APPLETONS' 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



DECEMBER, 1899. 



EXACT METHODS IX SOCIOLOGY. 



By franklin' H. GIDDINGS, Ph. D., 

 peofessob of sociology in columbia university. 



THOSE who do pioneer work in science encounter not only 

 tlie inherent difficulties of research and interpretation, but 

 also the misapprehension of certain educated men whose distinc- 

 tive gift is a fatal genius for applying false standards of measure- 

 ment to the progress of thought. Seizing upon some branch of 

 knowledge that is in a state of vigorous development, when its 

 newer results are out of harmony with its earlier hypotheses, such 

 critics love to point out these contradictions, and try to prove that 

 the branch in question is no science at all, and that its teachers 

 are hardly worthy of respectful consideration. 



The history of science contains many interesting chapters per- 

 taining to this kind of criticism and the fate that has invariably 

 overtaken it. "When Copernicus and Galileo showed the absurd- 

 ity of the Ptolemaic astronomy, the theologians enjoyed themselves 

 for a time, as they demonstrated — to their own entire satisfaction — ■ 

 the folly of all rationalistic attempts to explain what revelation 

 only could make clear. When Darwin explained the origin of 

 species through variation and natural selection, the pretensions of 

 biology were completely exploded by its lay and clerical critics 

 (they thought and said so) by the extremely simple device of the 

 " deadly parallel column," Was not Cuvier a great anatomist, 

 and had he ever taught this nonsense about the mutability of spe- 

 cies? Was not Agassiz the most learned naturalist alive, and what 

 had he to say about Darwinian vagaries? Had he not proved, 

 over and over again, that the very concept of the species was the 



TOL. LTI. — 12 



