Popular Science Monthly

“ In the earlier years of The Popular Science Monthly the doctrine of evolution excited controversy and wide public interest; it was possible to print articles by men such as Darwin, Spencer, Huxley and Tyndall, which were popular and at the same time authoritative contributions to scientific progress. ”

“ There has been an almost unanimous expression of opinion on the part of individuals and the press that The Popular Science Monthly has met an urgent public need, that it is the most valuable magazine now before the American public, and deserves an extensive patronage. ”

“ That there is a place for The Popular Science Monthly no one can doubt who has watched the steady increase of interest in scientific investigation manifested in this country, not only by a select class, but by the entire community. The success of a periodical of this nature, if it is rightly conducted, cannot for a moment be doubted, and, in this respect, we would say that, if the managers of this one will only continue as they have begun, they may be assured of a circulation at once large and appreciative. ”

“ I receive from time to time your Popular Science Monthly, which I think excellent in itself and perfectly adapted to its purpose of diffusing knowledge and a right way of thinking more widely among the people. ”

“ The Popular Science Monthly will make its appeal, not to the illiterate, but to the generally educated classes. The universities, colleges, academies, and high schools of this country are numbered by hundreds, and their graduates by hundreds of thousands. Their culture is generally literary, with but a small portion of elementary science ”

“ They will be invaluable to all who care to understand the agencies by which human conduct is controlled, and the modifications which those agencies undergo in social development. We ask our readers to bear in mind that The Popular Science Monthly is the only magazine in the United States which tries to keep its patrons informed of the advances in this great field of thought ”

“ Leaving the dry and technical details of science, which are of chief concern to specialists, to the journals devoted to them, The Popular Science Monthly has dealt with those more general and practical subjects which are of the greatest interest and importance to the people at large. ”

“ I remember when one of the most widely read of our magazines was a popular science monthly, which printed articles by great scientists on biological and other topics. That was in the days when Darwin was announcing his theory of evolution—the first great jolt which orthodoxy received. People would not take time to read a magazine of that sort now. They are so occupied with business and dancing and all sorts of occupations that they have little leisure for reading. ”

“ Leaving it to others who, less drawn by ties of kindred, and less dominated by the influence of long association, will be more competent to measure the impress he has made upon American ideas, it will be proper here to refer to the purposes and hopes which animated Professor Youmans in the establishment and conduct of "The Popular Science Monthly." ”

“ THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. In the numerous reviews of the nineteenth century published in the magazines and in the daily press, science occupies the most prominent place. The news of the world for a day, as we read it in the newspaper, or for a month, as given in certain journals, may contain no reference to science, yet the contemporary events which at the time excite such general interest are forgotten, while the quiet progress of science gradually emerges in its true proportions. ”

“ At the outset we rejected this view as narrow and false, holding that science, instead of pertaining to certain things, consists in a method of knowing, which applies to all things that can be known, and that popular science must be equally comprehensive. Science itself being progressive, its great army of workers is constantly engaged in extending and correcting it by numberless processes of original investigation, while it is the office of popular science to bring its conclusions, applications, and results, into the sphere of common thought. ”

“ The popular idea of progress, as lying essentially in the quantity of wealth and in the number of population, needed thorough replacement of the scientific one—that of the improved average individual quality of the organisms composing the society, and of the material surroundings upon which their evolution depended. ”

“ One obvious class of objections to the possibility of applying rigorous scientific methods to Politics is founded on the number and nature of the component and preparatory studies which are presupposed in all strict inquiries into the theory of government. Assuming that the physical sciences—beginning (say) with astronomy and ending with physiology or psychology—have reached a strictly scientific stage, there yet remain, as properly leading the way to the study of Politics, all those branches of knowledge which depend on the composite nature of man both as isolated and as in society. ”

“ Too long what has been called the popularization of science has been attempted by unscientific persons. When men like Herschel and Lyell, Darwin, Tyndall, and Huxley, undertake the real popularization of science, we have at once the promise and the sign of progress. "But," Mr. Appleton says, "there is not wanting evidence that the popularization of science, in the best and most necessary meaning of the word, is in this country beginning largely to take the place of original study and investigation of truth." ”

“ I consider only the question whether science deserves public recognition; and, 2. I suppose the question submitted only to those who can properly consider it—those, namely, who are at least acquainted with scientific methods, if not versed in scientific subjects. To many it may probably appear a matter of small importance whether science advance or stand still. The general public scarcely recognizes the position which Science has already taken, still less the position she is about to take. ”

“ This list of studies, which might be multiplied and varied to any extent according to individual proclivities, incloses large areas of knowledge over the subjects of which the human will and human passions must have, at least in the course of ages, and in passing from country to country, an amount of influence which seems to set scientific precision at defiance. ”

