Annual Address by the President. 
19 
powers corresponding to the several atoms. Whenever occasion offers 
the radical will become resaturated; it will, in fact, restitute itself, will 
restore the integrity of the compound which it radically represents. 
Surely, this admitted chemical occurrence is that which underlies the 
vital phenomena of growth, repair, and reproduction.” And I added : 
“To contradistinguish the theory of organization here briefly expounded 
from the prevailing cell-theory, I call it the Theory of Specification, — 
specification of one single protoplasmic unit, not association of a num- 
ber of elementary organisms.” 
I think it will be admitted that, at that early date I had, on the 
strength of my long continued protoplasmic researches, clearly recog- 
nized what is now being confirmed by experimental ontogeny and experi- 
mental regeneration. 
To those who are not themselves scientists it may seem of little general 
and practical consequence whether or not we are scientifically found to 
consist of an assemblage of inferior beings, and whether we are or are not 
really composed of inert atoms mechanically moved. But it would not 
be difficult to prove that the fate of whole philosophies is pending on the 
decision. Indeed, progress in the interpretation of natural phenomena 
underlies all other progress. History abundantly sustains this assertion. 
The three great scientific generalizations of last century: the conserva- 
tion of energy; the progressive evolution of living beings; and the co- 
naturalness of all heavenly bodies revealed by spectrum analysis; these 
comprehensive scientific generalizations have been, and are still, remould- 
ing our entire view of things. And it might, for instance, be shown that 
to the scientific work of Newton, Boyle, and other 17th century natural 
philosophers we owe the religious and political freedom we are now enjoy- 
ing. For Locke, who first effectively urged religious tolerances and who 
promulgated the sovereignty of the people in opposition to the alleged 
divine right of kings, was immediately and essentially influenced in his 
way of thinking by the study of natural science in accordance with what 
has been called the Newtonian and also the empirical method. It was 
principally this scientific method which guided the widely liberating 
thought of the 18th century. Rousseau, a foremost expounder of this 
thought, received the impulse to his reformatory mission directly from 
the study of Locke. And it was Rousseau’s kindling influence which in- 
spired Thomas Jefferson to write the glorious Declaration of Independ- 
ence. * 
In fact, progress in all directions, and not merely in what is called 
natural science, is effected by gaining a more and more correct interpreta- 
tion of natural phenomena, and by overcoming thereby more and more 
efficiently erroneous conceptions of the universe and our life therein. 
