THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



387 



Eugene A. Smith, 



State Geologist of Alabama and Professor ot Geology in the University of Alabama, 

 Vice-President for Geology and Geography. 



physiological and psychological condi- 

 tions of efficiency as factors in the 

 labor problem. It was shown how the 

 progress of science has resulted in the 

 abandonment or modification of the 

 hard and fast theories of the classic 

 school of political economists and the 

 substitution of more flexible formulas, 

 suited to the number and variety of 

 facts brought to light by newer methods 

 of investigation not only in economic 

 and social science, but in the so-called 

 exact and natural sciences as well. 

 Modifications of old ' laws ' also be- 

 come necessary as the result of the 

 progress of applied science, the ex- 

 tensive use of machinery, e. g., tending 

 to modify the operation of the ' law of 



diminishing 



returns.' Agricultural 

 science, or more accurately, the agri- 

 cultural sciences, stand in the closest 

 relation to the economic situation in 

 any civilized country, and consequently 

 not only to the science of econoni ics, 

 but to governmental policy. 



President Wright's address was 

 typical of the interests and objects for 

 which the association exists. The 

 Popular Science Monthly has con- 

 sistently maintained that science is not 

 a thing apart, the curious pastime of 

 an exclusive clique, but that it is noth- 

 ing more nor less than the most com- 

 plete and exact statement of fact that 

 can be reached by the most careful and 

 thorough methods of inquiry, and that 



