of men, a new variety of the human race as one of our greatest scientists calls it, whose views of what constitutes the greatest achievement in life are very different from those around us. In this respect we form an aristocracy, not of wealth, not of pedigree, but of intellect and of ideals, holding him in the highest respect who adds the most to our knowledge or who strives after it as the highest good. ”

“ It is above all an agnostic with respect to all facts and theories of science as well as to all other so-called beliefs and theories.
Yet it would be folly to reason from this that we need not guide our life according to the approach to knowledge that we possess. Nature is inexorable; it punishes the child who unknowingly steps off a precipice quite as severely as the grown scientist who steps over, with full knowledge of all the laws of falling bodies and the chances of their being correct. ”

“ It is a curious fact that, having minds tending to the infinite, with imaginations unlimited by time and space, the limits of our exact knowledge are very small indeed. In time we are limited by a few hundred or possibly thousand years: indeed the limit in our science is far less than the smaller of these periods. In space we have exact knowledge limited to portions of our earth's surface and a mile or so below the surface, together with what little we can learn from looking through powerful telescopes into the space beyond. ”

“ Let us hold our heads high with a pure conscience while we seek the truth, and may the American Physical Society do its share now and in generations yet to come in trying to unravel the great problem of the constitution and laws of the Universe. ”

“ Let us forever reject such foolish ideas as the equality of mankind and carefully give the greater credit to the greater man. So, in choosing the subjects for our investigation, let us, if possible, work upon those subjects which will finally give us an advanced knowledge of some great subject. I am aware that we cannot always do this; our ideas will often flow in side channels; but, with the great problems of the Universe before us, we may sometime be able to do our share toward the greater end.
What is matter; what is gravitation; what is ether and the radiation through it ”

“ Thus, to encourage the growth of any science, the best thing we can do is to meet together in its interest, to discuss its problems, to criticize each other's work and, best of all, to provide means by which the better portion of it may be made known to the world. ”

“ A mathematical investigation always obeys the law of the conservation of knowledge: we never get out more from it than we put in. The knowledge may be changed in form, it may be clearer and more exactly stated, but the total amount of the knowledge of nature given out by the investigation is the same as we started with. Hence we can never predict the result in the case of velocities beyond our reach, and such calculations as the velocity of the cathode rays from their electromagnetic action has a great element of uncertainty which we should do well to remember. ”

“ The ordinary crude mind has only two compartments, one for truth and one for error; indeed the contents of the two compartments are sadly mixed in most cases: the ideal scientific mind, however, has an infinite number. Each theory or law is in its proper compartment indicating the probability of its truth. As a new fact arrives the scientist changes it from one compartment to another so as, if possible, to always keep it in its proper relation to truth and error. Thus the fluid nature of electricity was once in a compartment near the truth. ”

“ Again, in descending from the earth's gravitation to that of two small bodies, as in the Cavendish experiment, we assume the law to hold and deduce the mass of the earth in terms of our unit of mass. Hence, when we say that the mass of the earth is 51⁄2 times that of an equal volume of water we assume the law of gravitation to be that of Newton. ”

“ To detect something dependent on the relative motion of the ether and matter has been and is the great desire of physicists. But we always find that, with one possible exception, there is always some compensating feature which renders our efforts useless. This one experiment is the aberration of light, but even here Stokes has shown that it may be explained in either of two ways: first, that the earth moves through the ether of space without disturbing it, and second, if it carries the ether with it by a kind of motion called irrotational. ”

“ Indeed, when it comes to exact knowledge, the limits are far more circumscribed.
How is it, then, that we hear physicists and others constantly stating what will happen beyond these limits? Take velocities, for instance, such as that of a material body moving with the velocity of light. There is no known process by which such a velocity can be obtained even though the body fell from an infinite distance upon the largest aggregation of matter in the Universe. ”

“ To all matter we attribute two properties, gravitation and inertia. Without these two matter cannot exist. The greatest of the natural laws states that the power of gravitational attraction is proportional to the mass of the body. This law of Newton, almost neglected in the thoughts of physicists, undoubtedly has vast import of the very deepest meaning. Shall it mean that all matter is finally constructed of uniform and similar primordial atoms or can we find some other explanation? ”

“ Thus the present generation suffers for the sins of the past and we die because our ancestors dissipated their wealth in armies and navies, in the foolish pomp and circumstance of society, and neglected to provide us with a knowledge of natural laws. ”

“ But where in the world is the institute of pure research in any department of science with an income of $100,000,000 par year. Where can the discoverer in pure science earn more than the wages of a day laborer or cook? ”

“ By it all electromagnetic energy is conveyed from the feeble attraction of the rubbed amber through the many thousand horse-power conveyed by the electric wires from Niagara to the mighty rush of energy always flowing from the Sun in a flood of radiation. Actions feeble and actions mighty from intermolecular distances through interplanetary and interstellar distances until we reach the mighty distances which bound the Universe—all have their being in this wondrous ether. ”

