THE FURTHER GROWTH OF SCIENCE 101 



vaccination against smallpox (1796) was the precursor of the 

 vaccinations of the present time. The Germ-Theory of 

 disease was forecast by the increasing emphasis upon the 

 analogy between the spread of disease and the spread of 

 living organisms. But the generalizations, which ushered in 

 the existing science of medicine, were made possible only by 

 further extensions of biological knowledge in the early nine- 

 teenth century. 



Other examples might be cited. The foregoing suffice 

 to show that the great generalizations in the older sciences 

 began to assume their present form during the eighteenth 

 century. Some of these, like the theory of the transmutation 

 of species, were unable to maintain themselves. Acceptance 

 was delayed until a later time. In other cases, such as the 

 cell-theory, the eighteenth century failed to discover the 

 thread of common meaning. Yet to a surprising degree the 

 men of this early modern period arrived at generalizations 

 that were points of departure for scientific progress during 

 the century which followed. 



In brief, the larger regions of science were mapped and 

 charted, and the scientific method was acknowledged as the 

 correct procedure within the realm of nature. There was 

 still confusion over what constituted natural knowledge. 

 Important fields, such as the mental phenomena since 

 claimed by the psychologists, were excluded from the 

 scientific domain. But even to-day non-scientific explana- 

 tions are offered for phenomena which may eventually be 

 explained in terms of science. Toward the close of the 

 century the distinction between science and philosophy 

 attained wider recognition; while supernaturalism began to 

 receive its present valuation. It should again be empha- 

 sized that any separation between the Scientific Renaissance 

 and modern times is arbitrary, for since the days of Leonardo 

 and Galileo science has gone forward with increasing mo- 

 mentum. 



