PREFACE 



THE Lectures published in the present volume form 

 part of a course on Scientific Method, delivered at the 

 request of the Delegates for the Extension of Univer- 

 sity Teaching during the Summer Meeting, at Oxford, 

 in August, 1905. 



At previous meetings it had been the practice to offer, 

 in the section of Natural Science, a course of lectures in 

 some special branch of scientific study. When the 

 arrangements for the meeting of 1905 were under dis- 

 cussion, a suggestion was made to the Delegates by Mr. 

 A. W. Brown formerly Exhibitioner of Christ Church, 

 and now Principal of the University Extension College 

 at Stafford to the effect that a different plan should be 

 pursued this year. Instead of a course upon some 

 particular branch of scientific investigation, it was 

 suggested that a course should be given illustrating the 

 forms taken by scientific method in various departments 

 of research. The suggestion was approved by the 

 Delegates, and a scheme of Lectures was drawn up. 

 The course as delivered in Oxford was received with 

 great satisfaction, and it appeared to the Delegates that 

 it might be of value to publish some of the Lectures in 

 the hope that their high interest, both in themselves and 

 in their mutual connexion, would justify their presentation 

 to a wider public. 



It is unnecessary to point out that the scheme is a 

 difficult one in itself, and was rendered still more so by 



