308 HOW TO WORK 



NEW VIEWS UPON THE STRUCTURE, FORMATION, AND GROWTH 



OF TISSUES. 



To aid in establishing general conclusions concerning the nature of 

 those wonderful processes of formation and growth peculiar to things 

 living ought to be the aim of every one who devotes himself to the 

 investigation of the minute structure of animal and vegetable tissues. 

 But in these days, instead of being encouraged to follow the example 

 set us by Harvey and Hunter and Bichat, observers are taught to 

 devote themselves to the mere observation and demonstration of 

 facts. Many, therefore, spend their lives in the pursuit of fact- 

 hunting without pausing to enquire if the facts they discover are of 

 any use and teach us anything, or if they affect in any way facts 

 already known. Fact accumulation, the adding of fact to fact, seems 

 to be the sole object in view. 



On the other hand, there are men who never observe or experi- 

 ment for themselves, who, in truth, look upon fact-finding and 

 experimenting as inferior though necessary occupations, but who, 

 nevertheless, keep in with the poor fact-finders, and make use of 

 their results. From these contemplative intellects generalisations 

 can alone proceed. In our days the philosopher, who never made a 

 practical observation or discovered a single fact, feeling conscious 

 of superior wisdom, is to indicate the precise fields in which inferior 

 minds are to work, and to dictate the method of investigation to be 

 pursued by those whom he looks upon as his workmen, condescend- 

 ingly observing that as conclusions tend in this or that direction, 

 more labour is required here, while it is useless working there, am 1 

 new investigations must be set on foot to prove the truth of such 

 and such an idea which he has evolved. And the philosopher is wise 

 in the method he pursues, for it is easier to frame a generalisation 

 and then select from the general heap of known facts particular facts 

 in its support, than to examine the facts themselves one by one, to 

 separate the true from the false facts, to experiment anew, and at 

 last, after an honest survey of what is known, to endeavour to 

 arrive at some generalisation. 



Formerly those who advanced new views to explain the phe- 

 nomena of living beings, not only performed the work of fact-hunting 

 but tested the value of every fact, and only deduced their conclusions 

 after much patient investigation and experiment. Of late a new 

 method of making generalisations has been discovered, and many 

 slow testing and analytical operations have been entirely discarded. 



