SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 679 



the scientific world, in that he takes us 

 into the workshop of his thoughts and un- 

 ravels the guiding threads which have 

 helped him to master and to set in order 

 the most resisting and confused material." 

 Again in his "Report on Sir William Thom- 

 son's Mathematical and Physical Papers" 

 he sees the great merit of Thomson's scien- 

 tific methods in the fact that, "following 

 the example given by Faraday, he avoids 

 as far • as possible hypotheses about un- 

 known subjects and endeavors to express 

 by his mathematical treatment of prob- 

 lems simply the law of observable phe- 

 nomena. By this circumscription of his 

 field Thomson brought out the analogy be- 

 tween the different phenomena of nature 

 much more clearly than would have been 

 the case if it had been complicated by 

 widely diverging ideas with reference to 

 the inner mechanism of phenomena." 



Though Kelvin is often mentioned as a 

 mathematician, this is not correct in the 

 strict sense, inasmuch as he did not add 

 to the methods of mathematics proper. 

 Indeed, it is very doubtful if he knew any 

 more of mathematics at eighty than he did 

 at twenty. He did not need to. For him 

 a thorough familiarity with the methods of 

 LagTange, Fourier, Cauchy and Green 

 amply sufficed. We never hear him men- 

 tion a Riemann's surface or an existence- 

 theorem. This we say not as a reproach, 

 nor as an insinuation regarding the fer- 

 tility of modern pure mathematics, but 

 merely as an interesting fact. These 

 methods may be taught, and in a reason- 

 able time. Let us in America pray for 

 teachers of this science which Helmholtz 

 calls "die eigentliche Basis aller rechter 

 Naturwissenschaf t, " of the inspiring 

 quality of Lord Kelvin, the high priest of 

 that most alluring goddess of the natural 

 sciences. Mathematical Physics. 



Arthur Gordon Webster 

 Clark Univeesity, 

 December 22, 1907 



MEDICINE AND TEE UNIVERSITY "^ 

 I BELIEVE that I make no mistake in as- 

 suming that the honor of the invitation 

 to deliver this address came to me mainly 

 through the official position which I chance 

 to hold in the Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science and the desire to give 

 prominence on this occasion to the sciences 

 of nature in view of the approaching meet- 

 ing of the association in this place. I must, 

 however, disclaim any especial competence 

 to speak for these sciences, and I know not 

 where there is less need in our country of 

 emphasizing the importance and signifi- 

 cance of the natural and physical sciences, 

 or where the representatives of these sci- 

 ences have brought higher distinction to 

 themselves and to their university, than 

 here in the University of Chicago. 



The past century is memorable above all 

 others for the gigantic progress of the 

 natural and physical sciences— a progress 

 which has influenced more profoundly the 

 lives and thought, the position and pros- 

 pects of mankind, than all the political 

 changes, all the conquests, all the codes and 

 legislation. In this marvelous scientific ad- 

 vancement in all directions the sciences of 

 living beings and their manifestations have 

 progressed as rapidly and have influenced 

 the material, intellectual and social condi- 

 tions of mankind as much as the sciences 

 of inanimate matter and its energies. So 

 far as the happiness of human beings is 

 concerned, there is no other gift of science 

 comparable to the increased power acquired 

 by medicine to annul or lessen physical 

 suffering and to restrain the spread of 

 pestilential diseases, although what has 

 been accomplished in this direction is small 

 indeed in comparison with what remains to 

 be achieved. Man's power over disease ad- 

 vances with increased knowledge of the 



^ An address delivered at the convocation exer- 

 cises of the University of Chicago, December 17, 

 1907. 



