]7 



WINTER MEIHTNG. 



Indianai'oi.is, Dkck.mhek 27 and '2^, 1894. 



presidp:nt's address. 



I,avi)Ipii:r. 



W. A. XOYES. 



Oil ^[;iv S. of tills yi'Hr was tlic ceiittMinial of the oxcoution of a man who 

 inthienced iirofoundly tlie (U'velojunent of si'ientilic knowledge. To Antoiiie 

 Laurent Lavoisier beh)ngs chieHy the lionor of the saying that "Chemistry is a 

 French science." a saying which possesses a certain amount of truth, ihougli it 

 does injustice to much good work done ehi'wliere, and is entirely false as regards 

 the present condition of tiie science. 



During many centuries, such workers in chemistry as there were followed 

 mostly a vain search after gold and after the elixir of life. During this period 

 of sordid aim many facts were discovered, but little real progress was made, for 

 facts do not constitute a st-ience. Then, for another century, chemistry was |>ur- 

 sued mainly in connection with the study of medicine with the thought that the 

 science would hold in its grasp the secret of all disease and its cure. During this 

 period, too. there was some jji-ogress, for the aim was a little less sordid and base, 

 and somewhat more rational means were used, but the chemistry of that day, very 

 mudi like a good deal of the medical science even of to-day, labored under the 

 difficulty of being an applied science without any satisfactory foundation in imre 

 science. As in all such cases, the science was constantly confronted with the 

 necessity of doing something immediately, when it had nothing but the crudest 

 empiricism to guide it. Tiie best deductions which were possible were made trom 

 a few and very imperfect data, and the concdusions were very often in error. 

 Often years, or even centuries of experience are required for the discovery, by 

 such methods, of the right course of procedure, which may, later, be known as a 

 simple corollary from a single principle of pure science. 



Pure science belongs to all lime, and can wait for a factor a principle till the 

 time is ripe for its discovery, .\pplicd science is essentially ephemeral, and must 

 have to-day the best it can get. If it can not find certain knowledge it must guess 

 to the best of its ability. .\nd so it follows that only those forms of applied 

 science which follow in lines of pure science make great and lasting progress. 

 2 



