SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY 177 



Helmholtz has given us an enlightening description of his 

 own methods of discovery. "Often enough it [the inspira- 

 tion] steals quietly into one's thoughts and at first one does 

 not appreciate its significance; it is only sometimes that 

 another fortuitous circumstance helps one to recognize 

 when, and under what conditions, it occurred to one; other- 

 wise it is there, one knows not whence. In other cases it 

 comes quite suddenly, without effort, like a flash of thought. 

 So far as my experience goes it never comes to a wearied 

 brain or at a writing-table. I must first have turned my 

 problem over and over in all directions, till I can see its 

 twists and windings in my mind's eye, and run through it 

 freely, without writing it down; and it is never possible to 

 get to this point without a long period of preliminary work. 

 And then, when the consequent fatigue has been recovered 

 from, there must be an hour of perfect bodily recuperation 

 and peaceful comfort, before the kindly inspiration rewards 

 one. Often it comes in the morning on waking up. . . . 

 It came most readily, as I experienced at Heidelberg, when 

 I went out to climb the wooded hills in sunny weather. The 

 least trace of alcohol, however, sufficed to banish it. Such 

 moments of fertile thought were truly gratifying." 1 



It is unfortunately true, however, that in spite of the 

 recognized importance of such acts as this very little has 

 been done toward explaining their nature or accounting for 

 their occurrence. Whether this is due to the complexity of 

 the acts and the elusiveness of the factors involved, or to an 

 ultimate irrationality in what Carmichael calls the "highest 

 movements of the mind" 2 need not be considered at this 

 point. The fact is that originality, or genius, does not seem 

 to yield to analysis. Certain conclusions of a rather general 

 sort, however, have been drawn in recent years, and they do 

 throw some light on the problem. For the purposes of this 

 discussion these may be divided into the psychological and 



1 L. Koenigsberger, Herman von Helmholtz (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906). 

 pp. 209-210. 



2 R. D. Carmichael, Logic of Discovery (Chicago: Open Court, 1930), p. 2. 