“ When electrified bodies move together through space or with reference to each other we can only follow their mutual actions through very slow and uniform velocities. When they move with velocities comparable with that of light, equal to it or even beyond it, we calculate their mutual actions or action on the ether only by the light of our imagination unguided by experiment. ”

“ My answer must still be, now, as it was fifteen years ago, that much of the intellect of the country is still wasted in the pursuit of so-called practical science which ministers to our physical needs and but little thought and money is given to the grander portion of the subject which appeals to our intellect alone. ”

“ Understand them and they are beneficent: we can use them for our purposes and make them the slaves of our desires. Misunderstand them and they are monsters who may grind us to powder or crush us in the dust. ”

“ The progress of every science shows us the condition of its growth. Very few persons, if isolated in a semi-civilized land, have either the desire or the opportunity of pursuing the higher branches of science. Even if they should be able to do so, their influence on their science depends upon what they publish and make known to the world. A hermit philosopher we can imagine might make many useful discoveries. ”

“ By its means we imagine every atom in the universe to be bound to every other atom by the force of gravitation and often by the force of magnetic and electric action, and we conceive that it alone conveys the vibratory motion of each atom or molecule out into space to be ever lost in endless radiation, passing out into infinite space or absorbed by some other atoms which happen to be in its path. ”

“ It is a common error which young physicists are apt to fall into to obtain a law, a curve or a mathematical expression for given experimental limits and then to apply it to points outside those limits. This is sometimes called extrapolation. Such a process, unless carefully guarded, ceases to be a reasoning process and becomes one of pure imagination specially liable to error when the distance is too great. ”

“ In temperature our knowledge extends from near the absolute zero to that of the sun but exact knowledge is far more limited. In pressures we go from the Crookes vacuum still containing myriads of flying atoms to pressures limited by the strength of steel but still very minute compared with the pressures at the center of the earth and sun, where the hardest steel would flow like the most limpid water. ”

“ Where, then, are the greatest laboratories of research in this city, in this country, nay, in the world? We see a few miserable structures here and there occupied by a few starving professors who are nobly striving to do the best with the feeble means at their disposal. ”

“ The round hard atom of Newton which God alone could break into pieces has become a molecule composed of many atoms, and each of these smaller atoms has become so elastic that after vibrating 100,000 times its amplitude of vibration is scarcely diminished. ”

“ The physician looks on without being able to do anything. Daily he comes and notes the failing strength of his patient and daily the patient goes downward until he rests in his grave. But why has the physician allowed this? ”

“ Nothing is asked of us as to our belief: they act unswervingly and we must understand them or suffer the consequences. Our only course, then, is to act according to the chances of our knowing the right laws. If we act correctly, right; if we act incorrectly, we suffer. If we are ignorant we die. ”

“ An only child, a beloved wife, lies on a bed of illness. The physician says that the disease is mortal; a minute plant called a microbe has obtained entrance into the body and is growing at the expense of its tissues, forming deadly poisons in the blood or destroying some vital organ. ”

“ Yet, if he keeps them to himself, he can never claim to have benefited the world in any degree. His unpublished results are his private gain, but the world is no better off until he has made them known in language strong enough to call attention to them and to convince the world of their truth. ”

“ So with regard to gravitation, we have no evidence that the presence of a third body affects the mutual attraction of two other bodies, or that the presence of a third quantity of electricity affects the mutual attraction of two other quantities. ”

“ But I know, when I look in the faces of those before me, where the eager intellect and high purpose sit enthroned on bodies possessing the vigor and strength of youth, that the writer of a hundred years hence can no longer throw such a reproach upon our country. ”

“ There is no such thing as absolute truth and absolute falsehood. The scientific mind should never recognize the perfect truth or the perfect falsehood of any supposed theory or observation. It should carefully weigh the chances of truth and error and grade each in its proper position along the line joining absolute truth and absolute error. ”

“ Such deaths some people consider an act of God. What blasphemy to attribute to God that which is due to our own and our ancestors' selfishness in not founding institutions for medical research in sufficient number and with sufficient means to discover the truth. Such deaths are murder. ”

“ He who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is the benefactor of mankind; but he who obscurely worked to find the laws of such growth is the intellectual superior as well as the greater benefactor of the two. ”

“ This illustration from the department of medicine I have given because it appeals to all. But all the sciences are linked together and must advance in concert. The human body is a chemical and physical problem, and these sciences must advance before we can conquer disease. ”

“ Furthermore, let us encourage discrimination in our thoughts and work. Let us recognize the eras when great thoughts have been introduced into our subject and let us honor the great men who introduced and proved them correct. ”

“ The physician is waiting for others to discover it or perhaps is experimenting in a crude and unscientific manner to find it. Is not the inference correct, then, that the world has been paying the wrong class of men? ”

“ But $100,000,000 per year is but the price of an army or a navy designed to kill other people. Just think of it, that one per cent, of this sum seems to most people too great to save our children and descendants from misery and even death! ”

“ Every wave in it, whatever its length or intensity, proceeds onwards in it according to well known laws, all with the same speed, unaltered in direction from its source in electrified matter, to the confines of the Universe unimpaired in energy unless it is disturbed by the presence of matter. ”