198 The American Naturalist, [March, 



But first of all to enable this insight, the scales of ignorance 

 must be scraped from the eyes, for the past system of educa- 

 tion that ignored the sciences would create this blindness. 

 Sociological study depends upon a knowledge of biology in its 

 widest sense, comprising such things as anthropology, ethnol- 

 ogy, zoology, botany, comparative anatomy and comparative 

 physiology, and the front door to all this knowledge is chem- 

 istry and physics. 



It may not be possible for any one person to master all these 

 branches in their entirety, and we daily encounter narrow 

 specialists in scientific fields, who, for want of education, can- 

 not see the bearing of all the departments of information upon 

 their particular branch. Such arc anatomists who know no 

 botany or chemistry ; botanists who know nothing outside of 

 plants; chemists who can see nothing beyond their test tubes 

 and reagents. But. other things being e<|ual. no one is so well 

 equipped to begin the study of the universe as is the one with 

 a good training in chemistry. 



During the great fire of Chicago it was observed that the 

 marble fronts of the houses seemed to melt in the flames and 

 that the bricks were the really fire-proof material, facts which 

 did not surprise the mineralogist, who. with Ids chemical 

 knowledge, knows that carbonate ,,f lime readily calcines and 

 that silicates resist heat. 



Comparably the philosophical scientist can reason from 

 cause to effect, or backward, intelligently, and see associations 

 that do not exist for the one with purely classical knowledge. 

 A house may be an aggregation of bricks, stone, or wood, and 

 will behave toward fire, water, and air as its component mate- 

 rials enable it, without surprise to anyone, but when commu- 

 nities are made up of human beings the old-time historian 

 never traces relationship in the behavior of one to that of the 

 other. The whole had no relation to its parts. 



Even among sociologists who recognize these dependencies. 

 a deeper source of information was seldom sought, such as 

 biology in general, and they might indulge in the general 

 smile of contemptous ignorance if it were hinted that chem- 

 istry and physics could aid their research. 



