10 Teansactions Texas Academy oe Science. . 
profane not even Truth itself is sacred. That such an act is deliberate 
need not be questioned — for the greed of power some men would sell their 
birthright. The want of a prompt and vigorous protest on the part of 
the community, however, is due not so much to an acquiescence in what 
has been done as to a misoonception of what Science really is and what 
the Man. of Science is attempting to do. A highly cultured musician, no 
doubt, would feel greatly aggrieved at the thought of his profession being 
judged by a few strains from a ‘’^catchy tune^^ whistled on the street; yet 
this is the kind of treatment not infrequently accorded the Man of Science. 
A few showy experiments, amusement for the people, serve to fix the 
public estimate of his profession, while his profounder work is passed 
slightingly by, misunderstood, and, it may be, misrepresented. Prom 
this point of view we can readily understand how it is possible for the 
unprincipled politician to foist upon the public an ^^appointee” totally 
unqualified for his position and worthless, or worse than worthless, in his 
relations to science. Think for a moment what this means; in our great 
cities, ifor instance, meat iDspectors, milk inspectors, sanitary inspectors, 
health officers are appointed at the dictum' of that petty tyrant, the ward 
politician. The spectacle often presented is that of a municipality pre- 
tending to protect itself by playing with science — an insult to the very 
name, blow, I do not wish to be misunderstood; I am. aware that not all 
political appointments are of this kind. Scientific bureaus, national, 
state and municipal, are in these days a necessity, and when properly 
administered, of immense value to the people ; but when their work is a 
mere travesty of science they are tolerated only because- of public igno- 
rance, or a low moral standard; for I maintain that the upholding of 
deception — of fraud — when known to be such, by an individual, a com- 
munity, a state, or a nation, shows decided and marked obliquity. 
an not science. 
'Science is the child of Truth. Broadly speaking, it may embrace all 
branches of learning that admit of ^The scientific method of treatment.^^ 
Proof must croton speculation — an ^fism’^ is therefore not science. A 
matter of belief is one thing ; science is another. There are those who 
believe in ^h'ccultism,^^ in ^‘^spiritualism,^^ in ^^Christian ‘Science,” in 
^^mesmerism,” in ^Typnotism,” etc., but the explanations offered by them 
can not be regarded as scientific, for they do not employ scientific meth- 
ods of investigation.^ An ^fism” may have a numerous following; its 
advocates may even be regarded as scholarly, but obviously their strength 
^To be oonvinced that “Christian Science” is not science, one needs but read 
Dr. J. B. Huber’s article in the October, 1899, number of Appleton’s Popular 
Science Monthly, in which he describes his futile attempts to secure satisfactory 
answers to a series of questions bearing upon medical and surgical treatment as 
