i88 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



follow a certain revealed law, is, nevertheless, still very large and 

 sufficient to tax his energies. Witness, for example, the host of ob- 

 served phenomena obeying the law of inverse squares! 



The remaining sections of Littrow's article deal with the reduction 

 of the experiments to the laws of motion, the numerical expression 

 of the observed results in definite units, the importance of the part 

 played by instruments or mechanical appliances, derivation of laws 

 governing the observations, methods of ascertaining these laws, meth- 

 ods of reduction and of publication, and errors to be avoided. 



These two articles will show sufficiently the character and scope 

 of similar ones we should like to see in our standard English and 

 American encyclopedias.^ Such information is contained in some 

 measure, at least, though not as comprehensively, in the modern 

 German book of reference, Brockhaus's " Conversations-Lexikon," as 

 also in the " Grande Encyclopedia " of the French. It is tmly re- 

 markable that there should be such an oversight in our " International 

 Encyclopedia," when it is remembered that the editor-in-chief was 

 one to whom research work owes a very great debt of gratitude in- 

 deed — the late and greatly lamented Daniel Coit Gilman. The only 

 article found is one on " expert," and this pertains chiefly to " expert 

 evidence " in courts of law. Yet what better statement concerning 

 the " research or scientific spirit " could be made than contained in 

 the following quotation^ from Gilman's writings? 



It is perpetually active. It is the search for the truth — questioning, 

 doubting, verifying, sifting, testing, proving, that which has been handed down; 

 observing, weighing, measuring, comparing the phenomena of nature, open and 

 recondite. In such researches, a degree of accuracy is nowadays reached which 

 was impossible before the lens, the balance, and the metre, those marvelous in- 

 struments of precision, had attained their modern perfection. Wherever we 

 look we may find indications of the scientific spirit. The search after origins 

 and the grounds of belief, the love of natural history, the establishment of 

 laboratories, the perfection of scientific apparaj;us, the formation of scientific 

 associations, and the employment of scientific methods in history, politics, 

 economics, philology, psychology, are examples of the trend of intellectual 

 activity. The readiness of the general government and of many State legisla- 

 tures to encourage surveys and bureaus, the establishment of museums of natural 

 history, and the support of explorations illustrate this tendency. Even theol- 

 ogy feels the influence. The ancient and sacred proverb has been rediscovered 

 — the letter killeth and the spirit maketh alive. I will go only to the edge of 

 this disputed territory and shelter my own opinions behind those of a learned 

 devout prelate of the English Church (Bishop Walcott), whose words are these: 

 " No one can believe more firmly than I do that we are living in a time of 

 revelation, and that the teachings of physical science are to be for us what 

 Greek literature was in the twelfth century." . . . 



^ " Chamber's Encyclopedia " is found to contain a short article on " Experi- 

 ment " ; also one on " Observation." 



' Extracts from the " Launching of a University," 1906, pp. 147-150. 



