SCIENCE AS MEASUREMENT 87 



impressions ; we even criticize these impressions and 

 speak of time as going slowly or quickly. We are 

 compelled in the interests of accuracy to provide an 

 objective standard in the clock, or the revolving 

 earth, or some other measurable thing. Similarly 

 with weight and heat ; we cannot rely on the subjec- 

 tive impression, but must devise apparatus to record 

 by a measurable movement the amount of the pres- 

 sure or the degree of temperature. 



" God ordered all things by measure, number, and 

 weight." The scientific mind does not rest satisfied 

 till it is able to see phenomena in their number re- 

 lationships. Scientific thought is in this sense Pythag- 

 orean, that it inquires in reference to quantity and 

 proportion. 



As implied in a previous chapter, number relations 

 are not clearly grasped by primitive races. Many 

 primitive languages have no words for numerals 

 higher than five. That fact does not imply that these 

 races do not know the difference between large and 

 small numbers, but precision grows with civilization, 

 with commercial pursuits, and other activities, such 

 as the practice of medicine, to which the use of weights 

 and measures is essential. Scientific accuracy is de- 

 pendent on words and other means of numerical expres- 

 sion. From the use of fingers and toes, a rude score 

 or tally, knots on a string, or a simple abacus, the 

 race advances to greater refinement of numerical 

 expression and the employment of more and more 

 accurate apparatus. 



One of the greatest contributors to this advance 

 was the celebrated Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe 

 (1546-1601). Before 1597 he had completed his 



