18 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



merits of the Whoop up Indian Bitters have even been drama- 

 tized for the stage. But the "regular" physician is held 

 responsible for the final taking off of the poor dupes who have 

 resorted to all the patent medicines before consulting the proper 

 authorities. The discoveries of Edison and other investigators 

 of nature's forces are quietly revolutionizing our industrial 

 methods, and v^e think little of it. But the praises of electric 

 belts, electric bitters and magnetic oils are sounded in every 

 hamlet where the public press finds expression. We have seen 

 in this generation the revival of an old imposture, that travesty 

 on religion and science, the so-called Christian science. Occa- 

 sionally a new messiah makes his appearance, drawing after 

 him such throngs as to make the possibility of another Joseph 

 Smith not an incredible idea. A visit to one of our interstate 

 or international exhibitions fills us with wonder amounting 

 almost to awe at the marvelous pre ducts of genius, a wonder 

 exceeded only by that aroused by a perusal of the advertising 

 columns of our daily papers. That advertising pays cannot be 

 disputed, but the fact that it does pay is often a serious reflec- 

 tion upon the methods of our mental training. Fence corners 

 full of abandoned machinery show, among other things, an 

 unfortunate ignorance of physical laws, and a too- ready accept- 

 ance of golden promises. In spite of our bureaus of animal 

 industry, the stock raiser still resorts to patent condition pow- 

 ders and hog cholera cures instead of managing his establish- 

 ment on a sanitary basis. We are too much under the impres- 

 sion that everything — life, health and happiness, can be pur- 

 chased with the almighty dollar. So we throw discretion to 

 the wind and leave the results to the Lord and the doctors. 



To-day, as it has always been, empiricism is a great hindrance 

 to progress. A specific remedy for a s pecific evil, a lucky dis- 

 covery of certain correlated phenomena, a haphazard experi- 

 menting with fortunate results, have been all too frequently 

 characteristic of scientific achievements. Great as are the vic- 

 tories science has won in the domains of medicine and the 

 applied arts, they have not been presented to the great public 

 as having a rational basis. In fact the leaders in science see 

 only too dimly the underlying meaning. To many the sole 

 purpose of research is to turn up to view new facts. Pacts are 

 presented as interesting, or as having a practical bearing, or as 

 having no bearing at all. The prosaic, dull drudgery of tracing 

 relationship is omitted. Yet nothing exists out of relationship. 



