240 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



a deduction from conic sections. As Laplace 

 said, "Without the speculations of the Greeks on 

 the curves formed from the section of a cone by 

 a plane, these beautiful laws might have been 

 still unknown." Yet the historical fact is that 

 these conic sections were studied as an abstract 

 science for eighteen centuries before they came to 

 be of their highest use. 



Those who doubt the value of "theoretical 

 researches" should study Pasteur's life and ob- 

 serve how his services to mankind were based on 

 inquiries which seemed at first sight remote from 

 human application. It is true that Pasteur may 

 be interpreted as the master-peasant, and the 

 tanner's son (see Evolution, p. 224), but this 

 need not keep us from recognizing that his re- 

 searches form an intellectual chain, the first link 

 of which was a study of the crystalline forms of 

 tartrates. Thus, justly, the list of his achieve- 

 ments, recorded around his tomb, begins with 

 "Molecular dissymmetry, 1848," an almost dia- 

 grammatically theoretical beginning for a series 

 of researches which have had such a deep and 

 extensive influence on the life of Man. 



The twitching of the legs of Galvani's frogs 

 was studied as a theoretical curiosity; who 

 could have foretold that it pointed to telegraphy? 

 It was not for practical purposes that William 

 Smith plodded afoot over England, neither rest- 



