[Annals N. Y, Acad. Sci., XI, No. 9, j p. 177 to 192, July 29, 1898.] 



THE DEBT OF THE WORLD TO PURE;[SCIENCE. 



Annual Address of the Retiring President. 

 J. J. Stevenson. 



(Read February 28, 1898.) 



The fundamental importance of abstruse research receives 

 too little consideration in our time. The practical side of life 

 is all-absorbent ; the results of research are utilized promptly 

 and full recognition is awarded to the one who utilizes, while 

 the investigator is ignored. The student himself is liable to be 

 regarded as a relic of medieval times, and his unconcern respect- 

 ing ordinary matters is serviceable to the dramatist and news- 

 paper witlet in their times of need. 



Yet every thoughtful man, far away as his calling may be 

 from scientific investigation, hesitates to accept such judgment 

 as accurate. Not a few, engrossed in the strife of the market- 

 place, are convinced that even from the selfish standpoint of 

 mere enjoyment less gain is found in amassing fortunes or in 

 acquiring power over one's fellows than in the effort to solve 

 Nature's problems. ]\len scoff at philosophical dreamers, but 

 the scoffing is not according to knowledge. The exigencies of 

 subjective philosophy brought about the objective philosophy. 

 Error has led to the right. Alchemy prepared the way for 

 Chemistry, Astrology for Astronomy, Cosmogony for Geology. 

 The birth of inductive science was due to the necessities of de- 

 ductive science, and the greatest development of the former has 

 come from the trial of hypotheses belonging in the border land 

 between science and philosophy. 



My effort this evening is to show that discoveries which have 

 proved all-important in secondary results did not burst forth 

 full-grown ; that in each case they were, so to say, the crown of 



( 177 ) 



