Kahlenherg—Factors in Scientific Research. 1291 
began very early, being necessitated by the construction <jf 
shelter and various implements and contrivances that were re¬ 
quired for transportation and communication. This work 
naturally also led to the beginnings of the sciences of physics, 
mineralogy and the study of the earth, geology. Though in 
early times all of the natural sciences were very closely linked 
with the study of medicine. Mathematics naturally developed 
rather independently of the other sciences, and it has conse¬ 
quently reached a higher stage of perfection at the present time. 
Astronomy too as a science is much further along in its de¬ 
velopment than are the other natural sciences, which comes 
from the fact that the distances between the heavenly bodies 
are relatively very great, so that practically only the masses of 
the stars and the distances between them enter into the laws 
governing their movements. When it comes to a study of the 
chemical composition of the heavenly bodies and the processes 
that are going on in the various orbs we are still greatly handi¬ 
capped, even though progress made in this direction by use of 
the spectroscope and the art of photography is very gratifying 
in a way. 
The abstract subject of mathematics really reached a high 
degree of perfection before even the beginnings of the natural 
sciences as such were laid. E’er is it difficult to see why this 
should have been so. The development of mathematics really 
presented much less difficulty than did the development of ex¬ 
perimental sciences; nor did mathematics have to contend with 
superstition, which stood in the way of the growth of medicine 
and the natural sciences in general. The slowest of all to de¬ 
velop was agricultural science in its various phases of horti¬ 
culture, raising of grain, animal husbandry and dairying. And 
thus it is that the pursuit of exact and systematized knowledge 
in abstract mathematics and astronomy occupied more atten¬ 
tion and reached a higher stage of perfection before the science 
of physics and its applications, engineering, were developed. 
Again, the sciences that grew out of the study of medicine were 
of still later growth, and finally, agricultural pursuits on the 
basis of carefully systematized knowledge represent the most 
