December 13, 1917] 



NATURE 



295 



tu human affairs quite an undue importance, and also 

 with the authority of Aristotle, which had become an 

 article of faith and defied all new ideas. By the end 

 uf the sixteenth century experimental science, as op- 

 posed to the barren sf>eculations of the schoolmen, was 

 .ij^ain being practised in Europe with noteworthy re- 

 sults, while, a little later, Francis Bacon published 

 his famous •' Novum Organon," and thus became the 

 apostle of the revival of this experimental method of 

 attacking scientific problems. On this method, which 

 liad been practically abandoned for some hundreds of 

 \ ears, all modern science is based, and as soon as its 

 practice recommenced results of the highest importance 

 began rapidly to accumulate. How a dread of the 

 tentacles of '" authority " still lingered in scientific cir- 

 cles is, however, to be seen in the fact that when the 

 Royal Society was founded in 1662 the fellows took 

 for their motto the words, "Nullius in Verba," an 

 excerpt from a line in Horace which reads, " Not 

 ]3ledged to swear by the words of any master." To-day 

 it is" difficult to realise what a hold authority had come 

 10 have on even scientific ideas, and how, even as late 

 as the seventeenth century, antiquated and frequently 

 unsound scientific principles, as enunciated in the writ- 

 ings of Aristotle, were still regarded as something that 

 Irad to be faced when dealing with new problems. 

 And now we have arrived at a period when there 

 •mmenced those organised efforts in scientific inves- 

 ::4ation, and those widespread and continuous en- 

 '■avours to apply the results thus obtained to practical 

 ids, that have produced during the last two centuries 

 -uch marked effects on civilisation. We have now, in 

 fact, a better opportunity than ever before of seeing 

 what are the functions of science. 



To arrive at some measure of the vast changes that 

 have been brought about, let us consider how matters 

 stood about a hundred and sixty years ago, say in 1754, 

 the year in which our Society of Arts was founded. 

 At that date the steam-engine had not yet assumed 

 a practical form, and apart from some small use of 

 water and wind power, when mechanical work had to 

 be done this was accomplished by the aid of the 

 muscular effort of men and animals. The question 

 of power supply was, in fact, in the same condition 

 that had existed for thousands of years, and, in conse- 

 quence, the employment of machinery of all descrip- 

 tions that required power to drive it was extremely 

 limited. Nor as regards travel for persons, or transit 

 for goods, were things very different. The steamship 

 was unthought of, and ocean journeying was no faster, 

 and but little more certain, than in the days of Colum- 

 bus. Railways in the modern sense were non-existent, 

 and even the coaching era had scarcely begun. Travel- 

 ling of all sorts was no more rapid or more convenient 

 than in the days of the Romans. Indeed, emperors 

 such as Hadrian and Severus, who visited this country 

 in late classical times, probably made the journey to 

 and from Rome quite as expeditiously, and very likely 

 even much more comfortably, than did any traveller 

 of the eighteenth century. Furthermore, at the time 

 of which I speak, the communication of intelligence 

 was limited to the speed at which postmen could travel, 

 for, of course, there were no electric telegraphs, such 

 as have shortened the time of communication with the 

 ends of the earth to a few seconds, and have reduced 

 even ambassadors to the status of clerks at the hourly 

 beck and call of the Home Government. In the 

 eighteenth century, moreover, illuminating gas and 

 electric light had still to be invented, public lighting 

 was practically non-existent, and even in London and 

 other large cities linkmen with torches were required 

 to light the passenger to his home after dark. If 

 printing was in use it was slow and expensive, without 

 any of the modern mechanical, photographic, and other 

 adjuncts that have rendered possible our numerous 



NO. 251 1, VOL. 100] 



newspapers and the other derivatives of the press. 

 Nor were there any proper systems either for water 

 supply or for the disposal of sewage. Disease, born 

 of tilth and neglect, stalked through me land practically 

 unchecked. Medicine was still almost entirely empiric. 

 Little or nothing was known of the causes and nature 

 of illness, of infection by bacilli, or of treatment by 

 inoculation. Anaesthetics had not yet been applied, 

 and the marvels of modern surgery were undreamt of. 

 It would be easy to multiply instances, but in the 

 aggregate it is not inaccurate to state that at the time 

 this society was founded the general mode of life had 

 not much improved on what obtained in civilised 

 Europe in the days of the Antonines, while, in some 

 respects, it fell much short of this. 



'I'o-day we live altogether in a different world, in an 

 age of travel accelerated by steam, petrol, and elec- 

 tricity; of railways on the level, overhead, and in 

 tubes ; of trams and motor omnibuses, of bicycles and 

 motor-cars ; of steel ships and steel bridges ; of mills 

 and factories, with their products of every possible 

 description ; of telegraphs by wire and wireless ; of 

 telephones ; of hourly newspaper editions and tape 

 machines ; of electric light indoors and outside ; of electric 

 power tor every purpose, from carrying us upstairs to 

 brushing our hair and our boots ; ot gas fires and gas 

 cookers ; of electric bells and electroplate ; ot automatic 

 machines and thermos flasks; of pianos, pianolas, con- 

 certinas, and gramophones; of kodaks, snapshots, and 

 I kinematograpns ; ot fountain-pens, sewing-machines, 

 tyi>ewriters, lawn-mowers, knife-grinders, vacuum 

 I cleaners, and barographs; of cigarettes and lucifer 

 matches, which are much newer than many people 

 think ; of innumerable new and cheap textile fabrics ; of 

 plate-glass, aluminium, indiarubber, celluloid, vul- 

 canite, and all manner of nev^- artificial materials ; of 

 1 laughing-gas for having a tooth out, of chloroform and 

 ether for more serious operations; of X-rays for in- 

 ' specting our interiors ; of dozens of new medi- 

 : cines tor every ailment, and ailments with new 

 names discovered every day; of balloons and aero- 

 planes, in which we may all soon be travelling ; besides 

 i all the masses of diverse machinery used in manufac- 

 I ture, in agriculture, and in the arts. All these things, 

 I. as well as many more, are younger than our Royal 

 Society of Arts. 



It has been the fashion to divide what we understand 

 I by science into two portions, pure science and applied 

 I science; but these are only halves of one great whole. 

 i Pure science, which is the domain of the research 

 ; worker and the discoverer, supplies the data, physical, 

 I chemical, and mechanical, which it is the function of 

 I applied science to turn to account for practical utili- 

 i tarian purposes. For this latter operation are required 

 the services of the inventor and the engineer, and other 

 experts of a similar character. 



Even great scientific discoveries have in some cases 

 , been made by chance, but generally only by men of 

 marked intuition and acutely developed powers of ob- 

 servation. More often they have been the result of 

 prolonged thought and of laborious and patient investiga- 

 tion, with delicate experiments. Many have been the 

 issue of elaborate mathematical reasoning. As sub- 

 jects become more complex, complete knowledge of 

 what has been done before in the same field is more 

 \ and more necessary. One of the most fruitful sources 

 of new discovery in all branches of science in modern 

 times has been the greater attention paid to quantitative 

 as against merely qualitative research, very accurate 

 measurements of every kind being one of the special 

 features of present-day research methods. A note- 

 worthy point is that the results of research are cumu- 

 lative, one discovery almost invariably leading to 

 others in course of time. 

 As a matter of experience all discoveries in pure 



