November i, 19 17] 



NATURE 



177 



within it the germ from which is to develop an influ- 

 ence capable of tincturing the whole fabric of a 

 nation's existence. A moving pebble may start an 

 avalanche. . . . 



Moreover, the history of scientific discoveries serves 

 to remind us of those complex factors underlying our 

 daily life and the research, remote or recent, from 

 which they have originated. The detailed processes of 

 every day are so familiar that few spare the time to 

 remember that upon scientific discovery depend all the 

 contrivances and appliances which make modern life 

 what it is. Indeed, one is tempted to pen the paradox 

 that it is of the most familiar we have least knowledge. 

 In contemplating the lordly oak, or in enjoying its 

 shade, we forget its origin ; and, assuredly, the timber 

 merchant wastes no thought on the acorn. 



An interesting chapter in the history of science 

 could be written on the opposition against which dis- 

 coveries of fundamental importance and ultimate great 

 commercial value have had to fight for general ap- 

 proval and acceptance. Galileo's telescope, the Dar- 

 winian hypothesis, the clinical thermometer, anaesthe- 

 tics, and a host of other revolutionising introductions 

 have been opposed with a greater or less degree of 

 acerbity. In the light of its modern development, it 

 is scarcely conceivable that the electric telegraph was 

 neglected for years until its possibilities were fore- 

 shadowed in a dramatic fashion in connection with the 

 arrest of a murderer. On the introduction of the elec- 

 tric telegraph the "practical man" would have none 

 of it, and yet in the short space of about half a 

 century the telegraph, and its young relative the tele- 

 phone, have completely revolutionised everyday com- 

 mercial and national life. However great their value 

 may be in times of peace, in time of war it is infinitely 

 greater. Regard for a moment the influence exerted 

 by the wireless form of telegraphy on 



This precious stone set in the silver sea, 

 Which serves it in the office of a wall, 



and something of the power of applied science, the 

 offspring of pure science, becomes apparent. No text 

 could better serve for a thesis on the small and 

 neglected scientific beginnings of great things. 



Search for the reason for resistance to new ideas and 

 new speculations is not without interest to the biologist 

 and sociologist. The first reason which suggests itself 

 is that matter-of-fact, rule-of-thumb people are always 

 in the majority, and, ■ therefore, anything out of the 

 ordinary is bound to meet with opposition in excess 

 of approval. Or we might agree with George Eliot 

 in saying that the ' practical mind and the narrow 

 imagination go together, and with H. G. Wells in 

 asserting that few have been accustomed to respond to 

 the call of a creative imagination. There are few — 

 and these not men of action — who are capable of look- 

 ing forward into the future. We might* also point to 

 the fact that the pursuit of knowledge does not follow 

 a straight line. It zigzags hither and thither, fre- 

 quently halts, and indeed often has to hark back. 

 Such erratic progress cannot make a very urgent appeal 

 to the practical mind. 



But these explanations are probably not entirely just 

 to that necessary member of the' community, the 

 "practical man." It must aKvays be remembered that 

 only those of the future shall see the present — see it 

 steadily and see it whole. The ultimate goal of a 

 scientific discovery is hidden from those who were 

 present at its birth. Moreover, a truth new-wrested 

 from Nature seldom carries with it an indication of 

 future possibilities. In most cases, and especially if it 

 is a germinal truth, it possesses few attractive fea- 

 tures to the eye of him who seeks for signs of 

 future utility. "Truth new-born looks a mis-shapen 

 and untimelv birth." 



NO. 2505, VOL. 100] 



I In all probability what the sociologist has come to 

 call the 'herd instinct" is an important factor in 

 producing resistance to the reception of the new and 

 unusual. The " herd instinct " may be briefly explained 

 as follows : — Man being a gregarious animal and lead- 

 ing the communal life, it is essential that his actions 

 should be co-operative. The homogeneity necessary 

 for co-operative action results from an inherent im- 

 pulse on the part of each individual to think and act 

 in conformity with the thought and action of his fel- 

 lows. There seems good reason for concluding that 

 homogeneity is the result of natural selection. There 

 appears to have been an accumulation of experiences 

 which, unconsciously so far as the individual is con- 

 cerned, have demonstrated the necessity for following 

 custom if the safety of the community, or herd, is to 

 be ensured. 



Admitting the operation of the "herd instinct," it is 

 not dilBcult to appreciate the reason of that opposition 

 to innovation which is so well and so frequently illus- 

 trated in the history of scientific discovery. For our 

 present purpose, however, it is not so much necessary 

 to explain the cause of opposition as to recognise its 

 reality. Realisation of its occurrence and effect in the 

 past renders more easily borne its encounter in the 

 present. 



No department of science contains more mysteries 

 for the layman than does electricity. And no depart- 

 ment of physical science contains more striking 

 examples of pure academic research paving the way 

 for the introduction of enormously important instru- 

 ments of applied science. 



The discovery of the deflection of a magnet by the 

 passage of an electric current along a wire in its 

 vicinity — a discovery which, as Faraday expressed it, 

 "burst open the gates of a domain in science, dark 

 till now, and filled it with a flood of light" — could not 

 have been made had not Volta devised the means 

 whereby a constant and steady current could be pro- 

 duced. Nor, without the same means, could Francois 

 Arago have discovered that a bar of iron becomes a 

 magnet when surrounded by a coil of wire through 

 which an electric current is flowing. 



If Volta 's investigations made possible research 

 capable of revealing the industrial applicability of elec- 

 tricity, it may be claimed that Volta, in his turn, was 

 indebted to the old frictional machine for a basis upon 

 which to found his inquiries. Tracing the chain of 

 research still farther back, all the earlier discoveries 

 depended upon an observation made by William Gil- 

 bert, of Colchester, one of the lesser sons of the 

 Renaissance. If it is true to say that none of these 

 inquiries was made in the utilitarian spirit, it is 

 equally true to assert that Faraday's discovery of 

 electro-magnetic induction was the product of research 

 undertaken from purely academic motives. When 

 Faraday's sacrifices to science are remembered, it is 

 not difficult to realise that his work was not stimu- 

 lated by a desire for personal profit. That mankind 

 in general has profited, and that the wealth of nations 

 has been augmented, are abundantly evident. 



VVhen Sir Anthony Carlisle and Mr. Nicholson made 

 their extemporised Voltaic pile, and observed the de- 

 composition of water by the current produced, they 

 could not possibly have foreseen that by their specula- 

 tive laboratory experiments they were laying the foun- 

 dation of those enormous commercial industries which 

 depend upon electrolysis. Much less is it conceivable 

 that an enthusiastic youth of eighteen, endeavouring 

 to make artificial quinine by the oxidation of aniline, 

 could have foreseen that his accidental discovery would 

 lead to the utilisation of what was formerly a whollv 

 disagreeable nuisance in the shape of coal-tar, an<i 

 thereby form the germ of the now more than ever 

 famous aniline dyes industry. 



