The Idolatry of Science 



a man of Science, which precluded him from 

 clear thought or accuracy of statement ; his 

 attitude no doubt was, "if my assertion is 

 inconsistent with the Registrar-General's 

 figures, so much the worse for the Registrar- 

 General." 



But the intrusion of Science into the art 

 of surgery and medicine is calculated to 

 entail results more sinister than mere 

 inaccuracy of statement, and we find that 

 whenever a bruise from a golf ball is 

 mistaken for cancer and treated so as to 

 jeopardize life, and whenever sponges, 

 scissors and what-not are casually dropped 

 into a patient's inside and sewn up in his or 

 her abdomen, it is not done by the kindly, 

 ordinary practitioner, but by a man of 

 Science and an F.R.S. It is about time that 

 the ignorance, inaccuracy, and recklessness 

 of men of Science were universally recog- 

 nized, and that the title of u Professor" 

 62 



