5] Introduction. 197 



experiments merely serve the purpose of intrenching peo- 

 ple more firmly in error, and hence experience ceases to 

 be the best teacher for them. When an experiment fails, 

 it is not Nature's fault, but that of the experimenter, and 

 it ought not to be respectable for him to palliate his short- 

 comings by saying that he had bad "luck." The experi- 

 menter should know no such thing as " luck." Chance 

 has long since been banished as an ancient myth. 



Illustrations might be drawn from every phase of life to 

 show the importance of careful experimenting. For exam- 

 ple, doctors, nurses, and teachers of hygiene cannot take 

 the responsibility of caring for the health of the citizen, 

 he must learn to do it for himself, and yet so long as he 

 remains a slip-shod experimenter he will learn nothing 

 reliable. 



2. Careful observing. Careless observing will of course 

 go hand in hand with careless experimenting. But, should 

 the citizen become ever so careful an experimenter, his 

 conclusions would be worthless if his observations were 

 careless. In cases where he is not observing artificial 

 experiments but the phenomena of Nature, the accuracy 

 of the results all depend upon careful observing. If people 

 would acquire those habits of careful observing which are 

 sure to grow out of that kind of training which Mr. Bar- 

 nard has ably conducted for several years in the Chautau- 

 qua Field Club, a thousand heresies now current in the 

 world with regard to the doings of Nature would forthwith 

 be uprooted. 



People are prone to mingle wild conjectures and hasty 

 inferences with their observations in such a confused man- 

 ner as to be almost hopeless. They have not the habit of 

 confining themselves to what they actually observe, but 

 imagination is used to supplement, to a very large degree, 

 the use of their five senses. Hence people, who have a 

 sincere desire to tell the truth, sometimes make sorry work 

 of it, even when testifying under oath in court, and the 



