THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION 



observations of birds covering four miles in a minute. He is 

 believed to have been quite sincere but allowed his beliefs to 

 delude him into making false observations/^ 



The best protection against these tendencies is to cultivate an 

 intellectual habit of subordinating one's opinions and wishes to 

 objective evidence and a reverence for things as they really are, 

 and to keep constantly in mind that the hypothesis is only a 

 supposition. As Thomas Huxley so eloquently said : 



" My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves 

 to fact, not to try to make facts harmonise with my aspirations. 

 Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up 

 every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever nature leads, 

 or you will learn nothing." 



An interesting safeguard has been suggested by Chamberlain,^* 

 namely, the principle of multiple hypotheses in research. His 

 idea was that as many hypotheses as possible should be invented 

 and all kept in mind during the investigation. This state of 

 mind should prompt the observer to look for facts relative to 

 each and may endow otherwise trivial facts with significance. 

 However, I doubt if this method is often practicable. The 

 more usual practice is a succession of hypotheses, selecting the 

 most likely one for trial, and, if it is found wanting, passing on 

 to another. 



When Darwin came across data unfavourable to his hypothesis, 

 he made a special note of them because he knew they had a way 

 of slipping out of the memory more readily than the welcome 

 facts. 



(c) Examining ideas critically. One should not be too ready 

 to embrace a conjecture that comes into the mind; it must be 

 submitted to most careful scrutiny before being accepted even 

 as a tentative hypothesis, for once an opinion has been formed 

 it is more difficult to think of alternatives. The main danger 

 lies in the idea that seems so " obvious " that it is accepted 

 almost without question. It seemed quite reasonable, in cases of 

 cirrhosis of the liver, to rest that organ as much as possible by 

 giving a low protein diet, but recent investigations have shown 

 that this is just what should not be done, for low protein diet 

 can itself cause liver damage. The practice of resting sprained 



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