PRESENT SCIENCE IS CHAOTIC 149 



or go round any other planet or substance in its 

 way. 



Wireless electricity is founded on the basic prin- 

 ciple that an electric current goes only to the op- 

 posite electric polarity and vibration which draws 

 and attracts it or is attuned to it. 



Prof. Serviss says : "If I examined this subject 

 with a show of interest, it draws upon me sour and 

 suspicious looks from my scientific friends." He 

 should remember that all great truths have had to 

 struggle with "sour and suspicious looks," ever 

 since man began to investigate, and that we must 

 look not to authority for truth, but to truth for 

 authority. 



He said, in the summer of 1901, the sun was a 

 furnace and the black spots the open door of the 

 furnace, and we would have four years of torrid 

 heat on account of those black spots ; but he proved 

 himself a false prophet, like the rest. But he is not 

 to blame; he only followed the old traditions and 

 scientific authority, and they proved to be a broken 

 reed on which he leaned. I mention him because 

 he is an able and recent writer on astronomy. 



That science is at present unintelligible and almost 

 chaotic to the masses of fairly educated people 

 is too true for superfluous argument. The old farm- 

 er's definition of bacilli is a fair sample of the 

 nebulous condition of many minds on scientific 

 subjects. He said they were "little critters from the 

 back cellar that floated in the air, called germs in 

 Germany, parasites in Paris, and microbes in Ire- 

 land." Many intelligent people deplore the pro- 

 lific use of useless technical terms and dry statistics 

 of most scientific works, and their use makes them 



