274 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



of the Roman emperors, Marcus Aurelius, is said to have remarked 

 that "Every man is worth just so much as the things are worth to 

 which he devotes his earnest efforts." It might be somewhat dis- 

 quieting to many of us if we should measure ourselves by that 

 principle. 



More than three centuries ago Sir Francis Bacon urged the appli- 

 cation of the scientific method, as he then conceived it, to human 

 affairs and problems in general, but we are still far short of having 

 adopted his advice, although all our experience since his day confirms 

 its value. 



The greatest progress has been made thus far in the physical 

 sciences and scarcely less in the biological. The scientific method 

 and attitude of mind also pervade to a very large degree the related 

 professions of engineering and medicine. Engineering and inven- 

 tion, based in increasing measure upon science and pursued largely in 

 the scientific spirit, have given us nearly all our modern transport 

 and communication facilities, our great water control and power de- 

 vices, our vast numbers of useful and convenient new materials such 

 as rayon, plastics, alloy metals, and other benefits too well known 

 and too numerous to mention. But for the application of medical 

 science we should be decimated not only by typhoid, tuberculosis, 

 and smallpox, but also by yellow fever, cholera, and even the plague. 

 Were it not for the deficiency of science in politics, statecraft, and 

 ethics we might not find ourselves today threatened by the plague 

 of military despotism, wliich is more deadly in its modern form 

 than any pestilence. We have used the scientific method in engineer- 

 ing and medicine for a century and have found it good — far more 

 effective than the old ways of speculation or of trial-and-error. In 

 spite of the difficulties involved, why not then extend it to other 

 fields ? Is there any reason to suppose it will not bring great improve- 

 ment there also ? 



In such fields of study as economics and sociology, the complex 

 and fluid nature of the basic data that must be used and the influence 

 of human prejudice, which closely touches these subjects, have greatly 

 impeded their emergence from speculative philosophy and their rise 

 toward the scientific level. In addition they need a more general 

 adoption of the scientific attitude and method. Why not apply these 

 to human affairs, subdue the emotional considerations, and brush 

 away the cherished errors of the past? Then we should be able to 

 move more rapidly toward a real understanding of principles, for we 

 are justified in believing that such principles do exist. 



In ethics, which is in some respects the most important of all 

 subjects of human inquiry, we have made no great progess beyond 

 the Greeks of Aristotle's day; and most of them were, except in 



