SCIENTIFIC METHOD 37 



extraordinary questions and descriptions of nonentities. 

 Question 8 ran as follows : ' What ground there may 

 be for that relation concerning horns taking root and 

 growing about Goa ? ' Sir Philliberto examined into 

 the matter with due gravity, although from his reply it 

 appeared that it was a coarse Portuguese jest character- 

 istic of the age, and had reference to the morals of the 

 inhabitants. 



In these and like inquiries the Society made itself 

 a target for the wits of the day to shoot at. It must 

 be remembered in their defence that the current beliefs 

 of even educated persons in regard to natural phenomena 

 were often incredibly foolish ; they were, however, so 

 firmly held that rigorous logical proofs of their absurdity 

 were necessary in order to dislodge them. In this 

 respect I commend to your consideration that really 

 amazing and most erudite compilation by Sir Thomas 

 Browne, entitled Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries 

 into very many received tenets and commonly presumed 

 truths. It is a delightful work, containing an enormous 

 mass of fact and fancy, from which the author weaves 

 elaborate arguments against the vulgar errors of the 

 day. I select a very few of the errors cited by him 

 in order to show the character of the current beliefs 

 which he felt it necessary to examine into and to confute. 



' That a loadstone held in the hand doth either cure 

 or give great ease in the gout.' 



' That a kingfisher hanged by the bill showeth in what 

 quarter the wind is by an occult and secret property 

 converting the breast to that point of the horizon from 

 whence the wind doth blow.' 



' That the diamond, which is the hardest of stones, not 

 yielding unto emery or anything but its own powder is 

 yet made soft or broken up by the blood of a goat.' 



