514 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIIL No. 849 



viduals may not have been directly con- 

 cerned in the advance or may not have 

 contributed directly to it at all. Indeed, 

 it seems as though the lowest members of 

 the human race to-day are no farther ad- 

 vanced mentally than were their progeni- 

 tors in recent geologic times. Even with 

 rapid progress of the most favored or most 

 enterprising individuals there may be 

 little progress or none in the case of the 

 average of mankind. It is not unlikely 

 that at the present day the intellectual gap 

 between the mentally highest and lowest of 

 mankind is greater than at any previous 

 time. 



In spite of the high intellectual and 

 practical standard reached by the leading 

 men of to-day, from another point of view 

 (called by some the pessimistic) the out- 

 look to-day is far from satisfactory in poli- 

 tics, religion, manufacture or science. 

 Whether we consider our all but failing 

 efforts at democracy in the United States 

 or the vacillating and undirected religious 

 tendencies of the people (as shown by 

 mormonism, seventh day adventism, dowie- 

 ism, christian science, the old theologies or 

 the strange oriental doctrines and ideals of 

 the majority of our people, which fortu- 

 nately are scarcely put into practise) ; or 

 if we consider the slow conservatism and 

 plodding course of manufacture and busi- 

 ness, including our great untouched prob- 

 lem of the economic distribution of goods, 

 we can not fail to be impressed with the 

 length of the journey which we miist sooner 

 or later take, on the road of development. 



But we may turn from the rather un- 

 satisfactory consideration of politics, re- 

 ligion and business to the consideration of 

 modern science with a rare degree of satis- 

 faction and enthusiasm. There, at least, 

 progress is visible, tangible or even obtrus- 

 ive. There, at least, the forward movement 

 does not take the slow, conservative, timid 



pace of business, nor follow the meander- 

 ing, uncertain, sentimental path of relig- 

 ion, or the crude meaningless way of poli- 

 tics. In that field ■ at least the way is 

 certain, the methods positive, the results 

 satisfying, the application secure and the 

 progress lively. Considered by itself, 

 science and the scientific method are the 

 most satisfactory and satisfying things in 

 the possession of the human mind. The 

 unfortiinate thing — it can not be classed as 

 a criticism — about science is that it has 

 left the multitude untouched. With the 

 results of science and the scientific method 

 on every hand forming so large a part of 

 our splendid materialistic civilization, 

 nevertheless the great, the overwhelming 

 majority of people are ignorant of the 

 methods, the aims and the results of scien- 

 tific inquiry in daily use, and of daily ne- 

 cessity. Of even greater import, the 

 scientific method of thought is not a part 

 of their mental equipment. 



Science and the scientific method have 

 their critics, no less than other excellent 

 things. Science is unmoral, cold, heartless, 

 pessimistic, hopeless, often cruel in method, 

 say they. The scientific inquirer can well 

 afford to let most of such accusations as 

 these go unchallenged. But there is one 

 statement which has been sown broadcast, 

 which springs up in a thousand unexpected 

 places, and which it is worth while to de- 

 vote some attention to in order to refute 

 it. It is the statenient that ancient peoples 

 have been possessed of knowledge and of 

 arts unknown to modern times; and in- 

 deed people would have us believe that this 

 knowledge and these arts are recoverable 

 by us if at all only with extreme difficulty. 

 The "lost arts" is the cry. In so far as 

 these so-called lost arts concern applied 

 chemistry let us examine into them, and 

 ascertain if posible whether or not there is 

 truth in the assertions alluded to. 



