29 



Imt little ; there were no competent obsei'vers. A farmer might fight weeds 

 all his life and yet know but little al>out them, about their characteristics 

 and properties, or their classification, and he is very apt to confound species. 

 A farmer usually simply learns to do certain things, only a few inquire 

 into the reason why or into the nature of the thing itself ; we call these 

 few progressive farmers. 



The erratic Kafinesque was perhaps the first botanist who visited our 

 State, but he left no records of Indiana plants. The first botanist to make 

 a local list was Dr. A. Clapp, of New Albany, in the early thirties ; at that 

 time many European T\eeds had already wandered in. Since then a num- 

 ber of local lists have been made, some of them by physicians who botan- 

 ized as a recreation. The first State Catalogue was that of Coulter. Barnes 

 and Arthur, published in ]S81. The complete State Catalogue of Stanley 

 Coulter did not appear imtil 1900; since then a number of additional lists 

 have appeared in the Proceedings of our Academy. New plants ai*e cou- 

 stantly arriving, brought in from other States and countries; of these new 

 arrivals many are weeds and of these some remain and become common. 

 Where at first there were l)ut few observers of new arrivals, now there are 

 many, and new weeds are soon recognized and reported. 



If it requires a botanist (even though only an amateur who submits to 

 the superior knowledge of the expert) to distinguish between weeds, it 

 must be evident that an educated physician is required to distinguish be- 

 tween diseases and to record the arrival of new ones. A man may fight 

 disease or diseases all his life without knowing anything about Das Wesen 

 der Krankheit; indeed, it is painful to admit that the best physicians have 

 to fight diseases about whose real nature they know but little ; like the 

 farmer and his weeds, they can simply fight them in the way thej' have 

 been taught or have learned how. I 'n fortunately the routinism of some 

 physicians is on a plane little above that of the farmer's method; they are 

 satisfied to live on without making any effort to find out and we do not 

 look for any advance in learning from them. 



The advent of the educated physician has already been referred to, so 

 I shall proceed to give a few analogies between weeds and diseases. My 

 remarks, as already mentioned, will be suggestive rather than exact scien- 

 tific statements, mere outlines without dates. Of the many introduced 

 diseases I can mention but a few. Animals and plants also have diseases 

 but I shall refer only to disease in human beings. 



