SECTION 20. STUDIES PREPARATORY TO ALL INVESTIGATIONS. 235 



of any one person contributing more than a trifle towards its 

 being tested or established. Consider the case of telegraphy. 

 Already Galileo, in 1632, spoke of a method of conversing at 

 long distances by means of the sympathy of magnetic needles. 

 So little, however, was then known about electricity that it is 

 difficult to conceive his propounding any large provisional hypo- 

 thesis. When, however, many facts had been collected on the 

 subject of electricity, as at the dawn of the nineteenth century, 

 the idea of developing such a hypothesis came within the realm 

 of the practical. Wheatstone might have proposed the hypo- 

 thesis that a telegraphic system covering the entire globe was 

 feasible, and even have argued that telegraphy should include 

 telephony and the electric transference of designs, both with 

 wires and without, and much else pertaining to heat, light, 

 electricity, magnetism, and chemistry. 1 Such a working hypo- 

 thesis, if passably correct, would have insured the invention of 

 appropriate instruments with the least possible delay. However, 

 so complicated are the issues involved here that one man cannot 

 contribute much towards clarifying them. In agreement with 

 this we are bound to postulate in almost all the master inven- 

 tions and discoveries a successive series of workers gradually 

 bringing to relative perfection a particular theory, each man 

 being well informed in the subject and starting where his pre- 

 decessors left their task. In these circumstances, the discoverer's 

 or inventor's path is largely determined for him, and he need 

 only remember to formulate the largest practicable provisional 

 hypothesis and to explore his theme systematically, as proposed 

 in the First Illustration. 



104. If we scrutinise the labours of the most eminent 

 discoverers in biology, chemistry, or physics, we remark in each 

 case both the wide range of their learning and the magnificent 

 scope of their efforts. Basing themselves on the ripest work 

 of their predecessors, they seek to extend, to re-cast, and further 

 to systematise it, whilst perfecting the traditional methods. 

 They display also a keen interest in the sister sciences, for these 

 may suggest novel lines of enquiry. The primary method is, 

 therefore, to "follow your leaders", and be as comprehensive, 

 thorough, and bold as they. The Conclusions submitted in this 

 treatise are designed to form a guide to this end. Even so, 

 however, no startling results may be anticipated, no final settling 

 of any capital issue which has not been mainly settled already 

 by other men. (Conclusion 5.) Concerning the mere detail in 

 any science or enquiry, it is doubtful whether much of such 

 detail exists for the trained inquirer; but granted that colossal 



1 A case of such daring is to be found in Jacques Loeb's works, who 

 suggests that the theory of tropisms, almost certainly applicable to the 

 simplest organisms, may also be applied to the highest organisms including 

 man. Scientific examination will either partly or wholly confirm or confute 

 this theory. 



