22 General Biology 



The evidence forces the conclusion that, under present conditions, 

 if we should know all that it is possible for a human being to know, we 

 could be right only about one-half the time. As knowledge is the only 

 way in which we can be right even as frequently as this, it follows that 

 when an opinion is called forth without any knowledge, a man forms 

 approximately 215 erroneous conclusions to every one that is correct. 

 The scriptural command becomes intelligible: "Get ye therefore 

 knowledge." 



It has been said that the evidence from diagnostic sources is almost 

 ideal to illustrate the point here made. Everything we do that requires 

 an opinion is pure diagnosis. In other words, every time one passes 

 a judgment upon the facts presented, it is a diagnosis of some kind, and 

 any error in our diagnosis means that no intelligent suggestion can 

 come forth as to a remedy, except on the basis of one correct one to 215 

 erroneous ones. The diagnosis must be correct or the remedy is absurd 

 with the only possible exception of a guess accidentally correct. 



No intelligent person wishes to have his government run, his estate 

 adjusted, his house built, or his farm managed upon pure guess work 

 in which the chances are that two 1 hundred and fifteen times more wrong 

 things will be done than right ones. And this is not only the case in 

 medicine, dentistry, and the professions at large, but in the every-day 

 business world as well. Dun and Bradstreet, who keep a record of every 

 individual entering, as well as every one failing in business, tell us that 

 95 out of every 100 men who enter a commercial line for themselves 

 fail at some time in their lives. This is due, not only to an ignorance 

 of the particular line of work they may enter, but also to ignorance of 

 business principles and methods at large. 



To many persons it seems that the purely practically-trained indi- 

 vidual is better equipped than he whose training has been theoretical, 

 and individuals usually mentioned as examples to illustrate this point 

 are among the ablest practically-trained men to be found, who are then 

 compared with some of the poorest theoretically- trained. Because a boy 

 is sent to college does not mean anything except, that, if he has a capacity 

 for the work he takes up, he will be able to get the practical side of 

 his study, while in addition he will learn why he does what he does, 

 when he does it. Any man with great ability along a given line will 

 naturally know more, and be able to work better along that line than 

 any man without such capacity who has merely taken some theoretical 

 course. But, if we take two men of equal intelligence and capacity, 

 who take up, let us say, the plumber's trade, he who has mastered both 

 the practical and the theoretical side of his work will always be superior 

 to him who has become interested in only one or the other. It must be 

 remembered that 



(1) Capacity, 



(2) Opportunity, and 



(3) Application 



are essential to make a master of anyone in anything. 



