394 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SCIENCE 



but does not exist in other natural bodies, and, indeed, 

 " sharply separates aqueous from non-aqueous matter." 



Happily, though such a view would have been con- 

 sidered high philosophy 200 years ago, no one is deluded 

 at the present day into the belief that by calling the 

 remarkable properties of water "aquosity" you have 

 added anything to our knowledge of them. Yet those who 

 invoke "a vital principle" or "vitality" in connection with 

 protoplasm should, if they were consistent, apply their 

 method to the mystery of water. Let us see how it would 

 run. Though we may (these " vitalists" or "aquosists" 

 would say) experiment with water, determine exactly the 

 temperature and pressure at which these remarkable phe- 

 nomena are exhibited, though we may determine its 

 surface tension and its crystalline form, and even though 

 we may weigh exactly the proportion of hydrogen to 

 oxygen in its composition, yet when we look at a drop of 

 water, there it is, a wonder of wonders, endowed with 

 " aquosity," the ultimate nature of which is as inscrutable 

 now as it was to Aristotle ! It is perfectly true (we con- 

 cede to the " aquosists ") that the properties of water are 

 not accounted for by science ; that is to say that, though 

 we can imagine the molecular and atomic mechanism 

 necessary for their exhibition, we cannot offer any sugges- 

 tion as to how it is that that particular mechanism is 

 present in the chemical compound which the chemist 

 denotes as H 2 O, and is not present in other compounds, 

 still less can we say "why " these remarkable properties 

 are present that is to say, for what purpose, although we 

 know that if they were not present the whole history and 

 economy of our globe would be utterly different from what 

 it is. Nevertheless, in spite of their ignorance about the 

 real nature of water, men of science do not invent an 

 " aqueous principle " or " aquosity " with the notion of 

 " explaining " water. And I have yet to hear of any duly 



