Lumplugh : Man as an I nsti'ninent of Rcseaych. 189 



Testrictions are too narrow to satisfy our demand for accurate 

 knowledge of our environment. It is, indeed, an old conclusion 

 — as old as the earliest thinkers whose thoughts have come 

 down to us — that our senses, at the best, can yield us only an 

 imperfect and imsatisfactory record of the universe. 



While thus conscious of our perceptive limitations, we can 

 as yet but dimly surmise what proportion the sum of our j)resent 

 knowledge may bear to the knowable ; or how much of the 

 rmattained is absolutely unattainable. But we do know that, 

 hitherto, every careful and properly equipped advance into 

 the unknown has opened up the way for further advance ; 

 so that it is mere idleness as yet to stand still at the vagvie 

 apprehension of impassable obstacles ahead. 



In considering the application of the human senses as 

 instruments of research, we shall find that an important factor 

 is their varying acuteness in different persons. Sharp senses 

 alone do not, of course, qualify a person for research, and are 

 often endowed upon those who make no intellectual use of 

 them. But I suppose that every worker in science must, 

 like myself, have felt at times how much more he might have 

 learnt if under the given circumstances he had been able to 

 use severally the supranormal senses of different acquaintances 

 as his observing instruments. As it is, lo a certain extent 

 we do actually borrow each other's perceptive faculties, gaining 

 by intercommunication many impressions that we could not 

 have gained individually. Is it not, indeed, one of the chief 

 purposes of our scientific societies to facilitate this kind of 

 mutual aid and intercourse ? And may we not anticipate that 

 in a perfectly organized community, such as we imagine for 

 the distant future, every supranormal idiosyncrasy likely to 

 be instrumental in advancing knowledge will be sought out and 

 used ? 



Undoubtedly the possession of acute senses, when accom- 

 panied by other qualifications, is of high consequence in scientific 

 work. If through any flaw or feebleness the senses fail to 

 respond normally to their duty — if they transmit stimuli par- 

 tially or in a distorted form — they cannot supply a sure foun- 

 dation for further work. Like all other delicate instruments, 

 they must be capable of, perfect adjustment if they are to be 

 used for the purpose of conveying accurate impressions. 



Even so, the impressions they transmit are fugitive unless 



1910 May I. 



