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MAN AS AN INSTRUMENT OF RESEARCH.* 



By G. W. LAMPLUGH F.R.S., F.G.S. 



" 'T is Man's to explore 

 Up and down, inch by inch, with the taper his reason ; 

 No torch, it suffices — held deftly and straight." 



(Apollo and the Fates). 



Instead of taking some concrete geological theme as the 

 subject for my address, I am about to adventure, with your 

 permission, upon a sequence of ideas concerning the qualifica- 

 tions of the Human Mind as an Instrument of Research. The 

 ideas are such as will have occurred at times to every worker 

 in science ; but it is useful occasionally to bring them together 

 for rehearsal and comparison. And as the scope of our Society 

 covers practically the whole field of Natural Science, it seems 

 not unfitting that we should find opportunity sometimes to 

 examine the groundwork of our studies. 



The attitude in which I propose that we approach our 

 subject is that, in imagination, we detach human consciousness 

 from the organism in which it is entangled, and consider first 

 the qualifications of the organism itself as a scientific instru- 

 ment. This attitude, you will grant, is easily acquired in one's 

 outlook upon the work of his neighbour, though not so easily 

 in respect to one's own activities. 



The Range of the Senses. 

 Let us, then, examine the instrument. We immediately per- 

 ceive that the organs of sensation—the traditional ' five senses ' 

 —though so perfectly adapted for the physical conditions of 

 human life, have limitations which are reached at every turn 

 when their use is extended beyond the requirements from 

 which they have arisen. For the purposes of our newest 

 function— the conscious acquisition and correlation of know- 

 ledge, the human senses have been proved inadequate, and are 

 suspected to be even more inadequate than we have yet ascer- 

 tained. We may, and do, increase their range by careful educa- 

 tion, but only to reach a stronger conviction of their insuffi- 

 ciency. Until we learnt to enlarge their scope by supplementary 

 instruments, our accurate information progressed hardly at 

 all beyond the bounds of common experience. 



*Pyesidential Address to the Hertfoydshive Xatiiral History Society, 

 April 12//;, igio. 

 1910 May I. 



