3S 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



H. W. Wiley. 



Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits. 



Members of the Indiana Academy of Science, Ladies and Gentlemen- 

 It perhaps marks a sad epoch in the history of a man when he delili- 

 erately chooses a period of reminiscence for a public address. It is one of 

 the privileges of the old to review the preceding years and draw from them 

 siich lessons of wisdom or of folly as may happen to be the case. I have 

 therefore, chosen on this occasion to look back over the scientific history 

 of Indiana during a period of a third of a century. Strange as it may seem, 

 that sliort period covers practically all the progress Avhich has been made 

 in applied science in this great State. I do not foi'get the early days of the 

 Owens and their associates, and the great contributions which came to 

 the intellectual and scientitic development of our people from the center 

 first established at New Harmony. l)ut I speak of the actual accomplish- 

 ments for the good of the community from the application of the principles 

 of science to mining, manufacture, commerce, agricultui'e and pul)lic 

 health. 



It was my foriune to enter upon the period of my education immedi- 

 .itely following tlie great Civil War. This fratricidal struggle for four 

 ytars liad engaged every energy and consumed every resource of our 

 country. The end of the war left our people in a remarkably susceptible 

 condition— ready for the purpose of re-establishing tlieir industries and of 

 utilizing every availalile means thereto. In the very midst of the period 

 of the Civil AVar were laid deep and sure, by wise congressional action, 

 the foundations of tlie system of agricultural and technical education, 

 which has since grown to l)e the admiration of the world. I refer to the 

 :\Iorrill Act of 1802, setting apart portions of the public domain for the 

 purpose of promoting instruction in agTicidtural and mechanical arts and 

 military tactics. Every State in our Union received grants of public lands 

 in pi'oportion to size, popidation and representation in Congress. It is 

 ti'ue that some of the States invested this muniticent endowment more 

 wisely than otliers. Imt all have received from it substantial aid. This 

 munihcent gift to technical education was sui>plemented twenty years 

 later Ijy the Hatch Act, Avhereby there was established in each State and 



3— Academy of Science. 



