Show r F he be P S SL L r e o ByR By K S W WoodWard 4 4 1 Tf Address of the retiring prest I dent d nt of the American As octa tion for the Advancement of f Science given at the Denver j HA HAVE E chosen to invite your at attention I n for the hour to a sum summary summary I mary mN of oC scientific progress pro ea with special reference to Its ics effects effect on the masses rather than on the th Individuals of ot mankind We y all know knew at least in a general ay what such progress is We Ve are ars assured almost t Sally dally by b th t the public I ei s and by popular consent that the I present resent is l apt t only nn an age of ot scientific progress but that It Is preeminently the age of ot scientific c progress But times have not been always thu thuI thug I Il J nt and promising for Cor science clence As AsMe A Af AsP Me f P look backward over oer the history of scientific progress g it Is la se seen n that our realm has baa h been taxed often oCten to the ut in defense e of ot its Ita autonomy and that the th j nt state of domestic fe Ic felicity bordering on Os tranquillity has haa been IKen preceded pr often by states of domes domestic tic tit discord bordering on dissolution And as an we look forward Into the then n nw new w century before us we may ma well wen inquire whether science elenc has vanquished ed t UK its foreign enemies and end settled Its do domestic domestic o om m sUc disputes for good end and all eli or future conquests tg can roan be made only by a similarly wasteful outlay of I energy nerg to that which has haa accompanied th advantages of ot the tte past And I venture Co to think that we Wt may meay 7 inquire also aIs with h profit In some m prom prominent r I II I mont instances under what I stances I anre in the pat past pa t science has waxed or r waned as LOll the case ca e may be Blow Alow rise ise 1 from the myths and jAm ism f C earlier eos f a to the law and or order der 11 o f I the present pr ent day Will VIII t b be w possible JO f b for society to re reI reIn I IPat eat In the twentieth century the ap p T blunders of ot the nineteenth cen con century century tury or have we entered on a new ne nera era ra in which whatever other obstacles are pending ending we Wf n nay ay expect man to stand tand notably less Jess In his own light a as ac regards science than ever before beCore From the earliest historic hl torl times Umes certainly if not from the dawn of or primi primitive primitive tive Live humanity down to the present day the problem or o 0 the universe has hall been tim tho Uk most attractive and the most mot illusive subject of the attention of or thinking men mho K 1 All systems of ot philosophy religion l mind R Jenea alike are In having the th so 8 lution of ot this problem pr for their ulti ultimate mate Date object t Many such systems and andI 41 I subsystems have arisen flourished and vanished only to he succeeded by oth others othe ers erg e in th seemingly task Gradually y however hoever In the he lapse of ot ages there have accumulated some ele elements elements ments meats of knowledge which give ve inklings of partial though it would appear ap eal that the best test current opinion of philosophy religion and science would again agree in the conclusion that we are yet y t immeasurably distant from rom a complete Ct solution Looking back over the interval of ot otto to or em years that connects conn ts us by more or less lese Ie authentic records with without outS out distinguished h d ancestors nce tors we are n t tonce tonce once onre struck by hy the admirable confidence confidence dence deuce they had acquired in their ability I Ito to solve this grand problem Not less leas admirable also al o for their I Ingenuity and amt for the tile earnestness earne with which they were advanced are the I hypotheses s and arguments by b which men satisfied sati themselves on the ty of their Ir tenets and theories No summary view of the progress of clence it seems to me can be made intelligible except by a clear realization zion Ion of two facts which may be briefly brielly referred rt to as a mans conception of the universe e and his means of ot investigating ing it IL What then in the light of these facts taets has been the sequel I The full mu answer to this question is isan isan an old and a long story now a matter I of ot minute ute and exhaustive history as regards the past pa t twenty centuries II I have hare no desire to recall the dra dramatic dramatic matic events involved in the tile rise of w ece from the Alexandrian epoch to th present diy day All AU these events are ar ard trite rite rt enough to men of science A Are Anere cere nere re reference to them is a sufficient iUle of ot the existence exl tence of a family skeleton But setting aside a the human element as aae much as possible po it may not be out Of place or time to state what general lens appear to stand out plain plainly ly in tn that sequel These are our tangi tangible tangible ble his heritage and upon them we should fix t our attention In the first place the progress of science has been steadily te opposed ed to and as nosed o oo by the adherents flits of or mans j t ve ye concepts of the thelver universe lver e The domain of the natural lies lias aas constantly widened and the domain i if Jt f C the timS