ORGANIZATION OF THE SCIENCES 



by the theory of saturation and substitution, 

 and inaugurating a radical revolution in chemical 

 nomenclature. I may note in passing that this 

 great revolution, which has rendered the science 

 of only half a generation ago completely an- 

 tiquated, and has obliged so many of us to un- 

 learn the chemistry which we learned at college, 

 furnishes a crucial disproof of the Comtean the- 

 ory of the way in which a scientific revolution 

 should occur. We see that the chemistry of 

 inorganic bodies was not placed upon its true 

 foundation until the study of organic chemistry 

 had supplied to the whole science its funda- 

 mental principles ; in spite of Comte, who 

 always scouted at organic chemistry as an ille- 

 gitimate science, and predicted the speedy ex- 

 tension of the dualistic theory to organic com- 

 pounds. 



Space permitting, I might go on and point 

 out more minutely how the allied sciences in 

 each grand division have continually reacted 

 upon each other ; how synthesis has directly 

 aided synthesis, and how analysis has directly 

 aided analysis ; how the analytic and the simpler 

 synthetic sciences have from time to time fur- 

 nished new hints to mathematics ; and how all 

 the other sciences, in all the divisions, from 

 mathematics to sociology, have aided the pro- 

 gress of logic, supplying it with new methods 

 of investigation and fresh canons of proof. But 

 59 



