2 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 470. 



in the habit of attending the meetings will 

 agree that the object which appeals to 

 them most strongly is the promotion of in- 

 tercourse between those who are cultivat- 

 ing science. Given this intercourse and 

 the other objects will be reached as a neces- 

 sary consequence, for the intercourse stim- 

 ulates thought, and thought leads to work, 

 and work leads to wider usefulness. 



While in 1848, when the association 

 was organized and the constitution was 

 adopted, there was a fair number of good 

 scientific investigators in this country, it 

 is certain that in the half century that has 

 passed since then the number of investi- 

 gators has increased very largely, and nat- 

 urally the amount of scientific work done 

 at present is very much greater than it 

 was at that time. So great has been the 

 increase in scientific activity during recent 

 years that we are apt to think that by com- 

 parison scientific research is a new acquisi- 

 tion. In fact there appears to be an im- 

 pression abroad that in the world at large 

 scientific research is a relatively new thing, 

 for which we of this generation and our 

 immediate predecessors are largely respon- 

 sible. Only a superficial knowledge of the 

 history of science is necessary, however, to 

 show that the sciences have been developed 

 slowly, and that their beginnings are to be 

 looked for in the very earliest times. 

 Everything seems to point to the conclu- 

 sion that men have always been engaged in 

 efforts to learn more and more in regard to 

 the world in which they find themselves. 

 Sometimes they have been guided by one 

 motive and sometimes by another, but the 

 one great underlying motive has been the 

 desire to get a clearer and clearer under- 

 standing of the universe. But besides this 

 there has been the desire to find means of 

 increasing the comfort and happiness of 

 the human race. 



A reference to the history of chemistry 

 will serve to show how these motives have 



operated side by side. One of the first 

 great incentives for working with chemical 

 things was the thought that it was possible 

 to convert base metals like lead and copper 

 into the so-called noble metals, silver and 

 gold. Probably no idea has ever oper- 

 ated as strongly as this upon the minds of 

 men to lead them to undertake chemical 

 experiments. It held control of intellectual 

 men for centuries and it was not until 

 about a hundred years ago that it lost its 

 hold. It is very doubtful if the purely 

 scientific question whether one form of 

 matter can be transformed into another 

 would have had the power to control the 

 activities of investigators for so long a 

 time; and it is idle to speculate upon this 

 subject. It should, however, be borne in 

 mind that many of those who were engaged 

 in this work were actuated by a desire to 

 put money in their purses — a desire that 

 is by no means to be condemned without 

 reserve, and I mention it not for the pur- 

 pose of condemning it, but to show that a 

 motive that we sometimes think of as pecu- 

 liarly modern is among the oldest known 

 to man. 



When the alchemists were at work upon 

 their problems, another class of chemists 

 were engaged upon problems of an entirely 

 different nature. The fact that substances 

 obtained from various natural sources and 

 others made in the laboratory produce 

 effects of various kinds when taken into 

 the system led to the thought that these 

 substances might be useful in the treat- 

 ment of disease. Then, further, it was 

 thought that disease itself is a chemical 

 phenomenon. These thoughts, as is evi- 

 dent, furnish strong motives for the inves- 

 tigation of chemical substances, and the 

 science of chemistry owes much to the 

 work of those who were guided by these 

 motives. 



And so in each period as a new thought 

 has served as the guide we find that men 



