II 



ON SOME ASPECTS OF THE 

 SCIENTIFIC METHOD 



(PROFESSOR F. GOTCH, F.R.S.) 



THE scientific lectures of the Summer Meeting for this 

 year have been arranged upon lines which differ essen- 

 tially from those of preceding gatherings. They are all 

 dominated by one leading idea, and have in consequence 

 a unity of purpose which gives a special interest to each 

 member of the series ; this idea is to set forth the opera- 

 tion of the scientific method as exemplified in the scientific 

 field of human knowledge and achievement. Strictly 

 speaking, the scientific method is a phase of rational 

 thought applied more particularly to the phenomena of 

 nature, and, in the first instance, to these only, but its 

 scope is in reality more comprehensive, and it would 

 be possible to bring within its operation the greater part 

 of the subject-matter to be treated at this meeting. 

 Upon various grounds its exemplification has been limited 

 to certain specified portions of knowledge and research, 

 chiefly in natural science. 



Lectures in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Physiology, 

 and Psychology will set forth the value of the method in 

 connexion with experimental science ; others in Astro- 

 nomy, Geology, Anthropology, Archaeology, and History 

 will show its use in dealing with observed or recorded facts, 

 and in framing from these scientific generalizations. 



