The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society already number
about two hundred volumes, and the time when the Memoirs of the
French Academy of Sciences shall reach the thousand mark does not
belong to the very remote future. Besides such large volumes,
these and other societies publish smaller ones in a constantly
growing number. In addition to the publications of learned
societies, there are journals devoted to each scientific
specialty, which seem to propagate their species by subdivision in
much the same way as some of the lower orders of animal life.
Every new publication of the kind is suggested by the wants of a
body of specialists, who require a new medium for their researches
and communications. The time has already come when we cannot
assume that any specialist is acquainted with all that is being
done even in his own line. To keep the run of this may well be
beyond his own powers; more he can rarely attempt.
What is the science of the future to do when this huge mass
outgrows the space that can be found for it in the libraries, and
what are we to say of the value of it all? Are all these
scientific researches to be classed as really valuable
contributions to knowledge, or have we only a pile in which
nuggets of gold are here and there to be sought for? One
encouraging answer to such a question is that, taking the
interests of the world as a whole, scientific investigation has
paid for itself in benefits to humanity a thousand times over, and
that all that is known to-day is but an insignificant fraction of
what Nature has to show us.
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