[Annals N. Y. Acad. Sct., Vol. XIV, No. 4, pp. 69-84, July 2, 1901.] 



OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT^ 



Bv R. S. Woodward 



The near coincidence of this anniversary meeting of the Acad- 

 emy with the end of the nineteenth and with the beginning of 

 the twentieth century imposes pecuhar and quite unexpected re- 

 strictions in the way of freedom of choice of a fitting subject for 

 an address. Naturally one would like to pass in review some 

 of the brilliant achievements of science in the past century, and 

 perhaps forecast the still more brilliant advances that may be 

 expected to mature in the present century. Especially one 

 might feel tempted to present a semi-popular inventory of the 

 more striking or recondite scientific events with which he is 

 particularly familiar. But all this and more, strange as it may 

 seem, has been done, or is being done, by the public press. 

 Specialists in almost every branch of science have been employed 

 to expound and to summarize the discoveries, the theories, and 

 the useful applications which have rendered science, by com- 

 mon consent, the most important factor in the civilization of the 

 nineteenth century. Statesmen, philosophers and divines are 

 hkewise sounding the praises of science and the scientific method 

 with a warmth of recognition and with a stamp of approval 

 which tend to make one who is old enough to have lived in the 

 pre-scientific, as well as in the present epoch, feel as if a millen- 

 nium were close at hand. Indeed, such a wealth of good scien- 

 tific literature is just now thrust before us and such a wealth of 

 praise is just now bestowed on scientific achievement that the 

 modest man of science must hesitate before adding a word to 

 that literature or a qualification to that praise. 



^ Address of the President of the New York Academy of Sciences, read before 

 the Academy on February 25, 1901. 



Annals N. Y. Acad. Scl, XIY, July 2, 1901 — 6. 



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