64 The Higher Usefulness of Science 



and futile effort in so many quarters, that illustrations 

 of it drawn from several provinces of nature will be 

 profitable. 



For the first illustration the field of chemistry may 

 be drawn upon, and the production of water will serve 

 our purpose well. First of all, let us remind ourselves 

 of the fact that the names Oxygen and Hydrogen 

 stand as perpetual warnings against the very fallacies 

 we are here concerned with. Oxygen is not the acid 

 producer, as it was earlier believed to be, but rather, 

 since it is now common knowledge that the attribute 

 of acidity is often produced without oxygen, we recog- 

 nize that oxygen is only one factor in the acid-produc- 

 tion of acid compounds that contain oxygen. And 

 similarly with hydrogen. Chemists no longer regard 

 it as the cause and explanation of water even though 

 water never exists without it. Rather it is held to be 

 an indispensable factor in the production of water, 

 oxygen being another equally indispensable factor. 

 And these two factors in the generation of water are 

 also substantive elements in the composition of water. 

 And in the generation of water there is necessary a 

 third factor which plays the part of a catalyzer. 



Now, the mode of reasoning about water-production 

 presents two or three points of prime importance for 

 our argument. One of these is the fact that modern 

 chemistry makes no attempt, as I understand, to dis- 

 tribute the attributes of water among the generating 

 factors and constituents of water. For example, it 



