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fact was so well known to prehistoric man that he employed this method; as various savage tribes employ it to this day; for the altogether practical purpose of making a fire; just as he employed his practical knowledge of the mutability of solids and liquids in smelting ores; in alloying copper with tin to make bronze; and in casting this alloy in molds to make various implements and weapons。 Here; then; were the germs of an elementary science of physics。 Meanwhile such observations as that of the solution of salt in water may be considered as giving a first lesson in chemistry; but beyond such altogether rudimentary conceptions chemical knowledge could not have goneunless; indeed; the practical observation of the effects of fire be included; nor can this well be overlooked; since scarcely another single line of practical observation had a more direct influence in promoting the progress of man towards the heights of civilization。 4。 In the field of what we now speak of as biological knowledge; primitive man had obviously the widest opportunity for practical observation。 We can hardly doubt that man attained; at an early day; to that conception of identity and of difference which Plato places at the head of his metaphysical system。 We shall urge presently that it is precisely such general ideas as these that were man's earliest inductions from observation; and hence that came to seem the most universal and 〃innate〃 ideas of his mentality。 It is quite inconceivable; for example; that even the most rudimentary intelligence that could be called human could fail to discriminate between living things and; let us say; the rocks of the earth。 The most primitive intelligence; then; must have made a tacit classification of the natural objects about it into the grand divisions of animate and inanimate nature。 Doubtless the nascent scientist may have imagined life animating many bodies that we should call inanimatesuch as the sun; wandering planets; the winds; and lightning; and; on the other hand; he may quite likely have relegated such objects as trees to the ranks of the non…living; but that he recognized a fundamental distinction between; let us say; a wolf and a granite bowlder we cannot well doubt。 A step beyond thisa step; however; that may have required centuries or millenniums in the takingmust have carried man to a plane of intelligence from which a primitive Aristotle or Linnaeus was enabled to note differences and resemblances connoting such groups of things as fishes; birds; and furry beasts。 This conception; to be sure; is an abstraction of a relatively high order。 We know that there are savage races to…day whose language contains no word for such an abstraction as bird or tree。 We are bound to believe; then; that there were long ages of human progress during which the highest man had attained no such stage of abstraction; but; on the other hand; it is equally little in question that this degree of mental development had been attained long before the opening of our historical period。 The primeval man; then; whose scientific knowledge we are attempting to predicate; had become; through his conception of fishes; birds; and hairy animals as separate classes; a scientific zoologist of relatively high attainments。 In the practical field of medical knowledge; a certain stage of development must have been reached at a very early day。 Even animals pick and choose among the vegetables about them; and at times seek out certain herbs quite different from their ordinary food; practising a sort of instinctive therapeutics。 The cat's fondness for catnip is a case in point。 The most primitive man; then; must have inherited a racial or instinctive knowledge of the medicinal effects of certain herbs; in particular he must have had such elementary knowledge of toxicology as would enable him to avoid eating certain poisonous berries。 Perhaps; indeed; we are placing the effect before the cause to some extent; for; after all; the animal system possesses marvellous powers of adaption; and there is perhaps hardly any poisonous vegetable which man might not have learned to eat without deleterious effect; provided the experiment were made gradually。 To a certain extent; then; the observed poisonous effects of numerous plants upon the human system are to be explained by the fact that our ancestors have avoided this particular vegetable。 Certain fruits and berries might have come to have been a part of man's diet; had they grown in the regions he inhabited at an early day; which now are poisonous to his system。 This thought; however; carries us too far afield。 For practical purposes; it suffices that certain roots; leaves; and fruits possess principles that are poisonous to the human system; and that unless man had learned in some way to avoid these; our race must have come to disaster。 In point of fact; he did learn to avoid them; and such evidence implied; as has been said; an elementary knowledge of toxicology。 Coupled with this knowledge of things dangerous to the human system; there must have grown up; at a very early day; a belief in the remedial character of various vegetables as agents to combat disease。 Here; of course; was a rudimentary therapeutics; a crude principle of an empirical art of medicine。 As just suggested; the lower order of animals have an instinctive knowledge that enables them to seek out remedial herbs (though we probably exaggerate the extent of this instinctive knowledge); and if this be true; man must have inherited from his prehuman ancestors this instinct along with the others。 That he extended this knowledge through observation and practice; and came early to make extensive use of drugs in the treatment of disease; is placed beyond cavil through the observation of the various existing barbaric tribes; nearly all of whom practice elaborate systems of therapeutics。 We shall have occasion to see that even within historic times the particular therapeutic measures employed were often crude; and; as we are accustomed to say; unscientific; but even the crudest of them are really based upon scientific principles; inasmuch as their application implies the deduction of principles of action from previous observations。 Certain drugs are applied to appease certain symptoms of disease because in the belief of the medicine…man such drugs have proved beneficial in previous similar cases。 All this; however; implies an appreciation of the fact that man is subject to 〃natural〃 diseases; and that if these diseases are not combated; death may result。 But it should be understood that the earliest man probably had no such conception as this。 Throughout all the ages of early development; what we call 〃natural〃 disease and 〃natural〃 death meant the onslaught of a tangible enemy。 A study of this question leads us to some very curious inferences。 The more we look into the matter the more the thought forces itself home to us that the idea of natural death; as we now conceive it; came to primitive man as a relatively late scientific induction。 This thought seems almost startling; so axiomatic has the conception 〃man is mortal〃 come to appear。 Yet a study of the ideas of existing savages; combined with our knowledge of the point of view from which historical peoples regard disease; make it more probable that the primitive conception of human life did not include the idea of necessary death。 We are told that the Australian savage who falls from a tree and breaks his neck is not regarded as having met a natural death; but as having been the victim of the magical practices of the 〃medicine…man〃 of some neighboring tribe。 Similarly; we shall find that the Egyptian and the Babylonian of the early historical period conceived illness as being almost invariably the result of the machinations of an enemy。 One need but recall the superstitious observances of the Middle Ages; and the yet more recent belief in witchcraft; to realize how generally disease has been personified as a malicious agent invoked by an unfriendly mind。 Indeed; the phraseology of our present…day speech is still reminiscent of this; as when; for example; we speak of an 〃attack of fever;〃 and the like。 When; following out this idea; we picture to ourselves the conditions under which primitive man 

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