GENERAL SCIENCE 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



Why Study Science? This is an age of scientific 

 research and experiment. Science is improving every 

 kind of industry upon which man depends for his physical 

 existence. In many important ways our modern civi- 

 lization is different from that of our great-grandfathers. 

 This improvement has been made possible by the results 

 obtained from scientific investigations carried on by 

 men who have devoted their lives to the work. 



Scientists have improved the means of travel many- 

 fold during the past fifty years. To them we give the 

 credit for our modern railroads, electric lines, swift ocean 

 steamers, airships, aeroplanes, automobiles, and various 

 mechanical devices for making excavations and recon- 

 structions all in the mechanical realm. 



In the field of science that concerns life that is, in 

 the field of biology great discoveries have been made 

 concerning plant and animal life processes, the physical 

 structure of plants and animals, and the dependence of 

 man upon microscopic plant forms. Men have dis- 

 covered many of the microscopic plant forms and animal 

 organisms which produce disease and have learned how 

 to destroy these one-celled enemies of man. Man could 



