L. ('. 00OLEY. 1 I 1-lSl , 



s< ! r en t f f r< r \ v est r< ; a ti o n . 



I suppose that in the popular mind scientific investiga- 

 tion is the peculiar province of the specialists. The ide;i 

 of scientific investigation is usually associated with that 

 of its highest and final achievement which is the discov- 

 ery and application of truth, put to discover and apply 

 new truth is a fortune which rarely falls to the lot of or- 

 dinary mortals ; it is the reward which falls, for the most 

 part, only to those, who, having devoted life to the ser 

 vice, have become skilled in all the logic and the arti- 

 fices of experiment and observation. Nevertheless, we 

 do not overrate the duty of our society when we make if 

 responsible, to some extent, for these best results of orig- 

 inal research. We may appeal to the record of work al- 

 ready done by members of our section for encouragement 

 to believe that even in this highest sense scientific inves- 

 tigation is not altogether beyond our reach. Witness. 

 for example, the researches of our colleague in the geolog- 

 ical character of our own township — researches which 

 although in their infancy have begun to awaken interest 

 among the geologists of our own and other countries. 



Still, if nothing is to be recognized as scientific inves- 

 tigation, except that which is destined to increase the 

 sum of human knowledge, then to demand that scientific 

 investigation shall be the only, or even the chief object 

 of an organization like ours, would be futile, because the 

 large majority of our members are not, and in the nature of 

 the case can never be, specialists in science. 



But there is a great deal of genuine investigation which 

 never ripens into discovery. Indeed the investigation 

 which bears fruit is generally preceded by that which 

 does not, It is not far from true to say that every im- 

 portant research consists of two parts ; the first part is 

 devoted to determining what others have already done. 

 while the second consists in devising the new methods. 

 and creating the new conception by which the work is 

 carried forward. Discoveries are the fruit of both. But 

 while the first is less conspicuous than the last it often- 

 times is no less difficult to accomplish. Its difficulties, 

 however, are not of the kind that absolutely demand the 

 peculiar skill of the trained scientist to overcome, li is 

 a kind of research which may be conducted without re- 



