the question might well arise whether almost the whole of it will not
have to be consigned to oblivion. Such a conclusion should not be
entertained until we have made a vigorous effort to find what pure
metal of value can be extracted from the mass of ore. To do this
requires the co-operation of minds of various orders, quite akin in
their relations to those necessary in a mine or great manufacturing
establishment. Laborers whose duties are in a large measure matters of
routine must be guided by the skill of a class higher in quality and
smaller in number than their own, and these again by the technical
knowledge of leaders in research. Between these extremes we have a
great variety of systems of co-operation.

There is another feature of modern research the apprehension of which
is necessary to the completeness of our view. A cursory survey of the
field of science conveys the impression that it embraces only a
constantly increasing number of disconnected specialties, in which each
cultivator knows little or nothing of what is being done by others.
Measured by its bulk, the published mass of scientific research is
increasing in a more than geometrical ratio. Not only do the
publications of nearly every scientific society increase in number and
volume, but new and vigorous societies are constantly organized to add
to the sum total. The stately quartos issued from the presses of the
leading academies of Europe are, in most cases, to be counted by
hundreds. 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 whe