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SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Science 

 Sciences 



But it must be accomplished. And not the 

 least result of the process will be the effect 

 upon science itself. No department of knowl- 

 edge ever contributes to another without re- 

 ceiving its own again with usury witness 

 the reciprocal favors of biology and soci- 

 ology. From the time that Comte defined 

 the analogy between the phenomena exhibit- 

 ed by aggregations of associated men and 

 those of animal colonies the science of life 

 and the science of society have been so con- 

 tributing to one another that their progress 

 since has been all but hand-in-hand. A con- 

 ception borrowed by the one has been ob- 

 served in time finding its way back, and 

 always in an enlarged form, to further il- 

 luminate and enrich the field it left. So 

 must it be with science and religion. If the 

 purification of religion comes from science, 

 the purification of science, in a deeper sense, 

 shall come from religion. The true ministry 

 of Nature must at last be honored, and sci- 

 ence take its place as the great expositor. 

 DRUMMOND Natural Law in the Spiritual 

 World, int., p. 27. (H. Al.) 



3012. SCIENCE, THE STUDY OF, 

 AWAKENS THE THIRST FOR KNOWL- 

 EDGE Recognition of the truth is the ob- 

 ject of every science, but research into nat- 

 ural science has the advantage of being cal- 

 culated to put into practise and to confirm 

 the striving after knowledge. In this re- 

 spect it proves a specially valuable means 

 of education. Even mathematics is inferior 

 to it. MAGNUS Address as Rector (Rector- 

 alsrede). (Translated for Scientific Side- 

 Lights.) 



3013. SCIENCE TO BE CULTIVATED 

 FOR ITS OWN SAKE -Love of Truth a 

 Sufficient Motive. This, then, is the core 

 of the whole matter as regards science. It 

 must be cultivated for its own sake, for the 

 pure love of truth, rather than for the ap- 

 plause or profit that it brings. . . . Could 

 we have seen these men at work, without 

 any knowledge of the consequences of their 

 work, what should we have thought of them ? 

 To the uninitiated in their day they might 

 often appear as big children playing with 

 soap-bubbles and other trifles. It is so to 

 this hour. Could you watch the true in- 

 vestigator your Henry or your Draper, for 

 example in his laboratory, unless animated 

 by his spirit, you could hardly understand 

 what keeps him there. Many of the objects 

 which rivet his attention might appear to 

 you utterly trivial, and if you were to ask 

 him what is the use of his work the chances 

 are that you would confound him. He might 

 not be able to express the use of it in in- 

 telligible terms. He might not be able to 

 assure you that it will put a dollar into the 

 pocket of any human being, living or to 

 come. That scientific discovery may put 

 not only dollars into the pockets of indi- 

 viduals, but millions into the exchequers 

 of nations, the history of science amply 

 proves; but the hope of its doing so never 



was, and it never can be, the motive power 

 of the investigator. TYNDALL Lectures on 

 Light, p. 213. (A., 1898.) 



3014. SCIENCE, TRANSFORMATION 



OF Beginning of Nineteenth Century in Ger- 

 many Medieval Ideas Still Prevalent 

 " Phlogiston," the Fire Element. It is dif- 

 ficult for us to realize the-eondition of nat- 

 ural science as it existed in Germany, at 

 least in the first twenty years of this cen- 

 tury. Magnus was born in 1802; I myself 

 nineteen years later; but when I go back to 

 my earliest recollections, when I began to 

 study physics out of the school-books in my 

 father's possession, who was himself taught 

 in the Cauer Institute, I still see before me 

 the dark image of a series of ideas which 

 seems now like the alchemy of the Middle 

 Ages. Of Lavoisier's and of Humphry Davy's 

 revolutionizing discoveries not much had got 

 into the school-books. Altho oxygen was al- 

 ready known, yet phlogiston, the fire ele- 

 ment, played also its part. Chlorin was still 

 oxygenated hydrochloric acid; potash and 

 lime were still elements. Invertebrate ani- 

 mals were divided into insects and reptiles, 

 and in botany we still counted stamens. 

 HELMHOLTZ Popular Lectures, lect. 1, p. 10. 

 (L. G. & Co., 1898.) 



3015. SCIENCE, VICISSITUDES OF A 



The Early Days of Chemistry Alche- 

 mists First Favored, Then Persecuted. 

 Chemistry has been the wonder-child among 

 the natural sciences. None of her sisters ever 

 followed such objects of adventure, or ever 

 fulfilled so strange a destiny as hers. There 

 was a time when chemistry believed in all 

 earnest that within the dark lap of Na- 

 ture there was a secret treasure to be found 

 called the philosopher's stone. At that time 

 chemistry was in high esteem among the 

 great of the earth, and was clothed in purple 

 as long as avarice could entertain that be- 

 lief; but when men imagined themselves be- 

 trayed in their hopes of discovering [the 

 secret of transmuting the baser metals into] 

 gold they offered the gallows and the wheel 

 for its followers (frequently unworthy 

 enough, it must be acknowledged). And, in 

 fact, the church regarded the salvation of 

 believers as endangered by these black arts, 

 and hurled against them banns and bull. 

 PETTENKOFER Lecture, Was bedeutet die Che- 

 mie fiir die Physiologie? p. 4. (Translated 

 for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



3016. SCIENCES, INTERDEPEND- 

 ENCE OF Medicine Developed Botany. The 

 science of medicine, which was founded by 

 Dioscorides in the school of Alexandria, 

 when considered with reference to its scien- 

 tific development, is essentially a creation 

 of the Arabs, to whom the oldest, and at 

 the same time one of the richest, sources 

 of knowledge, that of the Indian physicians, 

 had been early opened. Chemical pharmacy 

 was created by the Arabs, while to them 

 are likewise due the first official prescrip- 



