20 THE BIOLOGY OF DEATH 



ignorance, are very like alchemy, astrology, and witchcraft of the Middle 

 Ages. Either they involve facts which are in themselves unreal con- 

 ceptions which are self-contradictory and absurd, and therefore incapable 

 of analysis by the scientific or any other method or, on the other hand, 

 our ignorance arises from an inadequate classification and a neglect of 

 scientific method. 



This is the actual state of the case with those mental and spiritual 

 phenomena which are said to lie outside the proper scope of science, or 

 which appear to be disregarded by scientific men. No better example 

 can be taken than the range of phenomena which are entitled Spiritualism. 

 Here science is asked to analyse a series of facts which are to a great extent 

 unreal, which arise from the vain imaginings of untrained minds and 

 from atavistic tendencies to superstition. So far as the facts are of this 

 character, no account can be given of them, because, like the witch's 

 supernatural capacity, their unreality will be found at bottom to make 

 them self-contradictory. Combined, however, with the unreal series of 

 facts are probably others, connected with hypnotic and other conditions, 

 which are real and only incomprehensible because there is as yet scarcely 

 any intelligent classification or true application of scientific method. The 

 former class of facts will, like astrology, never be reduced to law, but will 

 one day be recognized as absurd; the other, like alchemy, may grow step 

 by step into an important branch of science. Whenever, therefore, we 

 are tempted to desert the scientific method of seeking truth, whenever the 

 silence of science suggests that some other gateway must be sought to 

 knowledge, let us inquire first whether the elements of the problem, of 

 whose solution we are ignorant, may not after all, like the facts of witch- 

 craft, arise from a superstition, and be self-contradictory and incompre- 

 hensible because they are unreal. 



Let us recapitulate briefly our discussion to this point. 

 Mankind has endeavored to prolong the individual life by 

 natural and by supernatural means. This latter plan 

 falls outside the present purview of the scientific method. 

 The former is, in last analysis, responsible for a consid- 

 erable part, at least, of the development of the science 

 of biology, pure and applied, and the arts which found 

 their operations upon it. Biology can and has contributed 

 much to our knowledge of natural death and the causes 

 which determine the duration of life. It is the purpose 

 of this book to review some of the more important aspects 



