President's Address. 45 



to the quality, of our manifold farm products. This is ac- 

 complished, not by an increase, but by a lessening in the labor 

 involved. Discoveries of incalculable value have been made 

 through the study of the complete life-history of many of 

 our various disease-producing fungi, in both plant and animal 

 life. The means of combatting these injurious parasites has 

 been worked out, in many instances, as well as the prevention 

 and cure of the diseases, in all forms of life, caused from their 

 ravages. However, there are many problems of life yet to 

 be solved, among which may be mentioned the origin of life 

 upon the earth and its many subsequent changes. What are 

 the potentialities of the different primal cells that cause them 

 to develop into widely different organisms? The relation of 

 the chemical and physical changes which take place in the 

 brain and nerves to conscious thought is still incompletely 

 solved. 



We trust that the biologists of this century may learn to 

 explain all these difficulties, and that they will give us a basal 

 law governing the vital molecules of the cell and the exact 

 relations in every detail of these molecules to the non-vital 

 ones. We expect the future to reveal the history and present 

 evolutions of man himself ; to explain the causes of the differ- 

 ent races, their physical characteristics, their mental and 

 moral traits, as are observed in their customs, languages and 

 religion. We hope they will find all the factors that have 

 elevated, also those that have depressed, and show how the 

 one may be augmented and the other retarded : likewise show 

 how the yearning in man for the eternal verities may be in- 

 creased. The solution of these problems will solve those of 

 our social and governmental evolutions. 



Experimental research is adding an increasing accumula- 

 tion of facts each year in every branch of science. The scope 

 of each is widening and dividing into new fields of investi- 

 gation. In this way nature is revealing her secrets more rap- 

 idly than ever before in the world's history. She is showing 

 her variability and her unity. Therefore, the work is open- 

 ing new lines of employment and new phases of thought. In 

 this way science is interesting those who supply the sinews 

 of investigation. Yet those who are toiling with all their 

 power that they may find some facts that will aid in the so- 

 lution of some of the unknown problems of nature are as 

 truly philanthropists as they who contribute of their wealth 



