FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



1. Science and the Study of Nature 



THIS volume consists of brief notes in plain language 

 on a variety of scientific matters. I speak of new 

 discoveries, real or so-called by mistake; of old well- 

 established facts and explanations of strange occurrences 

 which are more familiar to men of science than to people 

 who have not had the time and opportunity to ascertain 

 what is, and what is not proved and known about Nature 

 and her ways. I do not address my reader from the 

 professor's chair, but from an easy chair. Just as in the 

 club or my friend's smoking-room, I might talk of these 

 things, so do I propose to talk here. My hope is that 

 what I have to say will interest those who are not ex- 

 perts in science, and yet have a desire for trustworthy 

 information and opinion on the vast variety of topics 

 which come up day by day for consideration and dis- 

 cussion, and can only be explained or rightly under- 

 stood by the aid of that systematised knowledge which 

 is called science. 



Science and the scientific point of view have a very 

 wide, indeed, an unlimited range. Though the making of 

 discoveries of real importance and the full understanding 

 of the steps by which they are made involves, as a rule, 



