ADDRESS BEFORE THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 563 



reflections on the meaning of what he had observed, without which the 

 complicated movements of the heart could not have been analyzed, their 

 significance determined and the circulation of the blood in a continu- 

 ous stream definitely established. Early in the present century, Carl 

 Ernst von Baer, the father of embryological research, showed the im- 

 portance which he attached to the combination of observation with 

 meditation by placing side by side on the title page of his famous 

 treatise 'Ueber Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere' (1828) the words 

 Beobachtung und Reflexion. 



Though I have drawn from biological science my illustrations of the 

 need of this combination, it must not be inferred that it applies exclu- 

 sively to one branch of scientific inquiry; the conjunction influences and 

 determines progress in all the sciences, and when associated with a 

 sufficient touch of imagination, when the power of seeing is conjoined 

 with the faculty of foreseeing, of projecting the mind into the future, 

 we may expect something more than the discovery of isolated facts; 

 their coordination and the enunciation of new principles and laws will 

 necessarily follow. 



Scientific method consists, therefore, in close observation, frequently 

 repeated so as to eliminate the possibility of erroneous seeing; in experi- 

 ments checked and controlled in every direction in which fallacies might 

 arise; in continuous reflection on the appearances and phenomena ob- 

 served, and in logically reasoning out their meaning and the conclu- 

 sions to be drawn from them. Were the method followed out in its 

 integrity by all who are engaged in scientific investigations, the time 

 and labor expended in correcting errors committed by ourselves or by 

 other observers and experimentalists would be saved, and the volumes 

 devoted annually to scientific literature would be materially diminished 

 in size. Were it applied, as far as the conditions of life admit, to the 

 conduct and management of human affairs, we should not require to be 

 told, when critical periods in our welfare as a nation arise, that we shall 

 muddle through somehow. Eecent experience has taught us that wise 

 discretion and careful provision are as necessary in the direction of pub- 

 lic affairs as in the pursuit of science, and in both instances, when 

 properly exercised, they enable us to reach with comparative certainty 

 the goal which we strive to attain. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OF OBSERVATION. 



While certain principles of research are common to all the sciences, 

 each great division requires for its investigation specialized arrange- 

 ments to insure its progress. Nothing contributes so much to the ad- 

 vancement of knowledge as improvements in the means of observation, 

 either by the discovery of new adjuncts to research, or by a fresh adap- 

 tation of old methods. In the industrial arts, the introduction of a new 



