
HISTORY, AIMS AND OBJECTS 
OF THE 
PEORIA SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
BY DR. J. T. STEWART. 


DELIVERED BEFORE THE PEORIA SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, 
FRIDAY EVENING, SEpt. 4, 1885. 

Science may be defined as an assemblage of facts, truths 
proved, demonstrated and systematized, and is therefore in its 
essence irresistible, indestructible, eternal. Before it the dark 
clouds of ignorance vanish; the black and dreadful pall of 
superstition rolls away. Before it the fetters fall from the hu- 
man mind; the prison doors are opened, it breathes the pure air 
of heaven, it feels the warm sunshine, it sees the beauties, the 
glories of the universe, it comes into possession of the rich 
heritage which by right is its own. As the thermometer is a 
measure of the temperature of the air, so science is a measure 
of the civilization of a people. Just in proportion as science is 
developed and diffused is civilization advanced. 
In Egypt, Hast India and China science was in a high state of 
development four thousand years ago, and those people were in 
a correspondingly high state of civilization. Some of the sci- 
ences were fully as highly developed as they are now with us, 
and some of the arts were developed far beyond our present 
knowledge of them. 
As an example of the advanced state of those nations above 
named, two thousand years before Christ, the healing art was 
well established and systematized. Physicians were educated 
_by the government and paid by the government, both in mili- 
tary and civil practice, and were held in high esteem by the 
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