American inventors echo the dictum of the English physician. Says Mr. Octave Chanute:--“It has taken many men to bring any great invention to perfection, the last successful man adding little to what was previously known. As a rule the basis of his success lies in a thorough acquaintance with what has been done before him, and his setting about his work in a thoroughly scientific way.” Professor W. A. Anthony observes:--“If the army of would-be inventors would enter the field with a full knowledge of what science has already done, the conquest of new territory would be rapidly accomplished.” To the same effect speaks Mr. Leicester Allen:--“While rarely there appears a man so highly endowed by nature with originating faculty that we call his talent genius, it will be found in the last analysis that his inventive power lies, not in some vague, mysterious intuition, but in a logical mind that can draw correct inferences from established premises; in an analytical mind that enables him to reason from correct data, discovering those which are false; in natural and cultivated perceptive faculties that enable him to determine the effect of a given set of conditions, and through exercise of which he is able to place clearly before his mental vision the exact statement or proposition which defines the thing to be accomplished; in the ability to concentrate his attention upon the problem in hand to the exclusion of everything else, for the time being, and a perseverance that will not be denied--that failure cannot wear out.” Much is Still to be Discovered.