“! oe 
PROCEEDINGS 
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 
HELD AT PHILADELPHIA 
FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE 
Vou. XLII. APRIL—May, 1903. No. 178. 
ON THE DEPENDENCE OF WHAT APPARENTLY TAKES 
PLACE IN NATURE UPON WHAT ACTUALLY 
OCCURS IN THE UNIVERSE --OF REAL’ EXIST- 
ENCES. 
BY G. JOHNSTONE STONEY, M.A., SC.D., F.R.S. 
(Read April 3, 1903.) 
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. 
Hitherto attempts to ascertain the events that are actually hap- 
pening in the universe of real existences, and to ascertain what 
those existences are—in other words, the study of ontology—have 
been pursued almost exclusively from the standpoint of the meta- 
physician of the human mind. This mode of treatment has led to 
a few negative results which are chiefly of value by helping to 
dispel some popular errors, but it has established little that is posi- 
tive, or that can be of service to the scientific student of nature. 
And yet investigations of Natural Science have been pushed in more 
than one direction into contact with problems of ontology, and 
are there brought to a stand owing to the different levels at which 
these two fields of investigation lie. Examples of this are met 
with in physiology, when we find our progress blocked on coming 
face to face with the problem as to what is the true nature of the 
interdependence between the thoughts of animals and changes in 
their brains; and generally throughout physics, when we make 
any attempt to penetrate to the causes of the events that cccur. It 
appears, therefore, to be in an eminent degree desirable that an 
attempt shall be made to bring natural science and ontology into 
line by carrying on the ontological investigation from the stand- 
point of the scientific student of nature. 
PROC. AMER. PHILOS. 800, XLII. 173. H. PRINTED JUNE 6, 1903. 
