47 



Doctor Stevens had a real enthusiasm for chemieal studies connected with 

 medicine, and 1 believe supported his laljoratory chiotly from his own 

 funds. 



You now liave in the city at least two, proi)ably more, thoroughly 

 equipped schools of medicine, with commodious and well-appointed lali- 

 oratories of chemistry, physiology and pathology, and these institutions 

 are doing a great work for the public welfare. 



Intimately related with the benefits which could be conferred upon the 

 State of Indiana by its Board of Health are those of a somewhat similar 

 nature which have come from the State Board of Charities. This acad- 

 emy is also honored in having among its leading and most industrious 

 members the Secretary of the State Board of Charities. It is hard to 

 spealv in an unbiased manner of any of these contributions to the State 

 Itecause of my intimate personal acquaintance with the men who are most 

 active in tlie worlv. It is hard even for scieutitic men. and one wlio 

 has lived so long away from the home of his youth, to l)anisli from liis 

 heart a very affectionate and praiseworthy prejudice in favor of his 

 friends. For that reason it is pretty diflicult for me to find fault with 

 what such men as H. A. Huston. Stanley Coulter, .1. N. Hurty, W. F. M. 

 (tOSS, a. "NV. Butler <t id oiinic (/rmis do. When I Icnow that they have 

 done something I am convinced without further investigation that that 

 !-ometliiug is good for the State. There are some featiu-es of the work of 

 the Board of Charities wliich perhaps are not fully comprehended even by 

 those who have read its reports. They liave introduced into the study of 

 the puldic charities of the State a truly systematic method of investiga- 

 tion. In tlieir studies of causes and effects they have endeavored to use 

 every means of securing accuracy. They have striven to get at the indi- 

 vidual and family history of every person who is an inmate of these insti- 

 tutions. The results of these endeavors have been the collection and 

 tabulation of the most accurate and complete set of sociological statistics 

 in this country. Mr. Butler developed one phase of this work in his A'ice- 

 presidential address before the section of Anthropology of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science at its Denver meeting. In 

 this address he took up the study of the heredity effects of feeble-minded- 

 ness. This study of feeble-mindedness had been pronounced by competent 

 experts to be one of the most exhaustive and thoroughly scientific of anj^ 

 that has ever appeared. Its excellence has been recognized across the 

 water and it has been reprinted in Great Britain for public distribution. 



