18 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
merits of the Whoop- up Indian Bitters have even been drama- 
tized for the stage. But the ‘^regular” physician is held 
responsible for the final taking off of the poor dupes who have 
resorted to all the patent medicines before consultiug the proper 
authorities. The discoveries of Edison and other investigators 
of nature’s forces are quietly revolutionizing our industrial 
methods, and we think little of it. But the praises of electric 
belts, electric bitters and magnetic oils are sounded in every 
hamlet where the public press finds expression. We have seen 
in this generation the revival of an old imposture, that travesty 
‘on religion and science, the so-called Christian science. Occa- 
sionally a new messiah makes his appearance, drawing after 
him such throngs as to make the possibility of another Joseph 
Smith not an incredible idea. A visit to one of our interstate 
or international exhibitions fills us with wonder amounting 
almost to awe at the marvelous prc ducts of genius, a wonder 
exceeded only by that aroused by a perusal of the advertising 
columns of our daily pax)ers. That advertising pays cannot be 
disputed, but the fact that it does pay is often a serious reflec- 
tion upon the methods of our mental training. Fence corners 
full of abandoned machinery show, among other things, an 
unfortunate ignorance of physical laws, and a too- ready accept- 
ance of golden promises. In spite of our bureaus of animal 
industry, the stock raiser still resorts to patent condition pow- 
ders and hog cholera cures instead of managing his establish- 
ment on a sanitary basis. We are too much under the impres- 
sion that everything — life, health and happiness, can be pur- 
chased with the almighty dollar. So we throw discretion to 
the wind and leave the results to the Lord and the doctors. 
To-day, as it has always been, empiricism is a great hindrance 
to progress. A specific remedy for a specific evil, a lucky dis- 
covery of certain correlated phenomena, a haphazard experi- 
menting with fortunate results, have been all too frequently 
characteristic of scientific achievements. Great as are the vic- 
tories science has won in the domains of medicine and the 
applied arts, they have not been presented to the great public 
as having a rational basis. In fact the leaders in science see 
only too dimly the underlying meaning. To many the sole 
purpose of research is to turn up to view new facts. Facts are 
presented as interesting, or as having a practical bearing, or as 
having no bearing at all. The prosaic, dull drudgery of tracing 
relationship is omitted. Yet nothing exists out of relationship. 
