406 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XVI. No. 402. 



The fundamental element of the methods 

 of scientific research is the fact, the phe- 

 nomenon. Facts, individual or in groups, 

 independent or related, are revealed by the 

 investigator and are grouped by the genius, 

 or by the expert in that branch of science. 

 But facts and phenomena are the pi'oducts 

 of nature's laws and are their expression. 

 A law is the expression of the relation of a 

 group or a series of related facts or phe- 

 nomena; it is the thread upon which the 

 discovered pearls of truth are strung. It 

 has continuity; the facts themselves are 

 discontinuous, or may be so; the natural 

 world is one great system of phenomena 

 and fact thus bound together, in multiples 

 or in various series, to constitute a single 

 tremendous complex fact. 



As I have elsewhere expressed this rela- 

 tionship of fact and laws* "All science is 

 thus made up from the infinite number of 

 facts which are comprehended in the uni- 

 verse of the known and the to-be-known. 

 Its existence is assured by the stability of 

 all those principles of philosophy which are 

 woven into the connecting web. * * * The 

 man of science, the philosopher whose task 

 it is to create and to advance all human 

 knowledge of the great kingdom of nature, 

 is therefore a discoverer of facts, an obser- 

 ver of phenomena, a student of nature's 

 laws. He is a systematic recorder of facts, 

 a eodifier of laws." 



As is now well understood, the 'Law of 

 Substance,' as Haeckel proposed to call it, 

 provides the foundation of the whole code 

 of scientific formulation of natural law. As 

 I expressed it, in the discussion just refer- 

 red to, "the fundamental principle of the 

 indestructibility of 'the two products of 

 creation, matter and force, and the fruit 

 of their union, energy, ' the principle of the 

 indestructibility of all that has been cre- 



* Vice-President's address ; Transactions Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 St. Louis meeting, 1878. 



ated, supplies a basis for all sciences and 

 for all scientific work."* 



This 'Law of Substance' was thus stated 

 by me at that time (1878) : 



"At the basis of the whole science of 

 energetics lies a principle which was enun- 

 ciated before science had a birthplace or a 

 name. 



' ' All that exists, whether matter or force, 

 and in whatever form, is indestructible ex- 

 cept by the infinite power which has created 

 it."t 



But the statement of this fundamental 

 and universal law was, in fact, made cen- 

 turies before and possibly by many wise 

 men of earlier times. Cicero says 'one 

 eternal and immutable law embraces all 

 things and all times,' and he might per- 

 fectly well have added: That law is per- 

 sistence of all the elements of creation. 



The purpose of scientific research is thus, 

 immediately and ultimately, the building 

 up of a complete system, or of a section of 

 this great edifice, as the case may be, on the 

 foundation thus established. The work 

 to be done in applied science must always 

 involve the utilization of the work of the 

 scientific investigator in the realms of pure 

 science, and the task of making applica- 

 tion of scientific knowledge and of re- 

 search-revelations, in the promotion of 

 the industrial and higher interests of 

 the people, will be certain of performance 

 when the scientific system is perfected as 

 a code of natural law. 



III. 



The fields of scientific research extend 

 into every department of present human 

 knowledge and, probably ultimately, will 



* Vice-President's address, American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, Philadelphia 

 meeting, 1884. 



t Transactions American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, 1878; Vice-President's 

 address on the ' Philosophic Method of Science 

 Advancement.' 



