SECTION 22 OBSERVATION. 273 



are an art of strengthening the limbs, not an art of using them". (Logic, 

 bk. 3, ch. 7, 1.) Thomas Fowler (Logic, Deductive and Inductive, vol. 2, 

 pp. 45-50) furnishes four rules pertaining to observation and experiment. 

 The following instances form extreme illustrations of theories based on 

 inadequate observation: "It appears that, whenever oats sown at the usual 

 time are kept cropped down during summer and autumn, and allowed 

 to remain over the winter, a thin crop of rye is the harvest presented 

 at the close of the ensuing summer. This experiment has been tried 

 repeatedly, with but one result: invariably the Secale cereale is the crop 

 reaped where the Avena saliva, a recognised different genus, was sown." 

 (Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, ed. 1887, 

 pp. 166-167.) And a qualified scientific populariser, Mr. Edward Clodd, in 

 his work, The Story of Creation, tells an equally dubious tale, since 

 the exploits of St. Bernard dogs appear to be legendary in character : 

 "An interesting illustration of this was supplied by a St. Bernard dog 

 belonging to a relative. The dog was born in London and taken into the 

 country when a puppy. After a few months a sharp fall of snow happened, 

 and 'Ju', who had never seen snow before, was frantic to get outdoors. 

 When she was set free, she rolled in the snow, bit it, and dug it up with 

 her claws as if rescuing some buried traveller. The same excitement was 

 shown whenever snow fell." (P. 114.) A more interesting case even is 

 the alleged proof of the non-existence of spontaneous generation by boiling 

 the water which might presumably contain germs, and the counter claim 

 that such boiling destroys the conditions necessary for spontaneous genera- 

 tion. The difficulty of correct observation is also well exemplified in the 

 modern instance where a supposed organic form, christened the Eozodn 

 canadense, has been shown to be an inorganic substance, or in the more 

 recent circumstance where doubt has been cast on the human origin of 

 certain eoliths. 



We have intentionally omitted a series of points concerning 

 observation, which, we deemed, require special treatment. We 

 shall now proceed to consider these. 



CONCLUSION 17. 

 Need of Critically Examining the Reality of Alleged Divisions. 1 



137. (A) Complex Facts regarded as Simple. In com- 

 mencing an investigation we should not assume that we are 

 dealing with isolated entities, without first ascertaining whether 

 this is so in fact. Under a close scrutiny the air proved to 

 consist virtually of two elements and to contain a number of 

 others; the nitrogen of the air was shown, further, to have 

 associated with it argon, and, in close connection with argon, 

 Ramsay and others found three more elements neon, krypton, 

 and xenon these, with helium, constituting the rare gases of the 

 atmosphere; the seemingly homogeneous air has been divided 

 into a lower Troposphere, where the temperature of the air 

 varies always both horizontally and vertically, and an upper 

 Stratosphere, where it only varies horizontally. Common salt, 

 on more careful examination, proved to be a compound; oxygen, 



1 "No one can divide things truly who has not a full knowledge of their 

 nature." (Bacon, The Alphabet of Nature.) 



18 



