40 BULLETIN OF THE 



The Society then listened to the address of the retiring President, 

 Mr. Simon Newcomb, on 



THE RELATION OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD TO SOCiAL PROGRESS. 



Among those subjects which are not always correctly appre- 

 hended, even by educated men, we may place that of the true 

 significance of scientific method, and the relations of such method 

 to practical affairs. This is especially apt to be the case in a 

 country like our own, where the points of contact between the 

 scientific world on the one hand, and the industrial and political 

 world on the other, are fewer than in other civilized countries. 

 The form which this misapprehension usually takes is that of a 

 failure to appreciate the character of scientific method, and es- 

 pecially its analogy to the methods of practical life. In the judg- 

 ment of the ordinary intelligent man there is a wide distinction 

 between theoretical and practical science. The latter he considers 

 as that science directly applicable to the building of railroads, the 

 construction of engines, the invention of new machinery, the con- 

 struction of maps, and other useful objects. The former he con- 

 siders analogous to those philosophic speculations in which men 

 have indulged in all ages without leading to any result which he 

 considers practical. That our knowledge of nature is increased 

 by its prosecution is a fact of which he is quite conscious, but 

 he considers it as terminating with a mere increase of knowledge, 

 and not as having in its method anything which a person devoted 

 to material interests can be expected to appreciate. 



This view is strengthened by the spirit with which he sees 

 scientific investigation prosecuted. It is well understood on all 

 sides that when such investigations are pursued in a spirit really 

 recognized as scientific, no merely utilitarian object is had in view. 

 Indeed it is easy to see how the very fact of pursuing such an 

 object would detract from that thoroughness of examination which 

 is the first condition of a real advance. True science demands in 

 its every research a completeness far beyond what is apparently 

 necessary for its practical applications. The precision with which 

 the astronomer seeks to measure the heavens, and the chemist to 

 determine the relations of the ultimate molecules of matter has 

 no limit, except that set by the imperfections of the instruments of 



