TEE SCIENTIFIC WAY 3 



and phenomena. We know that men were once satisfied 

 to explain an eclipse of the sun (cf. 169) by saying that 

 it was caused by a great dragon, or bird, or spirit, passing 

 across the sky. Even in comparatively recent times 

 people have had ideas only a little better, for when Colum- 

 bus asserted that the earth was a sphere the men of his 

 day ridiculed him. They were sure that if the earth were 

 round, the people on the other side of the earth must be 

 standing heads down. 



But men interested in finding out about nature have 

 kept on experimenting and reasoning, until they have 

 come to understand something of nature's ways. They 

 have made the most progress when they have used the 

 method of study which we now call the scientific method. 

 This method consists in 



(a) getting together as many facts as possible regard- 

 ing the object or phenomenon studied; 



(6) arranging these facts in the order of their impor- 

 tance; 



(c) drawing some conclusion. 



Men now use the scientific method to get at every sort 

 of knowledge, even the knowledge needed to conduct a 

 business or to "keep house." 



We may, therefore, define science a second time and say that it is 

 organized knowledge. We call such knowledge " organized" because, 

 like a plant or animal, it is composed of parts called, in the plant or 

 animal, organs each of which has a particular place and a particular 

 duty. 



General Science, which we are now to study, takes up many topics 

 also found in the special sciences, such as Physics, Chemistry, Botany, 

 Physiology, etc. A knowledge of these topics is necessary not only to 

 the students who are later to study the special sciences, but to every 



