18 TEXTBOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



Science and the Scientific Method 



"Trained and organized common sense" was the definition of 

 science given by Thomas H. Huxley, an eminent English biologist 

 who lived from 1825 to 1895. That was his way of saying that 

 scientific knowledge is simply an extension and organization of the 

 knowledge based upon common observation and experiment con- 

 cerning the facts of nature. Facts are indispensable building stones 

 of science. Facts must be gleaned from careful observations and 

 experiments which have been rigidly checked and will yield identi- 

 cal results with frequent repetition and by numerous observers. 

 Science lays its foundation on accurate observations and depends 

 on the ability of the senses to reveal the truth. Established facts 

 rei^resent truth, and the scientist respects truth while to him tradi- 

 tion or mere opinion counts for little as such. 



There is nothing mysterious in the scientific method, although the 

 steps are often tedious and much involved. The method is sim- 

 plicity itself; to observe, to identify by comparison, to experiment, 

 to coordinate, to deduce, to conclude. The scientist is not a ma- 

 gician Avho can draw his conclusions from thin air as Thurston 

 seemed to produce almost anything imaginable. Complete and ac- 

 curate observations of the objects or phenomena under investigation 

 followed by honest interpretation, are the aims of the scientist. 

 Our powers of observation have been increased by the develop- 

 ment of the microscope and many other instruments. Experiments 

 are devised to bring to light the features not readily revealed by 

 direct observation. 



After the facts are thus established, the qualities of the thing ob- 

 served are compared and the essential or fundamental ones are 

 separated from the nonessential. This requires accurate logic and 

 keen judgment. 



These fundamental facts are then classified with respect to pre- 

 viously established facts, and, on the basis of the relationships of 

 qualities, deduction may be made of the principles involved. 



It is by this systematic method of investigation that science has 

 been established. An idea, as it first develops from preliminary 

 observation and experiment, is known as a hypothesis. When the 

 conclusions have been further verified by repeated examination, ob- 

 servation, and experimentation, the hypothesis becomes a theory. 



