July 28, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



93 



course this proud isolation was subject to many 

 compromises, conscious and unconscious. And 

 from a philosophical standpoint the onlooker, 

 as has often been pointed out, is always one of 

 the essential elements in the observing and re- 

 cording. The ideal was, however, and still is, 

 to dehumanize scientific investigation so far as 

 may be. And this method has approved itself 

 by its exceeding fruitfulness. 



Ill 



The question here arises, how did this scien- 

 tifie ambition ever come to be a matter of 

 public concern? How did this pi-ofessedly idle 

 curiosity, as Veblen ironically calls it, confined 

 as it is to rare and eccentric intellects and 

 affecting a superb indifference to human inter- 

 ests, ever come to influence the beliefs and 

 daily lives of great masses of mankind? The 

 indubitable and ever growing social significance 

 of modern experimental science is the result 

 chiefly of three historical tendencies. 



1. In the first place the minute and scrupu- 

 lous observations and calculations and careful 

 inferences of the natural scientist have in a few 

 cases formed themselves into such impressive 

 generalizations as to catch the attention of lay- 

 men. Examples of such large reconstructions 

 are the reduction of the celestial bodies to phys- 

 ical and chemical processes; a growing substi- 

 tution of respect for so-called natural laws, and 

 a corresponding decline of confidence in mira- 

 cles and magic, the partial elimination of the 

 diabolical in the theory and practice of medi- 

 cine, and latterly the frank inclusion of man 

 himself in the order of nature. This process 

 of transforming a naturally unscientific crea- 

 ture into a scientific one has of course not gone 

 very far, and the tendency has met with varied 

 and insistent opposition with which we are all 

 familiar. 



2. In the second place the inventor and 

 engineer have in the interest of practical utOity 

 seized upon certain details of scientific dis- 

 covery and with the connivance of the business 

 man, influenced by motives of pecuniary profit, 

 succeeded in revolutionizing industry and inter- 

 communication, thereby gravely altering the 

 conditions, possibilities and problems of civili- 

 zation. Scientific research originally carried on 



for its own sake has thus produced indirectly 

 the most far-reaching effects on our daily life. 

 Moreover the constant refinement of technology 

 has led to the invention of scientific apparatus 

 without which research could never have 

 reached the point it has. A striking example 

 of this is the perfecting of electrical apparatus 

 which has recently rendered possible the dis- 

 covery, bewildering in its implication, of the 

 electrical nature of matter. 



In the beginning mankind was in no position 

 fundamentally and permanently to modify his 

 environment in his own interests. He had to 

 make such terms as he could with the un- 

 controlled order of nature. To-day through 

 scientific knowledge and experiment he is con- 

 stantly engaged in remaking the world to suit 

 his convenience. He indeed often yields to the 

 temptation to exploit his resources with a reck- 

 less abandon which raises many serious prob- 

 lems in regard to the future of the race. He 

 substitutes mechanical devices for the human 

 hand; he generates and distributes new forms 

 of power, and has finally learned through syn- 

 thetic chemistry to create an indefinite number 

 of new substances. Achievements of this class 

 are the most spectacular outcome of applied 

 knowledge and have done more than anything 

 else to secure the scientist a specious popular 

 esteem. But the problem is becoming acute 

 whether that esteem is of such a character that 

 it will permit the overwhelming process of 

 readjustment to be guided and controlled by 

 those best qualified by natui'al competence and 

 training to prevent varied catastrophe. 



3. A third less theatrical but none the less 

 significant effect of the progress of natural 

 science has been the influence which its ideals 

 and methods, so successfully applied to the 

 investigation of physical, chemical and biolog- 

 ical processes, has had on the conception of man 

 himself, his origin, history, habits and institu- 

 tions. Anthropology, history in aU its branches, 

 philosophy, psychology, economics, and all 

 other departments of research bearing on man's 

 nature and conduct are undergoing changes of 

 a momentous nature so revolutionary in their 

 theoretical and practical implications that some 

 recent writers go so far as to maintain that a 

 great part of what has passed for social science 



