196 



NATURE 



[May 9, 1918 



each of them presents all gradations ranging from 

 harmless mental incapacity up to aggressive pseudo- 

 science, which latter often wins popular approval and 

 thus eclipses the demonstrations of saner counsels. 

 The representatives of these types are variously dis- 

 tinguished in common parlance as cranks, quacks, 

 aliens, charlatans, mountebanks, etc. Some of the 

 most persistent types are known as arc-trisectors, 

 circle-squarers, and perpetual-motion men and women. 

 They are not of recent development; they are co- 

 extensive with our race; but they have been little 

 studied except in the cases of extreme divergence 

 from the normal. 



It ought to be well known, but evidently is not, 

 that the institution has had to deal with, and must 

 continue to be harassed by, great numbers of these 

 aberrant types. The happv phrase of the founder 

 concerning the "exceptional man" has worked out 

 very unhappily both for them and for the institution, 

 since it has only inevitable disappointment to meet 

 their importunate demands, while they in turn have 

 only inevitable animadversion to visit finally upon 

 the institution. Deluded enthusiasts and designing 

 charlatans entertain alike the illusion that here at 

 last is an establishment that will enable them to 

 realise their wildest dreams of fame and fortune. But 

 in the end the hopes of these people are either rudely 

 shocked or wrecked, not because the institution would 

 disturb them in their fancies, but because they compel 

 the institution to decline to approve their theories and 

 to subsidise their projects. Two illustrations drawn 

 from the older and hence more impersonal sciences 

 may suffice to indicate the nature of the daily ex- 

 perience here in question : — 



(i) A teacher of youth in a public school desires 

 assistance in securing letters-patent for a new proof 

 of the Pythagorean theorem. And why not, since 

 we read every day in the public Press and in the 

 debates of legislative bodies of "principles" being 

 patented ? 



(2) Quite recently dt has been "discovered" that the 

 air and the aether contain " free energy." If this is 

 so, if energy, like urbanity, is free, why should it not 

 be render^ available at the expense of the institu- 

 tion for the improvement of mankind? 



Study and reflection concerning these aberrant types 

 and an intimate association with them beginning 

 thirty years before the foundation of the institution 

 all point to the conclusion that responsibility for their 

 undue prominence must be attributed in large degree 

 and in the last analysis to a prevalent inadequate 

 development of critical capacity even amongst the 

 best educated classes of contemporary life. Many 

 representatives of these latter regard the eccentric 

 individual as thereby worthy of spvecial attention. He 

 is often referred to as a sprite or as a male witch, 

 but commonly, of course, under the more familiar 

 designations of our day as "a genius" or as "a 

 wizard." Thus it is quite easy for obvious charlatans 

 and ignoramuses, as well as for those in pursuit of 

 Sisvohean paralogisms and anachronisms, to secure 

 letters of introduction and commendation to the in- 

 stitution from distinguished people, who pass the 

 applicants along on the theory apparently that no harm 

 can result from an effort to assist in the laudable 

 work of extending learning. It is assumed that a 

 research establishment must have effective facilities 

 for utilising the necromantic capacities attributed to 

 those in particular to whom the terms " genius " and 

 " wizard " are by common consent applied. Such intro- 

 ductions and commendations are generally held to be 

 equivalent to approvals which may not be lightly set 

 aside. The suggestion of tests of the pretensions 

 and of checks on the deductions of these applicants 



NO. 2532, VOL. lOl] 



is repulsive to them. What they desire is not diag- 

 nosis, but endorsement. 



In dealing with these aberrant types there are en- 

 countered certain other fallacies of a more specious, 

 and hence of a more troublesome, character. They 

 arise out of the prevailing innocence of, if not con- 

 tempt for, the doctrine of probabilities. The simplest 

 of these fallacies is seen in the common belief that 

 one mind is as likely as another to make discoveries 

 and advances in the realms of the unknown. Thus 

 it is assumed that research establishments should 

 maintain exp>erts, or corps of them, for the purpose of 

 prornoting the efforts of tyros, amateurs, and dilet- 

 tanti, or, in other words, perform the functions of 

 elementary schools. A subtler fallacy is expressed 

 in the more common belief that a research organisa- 

 tion should occupy itself chiefly in soliciting and in 

 examining miscellaneous suggestions. It is held that 

 if these are received in large numbers and if they are 

 read long enough and hard enough, the possibilities 

 of knowledge will be completely compassed. The 

 worst of all these fallacies is found in the not un- 

 popular notion that if experts could be set at work 

 under the direction of inexperts great progress could 

 be achieved. This is the fallacy so often used to 

 justify placing technical work under the administra- 

 tion of politicians and promoters rather than under the 

 charge of competent men. It finds frequent expres- 

 sion also in suggestions to the institution that its 

 corps of investigators might avoid the dangers of 

 "respectable mediocrity" bv yielding to the requests 

 of the less conservative and more brilliant advocates 

 of advancing knowledge. 



But what, it may be asked, are the characteristics 

 which differentiate these pseudo-men of science from 

 normal investigators? They are well defined and not 

 numerous. The pseudo-man of science is in general ex- 

 cessively egoistic, secretive, averse to criticism, and 

 almost always unaware of the works of his predecessors 

 and contemporaries in the same field. He displays little 

 of that caution which is born of adequate knowledge. 

 He is lacking especially in capacity to discover and 

 to correct his own mistakes. He is for ever challeng- 

 'ing others to find errors in his work. He has an 

 overweening confidence often in formal logic, but is 

 unable to see that this useful device may plav tricks 

 by bringing him, for example, simultaneously to 

 right and to wrong conclusions by reason of wrong 

 premises. His worst defect is manifested in asking 

 for, and in expecting to get, more lenient considera- 

 tion in the forum of demonstration than that accorded 

 to his more modest but more effective competitors. 



How inadequate are the hasty popular estimates of 

 these exceptional individuals is sufficiently witnessed 

 in the extensive experience of the institution. In the 

 brief interval of its existence it has had to deal with 

 about 12,000 of them. Many of these have been 

 commended to the institution in terms well calculated 

 to set aside the laws of biologic continuity and thus 

 to elevate the aspirants abruptly from irreproachable 

 resp>ectability to questionable fame. To some of them 

 have been attributed qualities worthy of the mytho- 

 logical characteristics conceived by the unrestrained 

 imaginations of men in pre-scientific times. Not a few 

 of them have proved to be obvious fakers, schemers, 

 or incompvetents masquerading in the name of learning 

 with the confident expectation that the institution 

 would endorse, finance, or otherwise promote their 

 objects under the guise of research. But, as might 

 have been predicted, the history of all this varied 

 experience is a history of futility clouded here and 

 there bv manifestations of the baser traits of mankind 

 and lighted up only occasionally by flashes of wit, 

 wisdom, or humour in the prevailing pathologic cast. 