“ The American Naturalist, as its name implies, is devoted entirely to biology. One of our principal scientific wants has been a publication which should serve as a medium of communication between, scientific men and the educated public, as well as between the various classes of scientific workers. ”

“ The average scientist, the every-day physician, the followers, the gleaners and popularizers of knowledge, are expected to blunder and teach but half truths, if not positive error; but if all those who should be our experts fail us, where can we look for clear ideas? ”

“ A well illustrated magazine devoted to the popularization of science should have a wide circulation and be conducted on different lines from a journal concerned with the less elementary aspects of scientific work, just as a high school and the graduate school of a university differ in their methods and in their appeal. ”

“ Akin to the token which the enlarged use of statistics affords of the growing recognition of Politics as a true science, is the ever-increasing disposition, at the present day, to await, at any political crisis, whether legislative or administrative, the result of a patient examination of evidence as to the state of the facts and the previous history of the question. ”

“ Happily, the reputation and real success of a votary of the physical sciences are now wholly independent of the periodicals which are pleased to call themselves "influential organs of public opinion." ”

“ This consists in popular presentations of the higher truths of the science, either in the form of lectures or of articles in magazines which are read by the public. A great deal of good can be accomplished in this way, if the work is properly done. There are chapters of great inherent interest treating of matter which belongs in the domain of the science of chemistry, and these are rarely alluded to in popular lectures or articles. ”

“ I need not say that within that century what we call science, pure and applied, has transformed the world as the scene of the human drama; and that it is this transformation that has compelled the recognition of natural science as a fundamental necessity in liberal education."—Eliot, "Education for Efficiency," p. ”

“ But how shall public sentiment be properly shaped and made available for service? How is its natural though slow growth to be fostered and directed? Mainly by the efforts, organized and individual, of scientific men. ”

“ With the increasing specialization which modern research is making absolutely unavoidable, the social feature of the annual gathering of such a company of scientists is coming to be its most important function. ”

“ A monthly can never compete with a weekly or with the daily press in giving scientific news; as to do that work well requires a definite and comprehensive organization for the purpose, and a frequency of publication that shall secure the prompt diffusion of scientific intelligence. "Science" will do this work effectually, and, by becoming an organ of accredited discovery and authorized opinion, will leave us free to devote ourselves to popularizing and diffusing the approved results of scientific inquiry. ”

“ There is, besides, a growing sympathy, on the part of men of science of the highest character, with the work of popular teaching, and an increasing readiness to cooperate in undertakings that shall promote it. There is, in fact, growing up a valuable literature of popular science—not the trash that caters to public ignorance, wonder, and prejudice, but able and instructive essays and lectures from men who are authorities upon the subjects which they treat. ”

“ We wish to make science popular, not by deceiving idlers into the belief that any thorough knowledge can be easy, but by exciting interest in its objects, and appreciation of its methods. In the popular evening lectures you will hear those who are best qualified to speak upon their several subjects, not preaching with the dry austerity of a pedant, but bringing their own enthusiasm to kindle a contagious fire in those who hear them. ”

“ Is it wonderful that such crass ignorance should have entailed ruin upon thousands? Nothing but the publication of exhaustive geological reports, continued year after year, and printed both in full and summarized into short popular forms, can save the community at large from the repetition of similar follies. ”

“ But most or all of these reasons have been seen to be of a kind which hold out a good promise for the future, and thereby afford an ample encouragement to the use of a strictly logical method in political investigations, and to the attempt to create a scientific structure of ever-increasing completeness in this region, as well as in others more familiarly associated with the name of Science. ”

“ Welcome, then, the precious opportunity, enjoyed by the president of this Association, of discussing some of the great themes of science before an audience which has for its nucleus the original investigators, discoverers, and inventors in the country, and which, like the sun, is surrounded by an extensive chromosphere only a little less brilliant than the central body by contrast ”

“ I shall be told, perhaps, that the growing demand for popular expositions of scientific results and the increasing diffusion of scientific inquiry point to a different conclusion. It is true that there never was a time when science was so popular. It is true that every year the attendance on lectures and the meetings of scientific associations is larger. ”

“ Fashionable society will enthusiastically discuss telepathy, astrology, christian science, psychic force, palmistry, spiritualism, etc., but if one should introduce a subject relating to astronomy or physics, he would be regarded as a pedantic bore. Du Maurier illustrated the indifference of society to science by a drawing in Punch entitled "Science and Music at an Evening Party." ”

“ Within the past three or four years there has been a large increase in the amount of popular scientific publication in this country, which is seen in the establishment of a scientific magazine, and in the appearance of a 'scientific columns' and 'scientific departments' in many of our newspapers and magazines. ”

“ What the public want is easy and unhindered access to such a collection as they can understand and appreciate; and what the men of science want is similar access to the materials of science. To this end the vast mass of objects of natural history should be divided into two parts—one open to the public, the other to men of science, every day, and all day long. ”