THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 83 



to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut or to the research institutes 

 of the U.S.S.R. than to the Royal Society or the Academie 

 des Sciences. In addition, Bacon believed, as some do today, 

 that scientific research should be planned with a view to the 

 application of discoveries to practical human needs. This 

 has already been discussed,* but in any case it had no im- 

 mediate effect upon the course of events. The discovery of 

 the telescope and the microscope and the discussion of the 

 wonders they revealed created widespread interest, and men 

 from many strata of society joined the ranks of the amateurs 

 studying new experiments. Many of these amateurs be- 

 longed to the English aristocracy, foremost among whom was 

 Robert Boyle, a younger son of the great Earl of Cork. Boyle 

 devoted his whole life to scientific research and discovered 

 the relation between the pressure and the volume of a gas, 

 still known as Boyle's law. When a young man, Boyle asso- 

 ciated with a group of enthusiastic experimenters, to ^\ hich 

 he refers in a letter as "our invisible college." The meetings 

 of this group were greatly interrupted by the Civil W^ar, and 

 it was not until the restoration of the monarchy that life in 

 London could move on the old lines. But in 1660 a move- 

 ment was made toward a definite org^anization of this interest 

 in experimental philosophy, and in the next two years a 

 society was formed that in 1662 was incorporated under the 

 patronage of King Charles II with the name of the Royal 

 Society. 



Among those who founded the society were Robert Boyle, 

 John Evelyn, and Sir Christopher Wren, who, though com- 

 monly thought of only as an eminent architect, was the most 

 widely accomplished man of his time. Among the subjects 

 in Tvhich he was a recognized authority were mathematics, 

 astronomy, meteorology, and anatomy. 



With the formation of the Royal Society, organization 

 entered the history of science. For the first time, there were 

 a nucleus and a meeting place for those interested in experi- 



* Chapter III, p. 62. 



