164 



THE AMERICAN 



IS ANY KNOWLEDGE USELESS? 



" There is no name of greater power at the 

 present day than that of Science ; and it is as 

 awkward to say anji-thing against the preten- 

 sions of men of science as it once was to be a 

 heretic of a different order. You cannot, it is 

 true, be burnt alive, or pat into an inquisition, 

 but, whicli is almost as bad, you can be made 

 to look extremely foolish. The men of science 

 regard you througli their spectacles with an air 

 calculated to strike terroi- into the boldest heart, 

 if you venture to question the advantage ot their 

 most trifling speculations. Any thing which by 

 hook or by crook can be brought under the 

 m.antle of an ology is a sacred object, not to be 

 touched by the profane vulgar. A poor savage 

 sees a civilized being, capable of producing 

 thunder and supplied with unlimited quantities 

 of fire-water, devote himself for years to the 

 pursuit of bugs — using that word in the Ameri- 

 can sense. This strange creature will live for 

 mouths in a wilderness, and be amply rewarded 

 by collecting a boat-load of creeping, crawling 

 things, whiclr are not even good to eat. Tlie 

 savage thinks the white man must be little bet- 

 ter than an idiot; and the white man, when he 

 comes home, writes his book, and holds the 

 savage up to the derision of an enlightened 

 public. 'Here,' he says in effect, 'is a poor 

 creature so ignorant as to thiuk me a fool for 

 spending a month in discovering the Hotonchro- 

 nonthologus Jonesii — an animal which ditters 

 from all other Hotonchrononthologi in having 

 two more spots upon his nose, and an extra 

 claw on his hind leg.' Is it so plain that the 

 white man has altogether the best of the argu- 

 ment? Suppose that the beast in question had 

 remained unknown, would the human race have 

 been materially the worse? Or, to put it more 

 moderately, could not the month be spent to 

 more purpose in someother field of labor? Some 

 distinguished martyr to science once planted a 

 colony of some loathsome insect in his thumb, 

 and heroically traveled to Europe with his bur- 

 den, in the hope of discovering some new facts 

 about the way in which the animal laid its eggs. 

 Unluckily, if I remember right, the thumb mor- 

 tified and had to be amputated within sight of 

 land ; and we have ever since been called upon 

 to admire the zeal and heroism of the sufterer. 

 I am willing to do so, just as I admire St. Si- 

 meon Stylites for standing for twenty years on 

 a column, and saying his prayers one thousand 

 two hundred and fourty-four times a day. Only 

 I cannot help asking, in each case, whether so 

 rare a quality of heroism could not have been 

 turned to some better account? Zeal is not a 

 commodity of which we have such an abundance 

 that we can complacently set it running to waste. 

 Science often means nothing more than accurate 

 and systematic knowledge of facts; and the 

 question always remains whether the facts are 

 really worth knowing. If a man of genius 

 spends years in investigating the habits of a 

 microscopic animalcule, it does not follow that 

 the game was worth the caudle simply because 

 we give to the knowledge gained the mystic 

 name of science." 



We quote the above because it gives a fair 

 idea of the views of those practical men whose 



sphere of mental vision is circumscribed by the 

 question cui bono? iu other woi"ds, men whose 

 minds, if jilaced in the centre of a good old- 

 fashioned silver dollar, wonld be entirely con- 

 tained within the periphery. 



The great value of most scientific facts lies not 

 so much in the practical availability of the facts 

 as in the correlation with oilier facts, and the 

 light which they throw upon scientific questions 

 of confessedl}' liigh importance. The discov- 

 ery of the supposititious Hotonchrononthologus 

 Jonesii might not be a matter of much conse- 

 quence in itself, but its relation to the Darwin- 

 ian hypothesis, and its effect upon our views in 

 regard to species, might possibly be so impor- 

 tant as to immortalize the discoverer. So, too, 

 it might not be a matter of much consequence 

 in itself how a certain Acarus propagated its 

 species; bnta study of the process in this par- 

 ticular case might throw much light on genera- 

 tion iu general, and this is certainly worth the 

 expenditure of a good deal of zeal and labor. 

 Full and definite knowledge of any subject is 

 only to be attained through long study, and by 

 examining the question from every point of 

 view, and under every variety of circumstance 

 and condition. The processes of generation 

 carefully investigated in the lower animals, 

 have thrown great light on the corresponding 

 processes involved in the reproduction of those 

 of higher grade. Success in the breeding of 

 domestic animals depends largely upon our 

 knowledge of the causes that govern the varia- 

 tions of species and varieties. It is not at all 

 impossible, under certain contingencies, that a 

 mere dot on a fossil shell, buried millions of 

 years ago, might decide important questions in 

 this connection, and lay the world under ever- 

 lasting obligations to the observer of these mi- 

 nute differences. The writer of the paragraph 

 we have just quoted evidently does not appre- 

 ciate the fact, that every thing in Nature is car- 

 ried out strictly according to law, and that the 

 most trifling fact is valuable as an index to these 

 laws. 



We copy the foregoing, with the able com- 

 ments of the editor, from the November number 

 of the Manufacturer and Builder. We rejoice 

 that there are few persons, even amongst those 

 so-called practical men who hate the very sight 

 ot a Latin word, who take such a narrow-minded 

 view of true science ; and that their numbers 

 are fast diminishing. It is entirely unnecessary 

 for us to undertake to show how most of those 

 discoveries which have in a great measure 

 brought about our present advanced civiliza- 

 tion, have been made by the study ot "small 

 things," and by the " accurate and systematic 

 accumulation of facts." But to show how, in 

 our own Department of Science, the knowledge 

 of a single fact which can only be obtained by 

 a i^roper study of one of these "insignificant" 

 creeping, crawling things, that are popularly 

 called Bugs, may prove of great practical im- 

 portance, let us instance one or fwfo of the many 

 cases that might be brought forward. 



