February, 1910,] 



187 



Miscellaneous. 



properly falls within the scope of the 

 Imperial College, it may not be out of 

 place to bear the matter in mind on this, 

 the second, occasion of the prize-giving 

 of our new college. 



What is the meaning of the word 

 science ? As in the case of so many words, 

 its meaning has become confused by 

 its partial application, i.e., by its appli- 

 cation to a part only of its contents, and 

 this has often led to a misapprehension of 

 the relation of science and of the scien- 

 tific man to life. Science simply means 

 knowledge, and to speak of scientific 

 knowledge, as opposed to ordinary 

 knowledge, is to use a redundant phrase, 

 always supposing that we are using the 

 word knowledge in its strict sense. 

 Huxley defined science as organised com- 

 monsense, by which, I take it, he meant 

 knowledge of things as they are — know- 

 ledge the reality of which can at any 

 time be checked by observation and 

 experiment ; for commonsense, if it is 

 anything, is the faculty by which we are 

 made aware of reality. Science is some- 

 times spoken of as exact knowledge, but 

 I am bound to say that I do not like the 

 phrase exact knowledge ; it seems to 

 imply an insult to the word knowledge. 

 Its use reminds me of a friend of mine 

 who, when he was offered one morning 

 at breakfast a fresh egg, mildly asked, 

 "In preference to what other kind of 

 egg?" It recalls those regrettable 

 phrases one so often hears, I honestly 

 believe, or I honestly think ; one wonders 

 how the people who make use of them 

 usually believe and think. 



It must, I think, be admitted that 

 science simply means knowledge, and 

 that there is nothing peculiar about the 

 knowledge of scientific men by which it 

 differs from other knowledge. 



Scientific men are not a class apart 

 and distinct from ordinary mortals. 

 We are all scientific men in our various 

 degrees. If this is so, how comes it that 

 the distinction is so often made between 

 scientific men and non-scientific men, 

 between scientific knowledge and nan- 

 scientific knowledge ? The truth appears 

 to lie here : though it is true that all men 

 possess knowledge, i.e., science, yet 

 there are some men who make it their 

 main business to concern themselves 

 with some kind of knowledge, and espe- 

 cially with its increase, and to these men 

 the term scientific has been technically 

 applied. Now the distinctive feature of 

 these men, in virtue of which the term 

 scientific is applied to them, is that they 

 not only possess knowledge, but that 

 they make it their business to add to 

 knowledge, and it is this part of their 

 18 



business, if any, which justifies their 

 being placed in a class apart from other 

 possessors of knowledge. 



The men who make it their main 

 business to add to knowledge may be 

 divided into two classes, according to 

 the motive which spurs them on. (1) 

 There are those whose immediate object 

 is to ameliorate the conditions of human 

 life and to add to its pleasures ; their 

 motive is utility, and their immediate 

 goal is within sight. Such are the great 

 host of inventors, the pioneers in agri- 

 culture, in hygiene, preventive medicine, 

 in social reform, and in sound legislation 

 which leads to social reform, and many 

 other subjects. (2) There are those who 

 pursue knowledge for its own sake with- 

 out reference to its practical application. 

 They are urged on by the desire to 

 know, by what has been called a divine 

 curiosity. These men are the real 

 pioneers of knowledge. It is their work 

 which prepares the way for the practical 

 man who watches and follows them. 

 Without their apparently useless investi- 

 gations, progress beyond the limits of 

 the immediately useful would be impos- 

 sible. We should have had no applied 

 electricity, no spectrum analysis, no 

 asceptic surgery, no preventive medicine, 

 no anaesthetics, no navigation of the 

 pathless ocean. Sometimes the results 

 of the seeker after knowledge for its 

 own sake are so unique and astounding 

 that the whole of mankind stands spell- 

 bound before them, and renders them 

 the same homage that the child does the 

 tale of wonderful adventure ; such is the 

 case with the work on radium and radio- 

 activity, which is at present fixing the 

 attention of the whole civilised world. 

 Sometimes the work is of a humbler 

 kind, dealing apparently with trivial 

 objects, and appealing in no way to the 

 imagination or sense of the wonderful ; 

 such was the work which led to and 

 formed the basis of that great generali- 

 sation which has transformed man's out- 

 look of nature — the theory of organic 

 evolution ; such was the work which 

 produced aseptic surgery and the great 

 doctrines of immunity and phagocytosis 

 which have had such tremendous results 

 in diminishing human pain. The temper 

 of such men is a curious one ; no material 

 reward can be theirs, and, as a rule, but 

 little fame. Yet mankind owes them 

 a debt which can never be repaid. It 

 is to these men that the word scien- 

 tific has been specially applied, and 

 with this justification— they have no 

 other profession save that of pursuing 

 knowledge for its own sake, or, if they 

 have a profession, it is that of the 

 teacher, which, indeed, they can hardly 



