SCIENCE AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 271 



It is comparatively easy to make experiments in the natural 

 sciences. Two chemical compounds may be brought to- 

 gether, a group of physical conditions may be arranged, an 

 animal or a plant may be subjected to new conditions; even 

 in medical science, it is not difficult to find an individual 

 whose hopelessness over his own case or whose altruism will 

 lead him to try the new cure or to allow himself to be in- 

 fected with the virus. It only takes one experimenter and 

 one trial to begin with. If that is a success the experiment 

 may be repeated again and again; and, in the case of ex- 

 periments upon individual human beings, satisfactory 

 results quickly lead to the willingness of a larger number of 

 individuals to become subjects for experimentation. The 

 result of this in such cases as the use of anaesthetics and of 

 anti-typhoid vaccination, is the very rapid extension of any 

 procedure that gives satisfactory results. 



But within the field of social phenomena, the trained 

 observer may feel sure that a social experiment, such as a 

 reform of the currency, is justifiable. Yet to perform the 

 experiment, it is necessary not merely to convince one 

 human being, then another, and another, but to persuade the 

 dominating element of a population to submit to untried 

 conditions. Moreover, the complexity of the situation and 

 the time required are such that the outcome may always be 

 called in question. It is as though a civil engineer could 

 never experiment with the stresses and strains on his bridge 

 until just such a bridge had been built full size; and could 

 not build it until he persuaded a majority of the population 

 to embark upon a venture which might prove disastrous. 

 Yet society from the beginning of civilization has been con- 

 tinually embarking upon such ventures, unconsciously 

 blundering through with them at whatever cost in human 

 life and treasure. 



Conscious attempts to solve the problems of society 

 have had no very obvious influence in the past nor do they 

 in the present, because social decisions are made not by 



