22 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 757 



that it is not against work of such character 

 that Blackwelder's review is directed. 



Again, there is a large class of fugitive 

 popular scientific literature written by men of 

 no personal reputation, bearing within it the 

 marks of its unauthoritative nature, some of 

 it good, some bad. Such articles hardly call 

 for serious comment from specialists. 



But there are popular works ably written 

 and put forth in a garb of authority which, 

 however, confuse facts, theories and hypoth- 

 eses, and contain views regarded by the great 

 body of those qualified by special knowledge 

 to hold an opinion as outworn, or wholly erro- 

 neous and misleading. It is against such 

 false science, not popular science, that public 

 and severe censure becomes a duty. As Black- 

 welder admirably puts it, unless such criticism 

 is directed against such a book and its author 

 " the average reader naturally believes him, 

 since he can not without special knowledge 

 discern the fallacies. He has a right to think 

 that things asserted as established facts are 

 true, and that things other than facts will be 

 stated with appropriate reservation. This is 

 precisely the same as his right to believe that 

 the maple syrup he buys under that label is 

 not glucose, but is genuine. The misbranding 

 of intellectual products is just as immoral as 

 the misbranding of the products of manu- 

 facture." 



This code of morality makes it the duty of 

 the teacher and scientist to expose in print 

 such scientific shams, a duty, however, which 

 is always disagreeable and which the majority 

 of men leave to their fellows to do. He whose 

 time is fully occupied with teaching and re- 

 search, but who turns aside to do the task 

 which others have left undone, is therefore 

 deserving of honor and not of abuse. 



It is noteworthy that Lowell's book on 

 " Mars as the Abode of Life," in spite of its 

 mass of fundamental errors whenever geolog- 

 ical matters are touched upon, errors palpable 

 to every working geologist, has been before the 

 public for more than a year without any criti- 

 cism of these features appearing in Science, 

 the official organ of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, an associa- 



tion which since the development of special 

 societies has become devoted to the general 

 broadening of scientific knowledge. Such a 

 criticism seems especially called for, since the 

 book has been given the very widest publicity, 

 it deals with a subject of great popular in- 

 terest, and its author has been grandiloquently 

 advertised by his publishers as the " founder 

 of the new science of planetology." As an 

 illustration of the result it may be noted that 

 in the scientific columns of a carefully edited 

 popular weekly its author has been hailed as 

 one who would henceforth relieve America 

 from the European taunt that it had as yet 

 produced no really great and creative man of 

 science. 



As an offset, however, to the necessarily 

 severe criticism of " Mars as the Abode of 

 Life," cordial recognition may well be given 

 at the same time to that great enthusiasm 

 manifest in all of Lowell's work, which has 

 led to the founding of a magnificent observa- 

 tory and has contributed to astronomy much 

 of real value. A coming generation of scien- 

 tists will find much to regard highly in Lowell 

 and will see in his work a stimulus to further 

 knowledge, but will hold it as unfortunate that 

 the same temperament which led to these re- 

 sults should have given rise to writings which 

 called forth such severe criticisms as have 

 appeared from his contemporaries in order to 

 separate errors of premise and conclusion from 

 that which is of real value. 



Having made these preliminary statements, 

 the true character of See's arraignment of 

 Blaclcwelder may be shown by calling atten- 

 tion to the several topics which are discussed. 



Blackwelder's review is aimed at false sci- 

 ence, not against popular science, regarding 

 which he says not a word; yet See uses a 

 column and a half to flay him on that score, 

 and because Blaclcwelder criticizes Lowell as- 

 sumes that the criticism is aimed also against 

 the popular work of such men as George Dar- 

 win and Proctor. 



Blackwelder specifically avoids discussing 

 any astronomic phase of the book, and does 

 not mention the subject of life on Mars. Yet 

 See takes up a column in arguing this matter. 



