[PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. | 
Recent DEVELOPMENTS IN PHySICAL SCIENCE. 
[Publication No. 34.] 
By ArtHuR L. FOLey. 
On this—the twenty-fifth—birthday of the Indiana Academy of Science, 
it is meet that we survey the progress made and take an inventory of 
stock on hand. Where were we? Where are we? 
Comparing physical science of today with physical science of twenty- 
five years ago, I am forced to the conclusion that there has been a reyo- 
lution. 
In the first place there has been a revolution in the methods of teach- 
ing science. I would remind you that the physics laboratory of the Uni- 
versity of Berlin was founded in 1863, the Cavendish laboratory of Cam- 
bridge in 1874. In 1871 Professor Trowbridge, of Harvard, was obliged 
to borrow some electrical measuring instruments, as the university had none 
of its own. It is not surprising, then, that a few years later—at the time 
the Indiana Academy of Science was founded—there were in the United 
States very few physics laboratories worthy of the name. Physics teach- 
ing in college and high school was chiefly from the text-book. Today a 
college which would offer work in physics without a laboratory would be 
considered a joke; and in order to be commissioned, a high school must 
have a certain minimum of laboratory equipment and the physics teacher 
must devote a part of his time to laboratory instruction. 
In the second place there has been a complete change in the attitude 
of men of affairs toward the physics professor and his students. No longer 
do they consider us theoretical, and therefore impractical. No longer do 
they look with distrust or contempt on laboratory methods and data. No 
longer do they hold that apprenticeship and experience are sufficient for 
their needs. Today the large industrial concerns are establishing labora- 
tories of their own and employing in them the best trained men they can 
command. 
In the third place, there has been a revolution in some of our physical 
theories. By the term revolution I do not mean a destructive upheaval 
