1 84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE INSTEUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEAECH^ 



By De. L. a. BAUER 



CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON 



WEEE I to accuse you of forgetfulness^ of shortness of memory, or 

 possessed of tliat quality apt to prove troublesome to others, 

 though characterized by the oldest of our past presidents, in his delight- 

 ful " Eeminiscences of an Astronomer/' as a valuable quality — absent- 

 mindedness — I dare say you would not be much offended, though 

 possibly a trifle annoyed. But were I to accuse you of narrow-minded- 

 ness I might meet with a different reception. To none of us would it 

 matter much to be called short-memoried or absent-minded, but to be 

 termed narrow-minded arouses our resentment immediately. But are 

 we not all necessarily so, more or less, according to the circumstances in 

 which we find ourselves? 



Mind the Chief Instrument of Eesearch 

 I believe it was the mathematical physicist Stokes who warned us 

 we must not forget that the chief instrument of investigation — the 

 mind — is itself the object of research. To the mind, then, we should 

 devote our first and chief attention in the discussion of the subject for 

 this evening. How to reduce and check as far as possible this natural 

 tendency of all of us to narrow-mindedness in one or more directions, 

 or how, realizing its necessary existence, to make due allowance for it in 

 the formulation of conclusions which, though drawn with utmost care, 

 are nevertheless subject to " personal equation," is, as we at once 

 readily see, a matter of the very highest importance. 



Many of you are doubtless familiar with the Hindoo fable set to 

 rh3ane by Saxe : 



It was six men of Indoostan 

 To learning much inclined, 

 Who went to see the Elephant 



(Though all of them were blind), 

 Tliat each by observation 

 Might satisfy his mind. 



The First approached the Elephant, 



And happening to fall 

 Against his broad and sturdy side. 



At once began to bawl : 

 " God bless me ! but the Elephant 



Is very like a wall! " 



^ Address of the retiring president, delivered before the Philosophical So- 

 ciety of Washington, Saturday evening, December 5, 1908. 



