THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF-CENTURY

BY

T.H. HUXLEY, F.R.S.

NEW YORK

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

1889




THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF-CENTURY

[Sidenote: Recent industrial progress]

The most obvious and the most distinctive features of the History of
Civilisation, during the last fifty years, is the wonderful increase
of industrial production by the application of machinery, the
improvement of old technical processes and the invention of new ones,
accompanied by an even more remarkable development of old and new
means of locomotion and intercommunication. By this rapid and vast
multiplication of the commodities and conveniences of existence, the
general standard of comfort has been raised, the ravages of pestilence
and famine have been checked, and the natural obstacles, which time
and space offer to mutual intercourse, have been reduced in a manner,
and to an extent, unknown to former ages. The diminution or removal of