Annual address of the president of the American Philosophical Society, George B. Wood, M.D.

  • Wood, George B. (George Bacon), 1797-1879.
Date:
[1860]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual address of the president of the American Philosophical Society, George B. Wood, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    \ ANNUAL ADDRESS PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, georgp: b. wood, m.d. Read May 18, 1860. Among the regulations of the Society is one directing that the President shall, at some time within the year, deliver to the Society a discourse on some literary or scientific subject, accompanied by such suggestions with regard to the affairs of the Society as he shall judge proper. In the novelty of my position last year, I overlooked the exact purport of this law; and I must now offer an apology for the appa- rent neglect. My object in addressing you, on this occasion, is to fulfil the duty for the present year. Two things are required by the regulation; one, a discourse on some literary or scientific subject; the other, suggestions on the affairs of the Society. I shall follow the order here laid down. As the length of the communication is left to the discretion of the President, I shall study to make it brief; so that, if it have no other merit, it may at least lay claim to that of wasting but little of your time and attention. 1. There is a point in philosophy which, I think, deserves more consideration than it ordinarily receives : I allude to the evil of too hasty generalization ; of leaping to general conclusions inconside- rately from one or a few experiments or observations. This habit has in my opinion, more than any other one cause, since the general acceptance of the inductive system of philosophy, contributed to the disturbance of admitted truth, and to the introduction of crude and unsound hypotheses, incapable of standing the test of time, yet pro- cite a few examples. A fact in geology is observed which, at first sight, seems to be in \