SCIENCE AND THE SCIENCES 



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SCIENCE AND THE SCIENCES 



tic exploration, he obtained leave of absence 

 in 1878 and undertook an expedition in search 

 of records and remains of Sir John Franklin 

 and his party. He traveled by sledge a dis- 

 tance of almost 3,000 miles, and explored care- 

 fully the northern coast of America in the re- 

 gion where Franklin had been, and a part of 

 King William Land. His search was rewarded 

 by the discovery of graves, skeletons and valu- 

 able buried records. This was the last expedi- 

 tion sent out to look for traces of Franklin. 

 Later Schwatka headed other exploring parties, 

 in Alaska and in Mexico, and received honors 

 from various scientific societies. He resigned 

 his commission in the army in 1885. His pub- 

 lished works include Along Alaska's Great River, 

 Nimrod in the North and Children of the Cold. 

 See POLAR EXPLORATION. 



SCIENCE AND THE SCIENCES. The 

 question "Why?" has probably been asked 

 more times in the history of the world than 

 any other. It is the favorite question of chil- 

 dren, and as even the wisest of men are but 

 children in knowledge, it has been the con- 

 stant query of mankind since it was first ut- 

 tered. The answers which men have found, 

 the organized knowledge they have acquired 

 by observation and reasoning, make up what 

 we call the sciences. The word science, stand- 

 ing alone, means merely knowledge; it comes 

 from the Latin word scio, to know. 



The truly scientific student never jumps to 

 a conclusion. No matter how logical an ex- 

 planation appears, or how plausible a state- 

 ment may be, he must treat it as a hypothesis, 

 or supposition, until it is proved beyond doubt. 

 He works from his knowledge of the universal 

 law of cause and effect, which tells him that 

 any set of circumstances always produces the 

 same results, and that in nature there are no 

 exceptions to a rule. A good example of the 

 scientific attitude is the story of the discovery 

 of the planet Neptune, told in the article 

 ASTRONOMY. 



The Sciences. In ancient times, and even 

 during the Middle Ages, there was little at- 

 tempt to differentiate between the sciences, for 

 scientific knowledge was limited. A distinc- 

 tion was drawn between the theoretical and the 

 practical sciences, but that was in effect merely 

 a distinction between what would to-day be 

 called philosophy and science proper. Until 

 modern times the general term natural history 

 was in common use to describe the study of 

 all life, whether plant or animal; while natural 

 philosophy, or physics included the study of 



all inorganic phenomena. As scientific knowl- 

 edge increased, however, a more and more close 

 classification became necessary. To-day the 

 sciences are divided and subdivided, and a 

 student often specializes in but a subdivision 

 of a science, while possessing but a general 

 knowledge of the entire broader subject. 



Thus the sciences named in the following 

 list are not all coordinate in value; ethnology 

 and ethnography, for instance, are branches of 

 anthropology, while botany and zoology are 

 divisions of biology. All, however, have the 

 right to be considered as sciences, and all are 

 treated under their proper headings in these 

 volumes : 

 Algebra 

 Anatomy 

 Anthropology 

 Archaeology 

 Arithmetic 

 Astronomy 

 Biology 

 Botany 

 Chemistry 

 Economics 

 Ethnography 

 Ethnology 

 Eugenics 

 Geodesy 

 Geography 

 Geology 



Geometry 



Mathematics 



Meteorology 



Minerals and Mineralogy 



Numismatics 



Oceanography 



Paleontology 



Philology 



Philosophy 



Phonetics 



Physics 



Physiology 



Psychology 



Sanitary Science 



Sociology 



Zoology 



Under many of the articles above are given 

 lists of scientists; thus the distinguished chem- 

 ists whose biographies appear in these volumes 

 are listed under CHEMISTRY, the geologists un- 

 der GEOLOGY, and so on. Certain scientists, 

 however, who cannot be thus classified, are 

 indexed here: 



Finsen, Niels Ryberg 

 Galton, Sir Francis 

 Henry, Joseph 

 Kelvin, Baron 



Langley, Samuel P. 

 Loeb, Jacques 

 Metchnikoff, Elie 

 Tyndall, John 



C.H.H. 



Consult Pearson's Grammar of Science. 



Pseudo-Sciences. This term is useful to de- 

 scribe the several pursuits which in one view 

 constitute the antecedents of modern science, 

 and in another show the survival of outgr.own 

 habits of thought and the persistence of the 

 cruder products of inquiry. These beliefs and 

 practices form a significant part of the history 

 of thought and of the struggle of men to guide 

 conduct by knowledge. The pseudo-sciences 

 arose as ambitious attempts to explain the 

 world of things and events and the unseen 

 world of spirits and forces patterned upon the 

 fears and desires of men. They proceed from 

 rather vague notions to systematic conceptions ; 

 their logic is weak and involves a confusion of 