supernatural has haa constantly narrowed So far at any rate as evil are concerned they the have been f cast out from the realms f The arch fiend and the esser princes of ot darkness are no long r useful even eV n as a a hypothesis We Ve lave iRve reached if I may ma again use u the language of ot diplomacy a sat 0 1 modus If we have tot lot Attained permanent peace In all ur mtr foreign relations Enlightened man hm hl come to see that his highest duty Is to cooperate with nature that he may expect to get on ou very well if he I heeds her advice and that he may ex cx expect expect to fare very ill HI If he disregards It lL It must be confessed when we look backward over the events of the past I 2050 years and when we consider the scientific contents of the mind of the average denizen of this planet that It Itis ItIs Itis is not wholly rational to entertain mil millennial millennial anticipations of progress in the immediate future The fact that some of the prime fits dis discoveries of science have so 80 recently appeared to many earnest eanest thinkers to threaten aten the very vel foundations of so soci sock ci ck fy is one which should not be over overlooked looked locked in these confident times of pros prosperity prosperity prosperity And the equally ly important fact that entire innocence with respect to the elements of science and dense Ignorance Ignorance ignoranCe ance with respect to its methods are not Incompatible with justly esteemed eminence in the divine the statesman the jurist and the man of ot letters Is Js Isone Isone one which should be reckoned with in making up any forecast It may be seriously doubted indeed whether the progress of the individual Is not essentially limited by the progress rose ress rt 8 of the race But this obverse and darker side of I the picture h i confronts us from the past has its reverse and brighter I Iside side and I am constrained to believe that the th present status of science and the general enlightenment of human ity justify ardent hopefulness if It not sanguine optimism with respect to the future of scientific achievement The reasons for this hopefulness are arp numerous some of ot them arising out of ot the commercial and political con conditions conditions of ot the world and others arising out of the conditions of ot science itself Perhaps P thu th most important of all these thue reasons is found In the general enlargement of Ideas which has come and Is coming with the extension of trade and commerce to the uttermost parts of the earth We Ve are no longer citizens of ot this or that country simply Whether we wish it or not we are citizens of the world with increased opportunities I and with Increased duties I I would not disparage the elevated aspirations and the noble efforts of ot the evangelists and humanists who seek to toral raise ral the lower elements to the plane of ot the higher elements of our race but it is now plain as A matter of or fact however repulsive It may seem to some of oC our inherited opinions that the rail rall railway railway way wa the steamship the telegraph t and the th daily dally press will do more to illumine the dark places of the earth than all the apostles of creeds and all the mes moe messengers of the gospel gosp l of sweetness and light A question of profound significance growing out of the extension of com commercial mercial mercal relations In our time Is what may ma be called caled the question of Inter International InternatIonal national health An outbreak of cholera in Hamburg I the prevalence of yellow ellow fever in Havana Hana or an epidemic of ot bubonic plague plage in India In la is no longer a matter of local Import as nations with which we are well wel acquainted have learned recently recent in an expensive manner The management of this great in international international question calls cals for the ap application ap application of the th most advanced mien selen scientific J I knowledge and for the most lain Intricate I cate cute scientific investigation Large sums of money must be de devoted devote devoted voted vote to this work and many heroic lives will be lost doubtless in its exe execution execution cution but it II Is now evident as a mere matter mater of international political econ economy econom economy omy om that the cost of sound sanita sanitation sanitation tion ton will wi t be e trifling In comparison with wih the cost of no sanitation while fur further further ther careful study of the natural his history history history tory of diseases promises practical im urn immunity from many of them at no dis distant distant distant tant day When we ve turn to the general geneal status of ot science itself there is seen to be pe e equal justification for Cor hopefulness founded on onan onan onan an abundance ance of favorable conditions The methods of ot science may be said to have gained a footing of respectability in almost every department of thought where a half century ago or even twenty years ago their entry was either barred out or stoutly stouty opposed The conflict between religion and science more precisely called cled the con conflict diet between theology and science which disturbed so many eminent though timid minds including not a few men of science a quarter of a cen con tury ago has now been ben transferred