July 21, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



67 



we penetrate at length into the heart of her 

 mystery. 



And in another place he wrote : 



Truly in such pursuit it is sweet not merely to 

 toil, but even to grow weary, when the pains of 

 discovering are amply compensated by the pleas- 

 ures of discovery. 



As children we all have an instinctive 

 curiosity concerning the world about us, a 

 curiosity which most of us gradually lose 

 as we fit ourselves into the social conven- 

 tions. The investigator is one, however, 

 in whom this natural curiosity still persists. 

 He has never got past the annoying stage 

 of asking "Why?" The events occurring 

 on every side which are matters of course 

 to most men, startle him into wonderment. 

 Why does the spinning top not fall ? Why 

 do animals breathe faster when they run? 

 Why does disturbed water take the form 

 of waves? Why do roots grown down- 

 ward? Why does the mouth become dry 

 when one speaks in public? Such are the 

 questions that arise. The answers to them 

 may be incalculably valuable to mankind. 

 The microscope revealed to Pasteur strange 

 organisms in bad-tasting wines. Why may 

 not the disease of the wine, he asked him- 

 self, be due to the growth of these unusual 

 germs within it? And later when he 

 found germs also in silk worms, the fur- 

 ther question was suggested. Why may not 

 animals likewise become diseased in ex- 

 actly the same manner 1 Whether the sur- 

 mises of the investigator are true, the testi- 

 mony of other men usually does not tell. 

 He must turn to nature herself and put 

 the idea to the test of observation and 

 experiment. 



This process of scientific inquiry involves 

 peculiar qualifications which can not be 

 disregarded by any one who thinks of try- 

 ing it. Research implies in the first place 

 seeking again over a region which has been 

 previously traversed in order to learn what 



other men have done and the point where 

 their labors ended. To make progress 

 sure, therefore, previous records must be 

 carefully studied. The failure to pay this 

 just tribute to those who have labored be- 

 fore has not seldom led to fruitless effort 

 or to vain repetition of work already well 

 done. Marking the boundaries demands, 

 then, a scholarly acquaintance with earlier 

 discoveries; and the painstaking methods 

 of the scholar must be used. 



An ingenious and inventive imagination 

 is a second requirement. It serves to indi- 

 cate where the problems lie and also to 

 suggest possible methods for solving them. 

 The mind must be hospitable to all ideas 

 thus presented, and yet it must receive 

 them with skeptical scrutiny. By crit- 

 ically considering a plan for solving a 

 problem it is often possible to select central 

 tests, which are strategically related to the 

 logic of the entire research. The physiolo- 

 gist Goltz is said to have done his most 

 important work while fishing, for he em- 

 ployed that time in devising the crucially 

 significant experiments. 



Not all inquiries, however, can be ended 

 by a relatively small number of crucial 

 tests. Some investigations, like the im- 

 portant breeding experiments of de Vries, 

 require years before they can be brought 

 to a conclusion. Patience and an enthu- 

 siasm which is intelligently persistent are 

 therefore essential qualities for the man in 

 quest of new truths. The hopeful spirit 

 is especially needed when, at the end of a 

 long search, the investigator finds that he 

 has only his labor for his pains — when his 

 leading idea has proved to be false. That 

 disheartening event is what Huxley called 

 the tragedy of science — "the slaying of a 

 beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact." 



The very soul of research, finally, is the 

 highest degree of honesty. The investiga- 

 tor should see clearly and accurately with 



