82 THE PATH OF SCIENCE 



of Salomon" and described in his New Atlantis. This in- 

 stitute contained a series of laboratories for experimental 

 research equipped with Utopian perfection— caves in the 

 ground, high towers, buildings on mountains, "the highest 

 of them three miles at least; great lakes, both salt and fresh," 

 pools, rocks in the sea, and bays upon the shore; artificial 

 wells and fountains; great and spacious houses, in which 

 could be imitated meteors and sno^v, hail, and rain; orchards 

 and gardens full of trees and herbs, with soil of various kinds 

 in which could be produced new plants differing from those 

 kno^vn. 



In these experimental stations and laboratories. Bacon 

 saw the possibilities of experiments in genetics, physiology, 

 pharmacology, mechanical arts, metallurgy, optics, crystal- 

 lography, and all branches of physics and chemistry. This 

 research institute was to be manned by a great company of 

 Fello^vs, to whom Bacon, with his passion for detailed or- 

 ganization, allotted specific functions. Some were to study 

 written w^orks and to travel in search of kno^vleds^e from 

 abroad; some were to make observations and experiments; 

 and some were to carry out computations on the results of 

 these experiments and to develop theories and devise ne^v 

 experiments. A noble dream, much before its time and 

 greatly overorganized, but it led to the idea of co-operation 

 in the pursuit of knowledge. From it came the impulse that 

 founded the Royal Society. Martha Ornstein says that 

 Bacon's description of the House of Salomon "bears to the 

 cause of learned societies the same relation as does Marx's 

 'Communist Manifesto' to socialist propaganda. No histori- 

 cal account can ever be given of gatherings of learned socie- 

 ties without reference to this, their 'romantick' prototype." * 



Bacon, however, was not really describing a learned so- 

 ciety; he was describing a research institute or, rather, a 

 group of research institutes. His plan was much more akin 



# 



Martha Ornstein, The Role of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth 

 Century, p. 43, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, Third Edition, 

 1938. 



