47 



Doctor Stevens had a real enthusiasm for chemical studies connected with 

 medicine, and 1 believe suuported his laboratory chieliy from his own 



funds. 



Y,.u now have in the city at least two, probably more, thoroughly 

 equipped schools of medicine, with commodious and well-appointed lab- 

 oratories of chemistry, physiology and pathology, and these institutions 

 are doing a great work for the public welfare. 



Intimately related with the benefits which could be conferred upon the 

 State of Indiana by its Board of Health are those of a somewhat similar 

 nature which have come from the State Board of Charities. This acad- 

 emy is also honored in having among its leading and most industrious 

 members the Secretary of the State Board of Charities. It is hard to 

 speak in an unbiased manner of any of these contributions to the State 

 hecause of my intimate personal acquaintance with the men who are most 

 active in the work. It is hard even for scientilic men. and one who 

 has lived so long away from the home of his youth, to banish from his 

 heart a very affectionate and praiseworthy prejudice in favor of his 

 friends. For that reason it is pretty ditticult for me to find fault with 

 what such men as 11. A. Huston, Stanley Coulter, J. N. Hurty, W. F. M. 

 Goss. A. W. Butler ct id omne finim do. When I knoAV that they have 

 done something I am convinced without further investigation that that 

 something is good for the State. There are some features of the work of 

 the Board of Charities which perhaps are not fully comprehended even by 

 those who have read its reports. They have introduced into the study of 

 the public charities of the State a truly systematic method of investiga- 

 tion. In their studies of causes and effects they have endeavored to use 

 everv means of securing accuracy. They have striven to get at the indi- 

 vidual and family history of every person who is an inmate of these insti- 

 tutions. The results of these endeavors have been the collection and 

 tabulation of the most accurate and complete set of sociological statistics 

 in this country. Mr. Butler developed one phase of this work in his vice- 

 presidential address before the section of Anthropology of the American 

 \ssociation for the Advancement of Science at its Denver meeting. In 

 this address he took up tlie study of the heredity effects of feeble-minded- 

 n.'ss. This study of feelde-mindedness had been pronounced by competent 

 exp.>rts to be one of the most exhaustive and thoroughly scientific of any 

 that has ever appeared. Its excellence has been recognized across the 

 water and it has been reprinted in Great Britain for public distribution. 



