PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES. yal 
hypotheses in physics and chemistry to more ultimate conclusions than, so far as 
I know, have hitherto been attempted; and thereby I hope to suggest a theory 
of the cosmos. 
Of necessity this discussion will be somewhat speculative; for it will have 
much to do with the ether, a medium in itself a mere speculation of science, as 
yet undemonstrated to any of our senses. Light reaches us from the far distant 
stars. We can conceive of no way whereby that light can come save as a vibra- 
tion of some intervening medium, and science has named this hypothetical me- 
dium the ‘‘luminiferous ether.’’ We are safe in admitting its existence as 
demonstrated by the phenomena of light, heat, and electricity, though we cannot 
weigh it, nor can we see it, feel, taste or smell it. 
A complete theory of the cosmos must account for all phenomena observed. 
We may grant that heat and light are fully accounted for, but there are other 
outstanding phenomena as yet unexplained. Some of the unanswered questions 
are: What is electricity? What is gravity? What is life? The work of the 
scientific investigator is far from complete. The above questions need but to 
be mentioned to suggest that, glorious as has been the record of past discovery, 
the future will far outshine it in brilliancy. 
Nature’s primal law is harmony. There is endless variation, yet harmony in 
it all. There is no harper on themes like nature. She discovered that she 
could propagate a polyp by an egg; and she never forgot the process, even in the 
perpetuation of the highest of animals, and man must come into the world by the 
egg route. A simple protozoan cell can make its way in the world by appropri- 
ating from all that comes to it only that which is for its good, rejecting all else; 
and what more is the highest mammal] than a great organized aggregate of vital- 
ized, protozoan-like cells, each one of which does that very thing —appropriates 
from its environment the nutriment it needs, while it rejects all else? The laws 
of planets about the sun are the laws of satellites about the planets; and they are 
the same laws for the winds and streams and ocean currents about the earth — the 
laws of gravitation of bodies about theircommon center. Why may we not expect 
these laws to hold in the molecular world of physics and in the atomic world of 
chemistry ? A stone is dropped into a quiet pool, and the laws of the circling 
waves have been formulated as they apply in the mass movements of fluids. 
These laws have been applied with success to the explanation of sound propa- 
gation in air and to the phenomena of light propagation in the ether. Some 
have ventured to extend the theory to electric propagation; and why not? Why 
not go a step further, and find a theory for gravity based on the same laws? 
Heat, light and electricity are regarded by some as correlated forces. Why not 
class gravity with them? They are all certainly capable of having their energies 
interchanged. We find the theory of vibrations good for explaining sound, heat, 
light, and some apply it to electricity. Why not extend it to the realm of gravity 
and chemism? The all-pervading harmony in nature certainly encourages us 
so to do. 
Tn its efforts to unravel the mysteries of the material universe the human mind 
has ever run up against the hitherto unsurmountable barrier of gravitation. A 
stone thrown into theair falls to earth again—why? The wise have ever declared 
that it does so because the earth attracts it; and most people have been satisfied 
with the answer asa simple and complete solution of the problem. But that 
this was no explanation of the phenomenon was recognized as long ago as the 
time of Sir Isaac Newton. He himself declared, and we must admit the self- 
evident truth, that one object cannot act upon arfother at a distance save by 
some bond of union between the two. Between the falling stone and the earth 
