NA TURE 



2«5 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1879 



THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY 

 The Art of Scientific Discovery^ or the General Conditions 

 and Methods of Research in Physics and Chemistry. 

 By G. Gore. LL.D., F.R.S. (London : Longmans, 

 Green and Co., 1878.) 



IT is not easy to say when scientific research, using 

 the expression in its strictest sense, was first com- 

 menced. M. Libri remarks : " Les recherche s des 

 Pythagoriciens sur les vibrations des corps, sont les plus 

 anciennes experiences de physique qui soient parvenues 

 jusqu'k nous." Archimedes must certainly be credited 

 with some knowledge of research ; and to a lesser extent 

 Ptolemy the astronomer, and Hero, of Alexandria. But, 

 as a matter of fact, experimental researches in physics 

 were not made before the epoch of Galileo, nor in 

 chemistry before the epoch of Lavoisier. The discovery 

 of new methods of mathematical analysis on the one 

 hand, and the invention of instruments of precision on 

 the other, were necessary forerunners of the development 

 of research. Moreover, the advocacy of the abandon- 

 ment of that blind reverence for authority which had 

 retarded the progress of the sciences for many centuries, 

 tended in the same direction. In this respect, whatever 

 we may say of Campanella, Nizolius, Telesius, and 

 others, our own Francis Bacon did more true service than 

 any of his predecessors ; and we must always regard his 

 writings as the most potent engine concerned in the over- 

 throw of Aristotelianism, Scholasticism, and the method 

 of pure logic, and in the substitution of the experimental 

 method blended with just logical induction and deduction. 



Mr. Gore, whose own. devotion to experimental research 

 well entitles him to act as an interpreter of the art of 

 scientific discovery, has in the course of sixty chapters of 

 condensed matter discussed the various lines of thought 

 and of action which converge towards that bright central 

 focus in which new truths lie hidden. His object has 

 been to describe the nature, the methods, and the condi- 

 tions of success of original scientific research ; to point 

 out the causes of failure, the mental and manual discipline 

 by which they may be overcome ; and the special modus 

 of thought by which we may hope to ascend from the 

 known to the unkno^vn. 



With this object in view he has divided the work into 

 five parts, the first, of which contains a general view of the 

 subject : — the nature of scientific ideas, terms, and be- 

 liefs, the criteria of scientific truth, and the great prin- 

 ciples of science. In the second part he has discussed 

 the general conditions of scientific research : — the starting 

 points, chronological order of discovery, importance of 

 qualitative knowledge, and necessity of classification. 

 The third part is devoted to the personal preparation for 

 research ; the fourth to the actual working in original re- 

 search ; and the fifth to special methods of discovery. 

 This latter is divided into ten parts, which treat respec- 

 tively of discovery : — 



1. By extending undeveloped or neglected parts of 

 science. 



2. By the use of new or improved instruments. 



3. By the investigation of likely circtmistances. 



Vol. XIX.— No. 483 



4. By devising hypotheses and questions, and testing 

 them. 



5. By means of new experiments and methods of 

 working. 



6. By means of additional, new, or improved observa- 

 tions. 



7. By classifying and comparing known truths. 



8. By means of study and inference. 



9. By means of new or improved methods of intellectual 

 operation. 



10. By means of calculations based upon known truths. 

 In the discussion of these subjects, the history of 



various scientific discoveries is traced, and we are not 

 only brought into contact with the investigator's particu- 

 lar train of thought throughout all the steps which led up 

 to the discovery, but we are often taken into the minuter 

 labyrinths and shown the many collateral ideas which 

 were evoked during the course of the research. The in- 

 fluence of previous discoveries upon the main subject at 

 issue is also developed, so that we gain important infor- 

 mation regarding the history of the sciences, while at the 

 same time we are becoming acquainted with the art of 

 original research. 



In that portion of the work which relates to method, 

 we are not surprised to find that the author has often 

 quoted Lord Bacon. In fact, Mr. Gore's style is some- 

 times thoroughly Baconian. So penetrated is he by the 

 spirit of the " Novum Organum,'' that he sometimes un- 

 consciously embodies its aphorisms with his OAvn ; for 

 example, when he says : " Science is the interpretation 

 of nature, and man is the interpreter. Original research 

 is the chief source of new scientific knowledge." His 

 work may almost be called a nineteenth century continu- 

 ation of the second book of the "Novum Organum" — a 

 sort of newest organum. He also quotes pretty frequently 

 the "History of the Inductive Sciences," and sometimes 

 the "Novum Organum Renovatiun," with which the 

 "Art of Scientific Discovery" has many points of con- 

 tact. We are surprised to find Descartes so rarely 

 aUuded to, albeit portions of the work relating to Method 

 are thoroughly Cartesian in spirit. Here, for example, is 

 an excerpt from the Reguice ad Directionem Ingenii, 

 which we recommend to Mr. Gore's notice for the second 

 edition : — '' By method I imderstand rules certain and 

 easy, such as to prevent any one, who shall have accu- 

 rately obser\'ed them, from ever assuming what is false 

 for what is true, and by which with no effort of mind 

 uselessly consumed, but always by degrees increasing 

 science, a person will arrive at a true knowledge of all 

 those things which he will be capable of knowing." Also 

 we commend to his notice the answer to Quid sit Cogitatio 

 (" Principia," Pars i, ix.) ; and to. that very notable 

 assertion (" Principia," Pars 2, xxiii.), Omtieni ntaterice 

 variationejn, sive ovincnt ejus formariini diversitatem 

 pendere h tnotu. 



Early in the work Mr. Gore points out a fact which we 

 too seldom recognise. " Original research," he writes, " is 

 not a science ; it is not a collection of laws. It is an art, 

 because it is composed of rules which must be followed. 

 It is the method of finding new truths by means of study, 

 observation, travel, or other means." Now although we 

 think that an investigator must be born and cannot be 

 made, and that no one can^frame bis methods upon hard 



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