SESSION 1895-96. 



WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9th, 1895. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



BY 



Mk. E. J. PETITFOURT, B.A., F.C.P. 



I 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC 

 PROGRESS. 



Having heartily thanked Members for the honour conferred 

 upon him by his election to the Presidency, Mr. Petitfourt 

 adverted to the continued prosperity of the Society and to 

 the increase in Lady membership of late years ; he also 

 expressed a hope that more of their younger fellow-townsmen 

 would take advantage of the special benefits conferred on 

 Associates, and that greater general interest would in future be 

 taken in the work of the Sectional Meetings. 



Turning to the subject of his address, the question arose 

 " How was it that-apart from social influences — scientific progress 

 had been so much more rapid in modern times ? " The Greeks 

 had great powers of ratiocination, but applied them to state- 

 craft, ethics, and psychology, and believed in the acquisition of 

 knowledge chiefly from within. The Romans were too practical, 

 and in later times under Greek influence. Early Christianity, 

 Chivalry, and Scholasticism continued to bar the way to progress. 

 The authority of great writers was paramount and observation 

 was relegated to the background. The superior of Scheiner the 

 monk could refuse to accept the former's discovery of sun-spots 

 on the negative authority of Aristotle. Prejudice again produced 

 such strange results as the vicissitudes of Peruvian Bark before 

 its final acceptance as a valuable medicine. 



But the formal studies of the Schoolmen were to give way 

 to the realism of the Baconian Philosophy, and experience in its 

 two forms, observation and experiment, was to supersede 