almost wholly to the field of the the theological theological theological contestants an science may safely leave them tem to determine det ane the is issue Issue issue sue since it I is evidently coming by means mens of scientific methods method The Time grave gr ve fears entertained a few ten tenI decades dees ago by distinguished theolo theologians I gians glans and publicists as to the stability of the social fabric under the stress put upon It I by y the rising tide of I title ideas have not been realized Arid And Andon A d don on the other hand the grave doubts entertained by distinguished men of science a few decades ago as to the te permeability and ready response of modern society to that Influx of oC new ideas have hae likewise not been realize I Great questions also of ot education of economic industrial and social so con conditions conditions conditions and of legal and political re ms relations lations are now demanding alt all al the light which science can bring to bear upon them Though tardily perceived It is isnow IsI isnow now admitted generally general that science I must not only participate te in the de do development dE of these questions but that T I It alone can point the way to the so solution solution luton lution of many of them But there is no halting baiting ground here Science must likewise enter and ex explore explore explore the te domain of manners and morals and these though already largely modified unconsciously must now be modified consciously to a still greater extent by the advance o of science Clence Only within quite quie recent times have we come to realize an approximation to the true meaning of the trite trUe saying that the proper study stud of man is man manSo manSo manSo So long as the most favored individuals of ohis his race in accordance with the hy hypothesis hypothesis hypothesis of the first centuries looked unon upon him as a fallen falen if I not doomed resident of an abandoned reservation there could be roused little enthusiasm with respect to his present condition all al thought was nas concentrated on his is future prospects How incomparably different does he appear to t the anthropologist and psychologist Ps psychologist at the beginning of the twentieth twentieth twentieth century centry In the light of oC evolution evolution tion ton he is seen to be a part of and not apart from the rest of the uni universe universe universe verse The transcendent Interest of this later view of man lies les in the fact that he can cannot cannot cannot not only investigate the other parts of ot the universe but that he can cn by y means of the same methods investigate him himself himself I IFor self L For example to mention only one of the lines along which improvement Is 18 plainly practicable what Is to an indefinite mitigation if not a deS definite def nite extinction of the ravages of such dread diseases as consumption and typhoid fever Or what wha t we may ask ask Is to hinder the application to New York Vork Philadel Philadelphia l phia and Chicago of as a effective health regulations as those now non applied a pled to Havana Nothing apparently except vested Interests and general apathy We Ye read not many years ago that thata a city of about inhabitants had during one year more than cases of typhoid fever The cost to the city of a single case may be estimated at not less on the average averageS than 1000 making an aggregate cost to that city for tor one year of more than Such A waste of financial resources ought to appeal to vested interests interest and general apathy even evea if 1 they the cannot be moved by any higher motives mot es esNo No amount of contemplation conte laton of the beatitudes human or divine will wi pre prevent prevent prevent vent men from drinking contaminated water or milk mik and no fear of future punishments which may be in the meantime atoned for will wU much deter men mep from wasting their substance in riotous living The moral certainty of speedy and In Inexorable inexorable earthly annihilation is alone adequate ad quate to bring man mn into In o conformity w q qI with the cosmic c rules and regulations 1 of the drama of life I And finally finalI we must reckon among I the most important of the conditions favorable fa to the progress of at science the unexampled activity In our times I of the scientific spirit as manifested in the work of all al kinds of organizations tons from the Chau I tuquan assemblies assembles up up to those technical I societies whose are re Greek to all al the world orld besides Literature linguistics history economics law and theology are now non permeated by b me toe tle scientific spirit if not animated by the scientific method Still Sti more immediately important to tous tous tous us are the evidences eviden es of progress mani manifested manifested in recent reent years by b this association tion ton and by b its affiliated societies Our parent organizations though a half hail I century old Is still stil young youns as a regards the extent In time of the functions it has undertaken to perform It I has ha accomplished a great gret work but in the vigor Igor and enthusiasm of its youth a afar far fr greater geater work is easily at attainable att tamable t Just how these functions are areto areto areto to be developed no man can |