PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS, 1909. 
SOME FACTOES IN THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENTIFIC 
EESEAECH. 
By Louis Kahlexberg. 
The search after knowledge of the material things of the 
universe has been in progress since the appearance of man on 
the earth. To minister to his daily needs in the way of food, 
drink, clothing and shelter required an acquaintance with many 
of the most important properties of plants, animals and sub¬ 
stances of mineral character. So the struggle against hunger, 
thirst, inclement weather, sickness, wild beasts and enemies 
of his own species led man to the acquisition of a large number 
of fundamental facts. These, at first handed down to succeed¬ 
ing generations by word of mouth, were gradually more and 
more preserved in some kind of written form, and thus taught 
and transmitted to others. In this early stage of the acquisi¬ 
tion of knowledge of material things the imagination and the 
religious superstitions of man played a large part. This is 
true especially of his efforts to conquer his enemies and to pro¬ 
tect himself against the ravages of disease. For example, to 
imagine that a sick person was one possessed of an evil spirit 
was very common; and it was, of course, quite natural that 
the treatment of disease should have been directed to the 
methods of scaring out, coaxing out, or otherwise removing 
that evil spirit from the patient. Amd thus the appeasing and 
control of evil spirits and the gaining of the favor of kindly 
ones was coupled with the treatment of disease; in other words, 
medicine and theology had much in common in their origin, 
