Some Humbugs of Science 119 



tracted through the Middle Ages by other 

 mysteries. If a man had discovered that 

 a cow had a backbone and an oyster had 

 none, he wrapped himself in the mantle of 

 a superior dignity and held aloof from 

 commoners. Occasionally the commoners 

 took him out and burned him, believing 

 that a man loaded with information like 

 that could have got it only from the devil, 

 who, through some peculiarly human pro- 

 cess of reasoning, seems to have acquired 

 a mortgage on whatever was pleasant and 

 profitable in this world. And even to-day 

 the scientists are making it hard for other 

 folks to share in their work, their knowl- 

 edge, and their discoveries. They have 

 built up a shibboleth peculiar to them- 

 selves, and until he has mastered it one 

 cannot learn from them. It is founded on 

 Latin and Greek, the same being dead, 

 and to most people unavailable. Thoreau 

 knew the gibberish as well as anybody, 

 yet he was moved to say, " The sciences 

 are protected from assault by a palisade or 

 chevaux-de-frise of technical terms ; so, 

 also, the learned man may ensconce him- 



