IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 17 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OP THE PRESIDENT. 



NEEDED CHANGES IN SCIENTIFIC METHODS.* 



BY H. W. NORRlS. 



We live in a period that sees wonderful attainments in sci- 

 ence and art, so that in theory and practice many think the 

 summum bonum has been reached. It is pre-eminently the age of 

 science and the application of scientific methods to all phases 

 of human activity. The forces of nature have been made sub- 

 ject to the will of man. The relations of man to his surround- 

 ings have been carefully considered. The province of human 

 intellect has been made the ground of scientific investigations. 

 We now see scientific methods foremost and uppermost, and all 

 human thought is more or less permeated and even molded by 

 the new ways of looking at the facts of our experience and rea- 

 son. But with all our enlightenment no other age has equaled 

 ours in the prevalence of unblushing fraud and boasting 

 duplicity. 



For every skilled specialist in surgery we have a dozen 

 quacks, whose outrageous pretensions are only equaled by the 

 astonishingly large patronage of the over-credulous. The rep- 

 utable physician struggles along in his attempts to right the 

 wrongs of the human body according to the best approved, 

 methods, and too f rt quently receives as his reward only non- 

 bankable proruises, while Dr. Humbug puts up at the best 

 hotels, adveitif es to cure all the ills human flesh is heir to, and 

 reaps a harvest of shekels. The name of Dr. X's sarsaparilla 

 is emblazoned along every thoroughfare in the country, and the 



* W hen this address was nearly completed a copy of a recent lecture by President 

 J. M. Coulter, of Lake Forest University, was received, in which were expressed many 

 ideas quite similar to some contained in this paper. Wherein the writer has inten- 

 tionally borrowed from President Coulter, due credit has been given. 



The Botanical Outlook. An address delivered before the Botanical Seminary of the 

 University of Nebraska, May 27, 1895. 



