626 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Pure Science Again 



We regret to see that people are still clacking about Pure 

 Science as if it were something quite distinct from such a mean, 

 sordid, and inferior article as the rest of science — which we 

 presume they will call Impure Science. The fact is that 

 nearly all the scientific work that has ever been done in the 

 world, and certainly almost all the really successful part of it, 

 was carried out for the express purpose of obtaining useful 

 information. Those who talk loftily about pure science would 

 have us believe that it is something which is quite separate from 

 all practical objects ; and everyone has heard of a meeting 

 of " men of science " who drank the toast of Pure Science 

 with the acclamation, " May it never be of any use to anyone." 

 Probably the gentlemen who drank this toast were so enthusiastic 

 because they themselves had never done any work which was 

 of any use to anyone ; but it does not follow that those who 

 toil for the service of their fellows would be equally pleased. 

 When we examine the history of science we find that most of 

 it was undertaken for purely practical purposes. Astronomy 

 was created largely in the interests of navigation ; Geo- 

 metry, largely in the interests of architecture and agriculture ; 

 Chemistry, for the purpose of alchemy and then of innumerable 

 manufactures ; Physics, in the interests of machinery and 

 invention ; Geology, in the interests of prospecting for valuable 

 metals, coal and other kinds of deposits ; Botany, for the 

 discovery of drugs ; Zoology, for the light which it throws on 

 the anatomy, physiology, pathology, and growth of the human 

 body ; and Medicine, entirely for the purpose of preventing 

 and curing disease and maintaining the body in a perfect 

 state of health. Undoubtedly, as all these sciences have grown, 

 there have come moments to each when the true discoverer 

 has wished to detach his feet from the solid earth of utility 

 and to soar (or to sink) into more ethereal space. But it is 

 seldom that a real man of science actually starts by drawing 

 a distinction between pure and useful science. Indeed, he is 

 not generally guided by any such considerations, either on 

 the one side or on the other ; but simply pushes in wherever 

 he can see an opportunity for successful investigation, whether 

 success is likely to be immediately useful to the world or not. 

 No man who has ever done successful research imagines that 

 he can do it by attacking any single one he pleases of all the 

 immense number of problems which lie before him — only 

 unpractical persons have such ideas. The intelligence of the 

 successful investigator is proved by his choice of the subject 

 to be investigated. Nature is like an infinitely huge mountain 

 showing immense precipices directly opposed to us — precipices 

 which none but fools would attempt to climb. But every 



