76 Presidential Address 



said. The occurrence is left unexplained. 

 As an ultimate statement such a phrase 

 may be not only true but universal in 

 its application. But there are always 

 proximate explanations which may be 

 looked for and discovered with patience. 

 So, lightning, earthquakes, and other 

 portents are reduced to natural causes. 

 No ultimate explanation is ever attained 

 by science: proximate explanations only. 

 They are what it exists for; and it is the 

 business of scientific men to seek them. 



To attribute the rise of sap to vital 

 force would be absurd, it would be giving 

 up the problem and stating nothing at all. 

 The way in which osmosis acts to produce 

 the remarkable and surprising effect is 

 discoverable and has been discovered. 



So it is always in science, and its pro- 

 gress began when unknown causes were 

 eliminated and treated as non-existent. 

 Those causes, so far as they exist, must 

 establish their footing by direct investiga- 

 tion and research; carried on in the first 

 instance apart from the long recognised 

 branches of science, until the time when 



