1903-4-] SCIENCE AND ENGLISH Law: 71 
There is no branch of English law that offers more difficulties to the 
student than real property law, with its mysteries of fines and recoveries, 
of estates in fee simple and fee tail, in possession or expectancy, of shifting 
and springing uses, of contingent remainders, of trusts, of tenancies by the 
curtesy and by entireties, of bargain and sale, of lease and release, and all 
the other curious relics of the feudal system. Happily most of these sources 
of perplexity have been removed by legislation that may be called recent, 
but a great deal has yet to be done to make the law of real property conform 
to true scientific method. Very early in the history of our Province a system 
of registration of deeds was adopted which greatly assisted the investiga- 
tion of titles in tracing the chain from the original grant from the Crown; 
and more recently the Act for Quieting Titles was passed, under which a 
certificate from the Court is substituted for the Crown patent as a starting 
point. More recently still the Land Titles Act was passed, the aim of which 
is to assimilate the transfer of land to that of personal property. Unques- 
tionably it is a move in the right direction and will no doubt be followed 
by improvements that time and experience will shew to be advisable. 
Turning to another aspect of the relation between Science and Law, 
we may note the necessity to the successful practitioner of a knowledge 
of many branches of science that formerly were deemed of little account. 
The time has passed when the ability to stumble through a little Latin and 
geometry is sufficient preparation for beginning the study of the law. 
The man who would be a successful lawyer in this age of intense, all-absorb- 
ing practicality must know something of almost every department of human 
knowledge. A dispute as to boundaries between farms may involve an 
acquaintance with surveying and those branches of. mathematics upon 
which surveying depends; questions as to patents require a knowledge 
of mechanics and other departments of natural philosophy; questions as to 
water-powers demand a knowledge of hydraulics and hydrostatics; to 
manage a case of killing by poison, it is necessary to understand the chemis- 
try of poisons and their effect on the human frame, thus bringing in the 
study of physiology; a recent case which is now distracting all Scotland 
shews that the lawyer must be able to discuss even hair-splitting points of 
dogmatic theology; and as for politics, the great numerical preponderance 
of lawyers in our legislative bodies, shews the intimate connection between 
law and government. The lawyer should be an all-round man, totus, teres, 
atque rotundus, able to deal with almost any question that may arise in any 
contingency. 
I have alluded to the intense, all-absorbing practicability of the age. 
Herein lies one of the grave dangers of modern life. The passion for money 
that is so prevalent in these days threatens to smother the finer feelings and 
sensibilities; it has invaded the domain of the education of our youth, and 
