August 1, 1884] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE BASIS OF TECHXOkQiSTr. 3 



or Physiological Zoology, which treats of the animal life of sentient 

 organisms. 



Tills complex, nominally triple arrangement, is essentially fcwofol 1, 

 In its relation to Technology. The industrialist must study one class of 

 the physical sciences, or rather one side of all physical science, to con- 

 sider what gifts Nature offers him with her liberal hand. He must study 

 another class of these sciences, or rather another side of all physical 

 science, to discover how to turn those gifts to account. There is always, 

 on the one hand, something to be had for the taking, a raw material, a 

 physical phenomenon, a physical force. TUere is always a necessity, on 

 the other hand, for expenditure of skill to effect the transformation of the 

 raw material, the registration of the phenomenon, the direction of the 

 force. To render this clear, I must enter a little more fully into details ; 

 and these may be discussed under three heads. 



One of the greatest services which observational science is conti- 

 nually rendering to Industrialism, is the discovery of natural substances, 

 mineral, vegetable, and animal, possessed of useful but latent properties. 

 A service not less great is, then, rendered by transformational science 

 pointing out how to modify this gift of nature, so as to call into active 

 existence hidden, precious qualities. Thus, to take a complex but striking 

 example. Through observational science we may discover a soil more or 

 less fertile, all the world over ; but transformational science must show 

 us how to fence and till it, how to drain or irrigate, and manure it, 

 before it can be made a fruitful field. Geology, striving ever to reach 

 nearer to the centre of the earth, finds coal for us. Chemistry teaches 

 us how to coke, i. e. } literally to cook, this raw material, and how to 

 distil it into naphtha and gas. Mineialogy selects iron-ores for us ; 

 Chemistry converts them into steel ; and Mechanics forges that into bars. 

 Descriptive Botany plucks a wild currant ; Physiological Botany changes 

 it into a sweet grape ; Chemistry ferments it into wine, and transforms 

 that into ether. Descriptive Zoology lays its hands on a caterpillar ; 

 Physiological Zoology nurses it into a strong silkworm ; Chemistry bleaches 

 and dyes the silk which it spins ; and Mechanics weaves it into velvet. 



A second most important service which observational science renders 

 to Industrialism, is by discovering striking natural phenomena, such, for 

 example, as the eclipses of the heavenly bodies, the alterations in the 

 pressure and temperature of the atmosphere, the motions of a loadstone 

 suspended freely, and the like ; which experimental science can so 

 register as to make them guides of the greatest value in a multitude of 

 practical labours. 



Thus, there is perhaps no more familiar natural phenomenon than 

 that the sun leaves in shadow that side of a body which is turned from 

 him, and that this shadow changes its place in obedience to the apparent 

 motion of the sun. And with no more than this fact of nature made 

 over to him, even the barbaric mechanician constructs his useful sun- 

 dial, and the day measures itself into hours. So also the bar of steel, 



