202 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. V. No. 110. 



for centuries after they have been aban- 

 doned by the well-informed. Thus, astrol- 

 ogy, alchemy, phrenology, homeopathy and 

 ' Christian Science ' have met with accept- 

 ance not only by the ignorant, but by 

 many of the so-called educated class. As 

 a matter of fact, a scholastic and classical 

 education does not greatly aid in the dif- 

 ferentiation between science and pseudo- 

 science ; and at the present day many per- 

 sons who belong to the ' educated class ' 

 and even to the learned professions are led 

 astray by claims made upon what appears 

 to them to be a scientific basis. Unless the 

 spirit of scientific scepticism, which de- 

 mands absolute demonstration before final 

 acceptance, has been cultivated by special 

 training, there is always a liability to be 

 misled by the specious claims of pseudo- 

 scientific pretenders, or of the still more 

 dangerous charlatans who believe in them- 

 selves and their pseudo-discoveries. And 

 even among those who have had a more 

 or less complete scientific training it often 

 happens that there is a natural tendency to 

 generalize from insufficient data and to 

 jump at conclusions in advance of the ex- 

 perimental evidence which alone could jus- 

 tify them. Such men are even more dan- 

 gerous in the ranks of scientific workers 

 than they would be as theorists who ignored 

 the value of scientific research ; and many 

 pseudo-scientific discoveries which have 

 passed current for a time, and the refuta- 

 tion of which has been held to show the 

 uncertainty of scientific deductions, have 

 been made by men of this class, whose 

 mental characteristics entirely unfit them 

 for scientific research. 



Hand in hand with the progress of med- 

 ical science we see an army of pseudo-scien- 

 tific quacks who trade upon the imperfect 

 knowledge of the masses, and by plausibly 

 written advertisements convince many, 

 even of the educated classes, that their par- 

 ticular method of treatment is based upon 



the latest scientific discoveries. A Priest- 

 ley discovers oxygen ; the physiologists 

 show that this gas is essential to life and 

 that the maintenance of a full degree of vi- 

 tal activity depends upon the possession of 

 healthy lungs of ample capacity and the 

 respiration of pure air; the scientific physi- 

 cian discovers defects in the respiratory ap- 

 paratus and under certain circumstances 

 prescribes oxygen for the relief of symp- 

 toms resulting from a deficient supply of 

 this life-sustaining gas. But the pseudo- 

 scientist extols oxygen as a cure-all for 

 pulmonary complaints, or invents an appa- 

 ratus which may be held in the hand or 

 carried in the pocket, by which oxygen will 

 be absorbed in some mysterious way, and 

 without difficulty obtains numerous certifi- 

 cates as to the marvelous cures effected by 

 his method. A Franklin draws lightning 

 from the clouds ; a Galvani shows that an 

 electric current may be developed by the 

 contact of metals and that such a current 

 causes muscular contraction; and innumer- 

 able patient investigators add to our knowl- 

 edge of electricity. The scientific physi- 

 cian avails himself of this potent agent for 

 the treatment of certain ailments in which 

 it appears to be indicated, but admits that 

 he meets with many disappointments in his 

 clinical experiments. The pseudo-scientific 

 quack writes, or has written, advertise- 

 ments in which fact and fiction are so com- 

 mingled that even educated persons may be 

 deceived, and having aroused interest in 

 the alleged therapeutic value of this mys- 

 terious agent, offers his electric belt, or 

 finger ring made of two metals, or pocket 

 battery, as a sure cure for certain specified 

 ailments, or, if less modest and more cer- 

 tain of the credulitj' of the public, as a cure 

 for all of the diseases to which man is sub- 

 ject. 



Again, a Pasteur proves that the disease 

 of sheep and cattle known as anthrax is 

 due to a microscopic organism found in 



