cl Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIII, 



practical use ; practical as distinguished from abstract or theo- 

 retical. 



Huxley said that what people call applied science is noth- 

 ing but the application of pure science to particular problems. 

 The Advisory Council say that this no doubt is so ; there are 

 not two different kinds of science, at the same time they realize 

 that they have to deal with the practical business world in 

 whose eyes a real distinction seems to exist between pure 

 science and applied science. There are, however, men in the 

 business world who see more clearly. An American manufac- 

 turer pointed out only the other day that " there are no sharp 

 lines to separate pure from applied, scientific from practical, 

 useful from useless. If one attempts to divide past research 

 in such a manner he finds that time entirely rubs out the Hues 

 of demarcation." 



It is interesting to note in passing that the word applied 

 is being increasingly used in comiection with specific branches 

 of science. I have been unable to trace the history of such 

 usage. The term Applied Mathematics must have considerable 

 antiquity. There have, for many years, been chairs of Applied 

 Mechanics, Applied Physics, and Technical Chemistry, but I 

 have failed to find any early use of the term Applied Chemistry. 

 Some branches of science have an applied side with a special 

 title, such as Economic Botany, others are in their very nature 

 wholly applied, such as Agriculture and Medicine. 



But whatever terms have been used, the application of 

 scientific knowledge for the good of mankind is as old as that 

 knowledge itself, and one may safely say that the majority of 

 those who have attempted this application have not been 

 swayed by any pecuniary motive. The scientific agriculturist 

 is not in most cases the person into whose pockets comes the 

 money secured by the use of better methods. Medical science 

 in all its branches is, as I have just said, applied science and 

 although the doctor may earn his living by means of fees, 

 medical research is not undertaken from pecuniary motives. 

 It has been for the most part the application to a particular 

 problem of the scientific knowledge of the day, and there has, 

 of course, been no such application with a more noble purpose. 

 Still it is not pure science and there have often been medical 

 men who have left further application to others while they 

 have reverted to purely scientific problems. 



Sir Francis Bacon in the fable already quoted seems to 

 have had in mind pure science on the one hand and applied 

 science on the other : 



"Wee have Three that try New Experiments such as 

 themselves thinke good. These wee call Pioners or Miners. 



Wee have Three _ ««™o™ f ***,«*«* — 



Experiments of their Fellowes, and cast about how to dfl 



