May 2, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



685 



ordeal for a middle-aged philosopher, yet 

 a room full of new fossils proved ii-resist- 

 ible, the journey was performed, and the 

 remains at once identified as those of 

 Eleplias and Mastodon, much to the disad- 

 vantage of Mr. Jefferson's theories. 



The important science of electricity, of 

 which during the past century we have 

 but entered the threshold, as is well known, 

 had its birth in this Society, and one might 

 say in this room. It was here that Frank- 

 lin first contrived his experiments, and 

 by artificial means drew electricity from 

 the clouds. It was here that he de- 

 signed and constructed the first machine 

 for obtaining it from terrestrial objects. 

 It was here that it was constantly exhib- 

 ited, studied and discussed, and since that 

 day the Society has never lacked the pres- 

 ence and labors of a competent and dis- 

 tinguished body of its students and inves- 

 tigators. It is no fault of theirs that this 

 great science, though studied by all the 

 world for a century, has not yet been mas- 

 tered. Notwithstanding our actual pro- 

 duction or segregation of electricity on an 

 enormous scale, and the astonishing prac- 

 tical uses to which it has been harnessed, 

 we still know but little of its nature and 

 origin, and almost nothing of the character 

 and extent of its practical usefulness in 

 the grand scheme of Nature. We have 

 reason to believe that it pervades the cos- 

 mic universe, and suspect it of performing 

 necessary functions not yet understood 

 both in microscopic and cosmical economy. 



And now after this brief glance at our 

 far-reaching past and still briefer mention 

 of some of the branches of knowledge 

 which had here their birth or infancy, what 

 can be said of the future? Here we may 

 at once admit that the mysterious realms 

 of ignorance still remain far more exten- 

 sive than those to which the light of 

 knowledge has been brought. Even the 

 work that has been done invariably reveals 



unexpected new work remaining to be 

 done. We have catalogued hundreds of 

 sciences whose names were unknown but 

 a generation since. But though we have 

 named and neatly labelled them and 

 readily perceive their intimate relationship 

 with their cousins both new and old, how 

 much do we positively know of any of 

 them? If we recur again to human an- 

 atomy — one of the oldest and best known 

 of all, we find the world has been ponder- 

 ing it since the time of Aristotle, but all 

 that it had learned of the prominent or- 

 gans, their morphology, relations and func- 

 tions, has been reduced to minimum rela- 

 tive importance, by the revelations through 

 the microscope of the innumerable secrets 

 yet to be learned. We now find how little 

 we really know of tissues, cells, corpuscles, 

 and above all of the still mysterious 

 nervous system, the seat of all intelligence. 

 Of the numerous cerebral nervous centers 

 we have localized a few, but know little of 

 the vast majority. We scarcely know what 

 office or power to attribute to the ' convolu- 

 tions ' or what to withhold from them, 

 and although we suspect much, yet in 

 fact we know so little about them that 

 their principal vise to anatomists at the 

 present time seems to be as receivers of 

 hypothetical attributes of function which 

 could not safely be loaded on anything else. 

 Even if we confine our researches to the en- 

 tire organ, can the anatomist tell us with 

 certainty the structure and proportions 

 of a normal brain, or can he define brainal 

 normality itself, and inform us what it is 

 and how it may be known? 



In fact after so many centuries of study, 

 we may go even farther and enquire 

 whether we are yet able to find any pre- 

 cise and intelligible definition for life itself. 

 We describe it as ' conscious, ' and ' repro- 

 ductive. ' But we now know that animal 

 life exists which is apparently not conscious 

 and is certainly not reproductive. And yet 



