i'.-.H Proceedings of the Ohio State Aeademy of Science 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 



Bv W. F. Mercer. 



In presentino- this paper I wish to deviate from the ac- 

 cepted form of papers and present the subject upon somewhat 

 of a peculiar basis. In the first part of the paper I will trace 

 the history of a great discovery, bringing out the methods 

 of research necessary for such a discovery and in the second 

 part of the paper I will try to show how a great fact in bio- 

 logical science may be made of practical benefit to humanity 

 in the preservation of health and strength, that is, increasing 

 our "health bank account" and to show how it would have 

 been impossible to do this without the correct view brought 

 out in the historical review. Many times too little attention 

 is paid to the history in a science. The young mind takes the 

 facts and knows nothing of the long struggle that was made 

 to arrive at them. Many times the methods of research are 

 brought out in the tracing of the history of a discovery better 

 than in any other way. Beside that, the mind appreciates 

 more the things that cost something in time and strength on 

 the part of some one. 



In studying the history of the discovery of the circulation 

 of blood the mind is naturally turned to William Harvey but 

 such a discovery can not be associated with the name of any 

 one man. While the demonstration of the facts was left for 

 Harvey in 1626, other men had been working on the question 

 for more than 2000 years. The general structure of the heart : 

 the working of the valves ; the circulation of the blood through 

 the lungs ; the relation of the arteries and the veins to the 

 heart : the valves in the veins ; were all known before Harvey's 

 time. Hnc mitrht ask wlnt was left for him to discover? With- 



