186 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[September 7,1872, 
no right to say that such knowledge is impossible. 
Either the question will he settled once for all; or the 
extent of space will he shown to be greater than a quan¬ 
tity which will increase from year to year with the im¬ 
provement of our sources of knowledge. Either alterna¬ 
tive is perfectly conceivable, and there is no contradic¬ 
tion. Observe especially that the supposed contradiction 
arises from the assumption of theoretical exactness in the 
laws of geometry. Now the other case that I mentioned 
has a very similar origin. The idea of a piece of matter, 
the parts of which are held together by force, and are 
■capable of being torn asunder by greater forces, is en¬ 
tirely derived from the large pieces of matter which we 
have to deal with. We do not know whether this idea 
applies in any sense to the molecules of gases even; still 
less can we apply it to the atoms of which they are com¬ 
posed. The word force is used of two phenomena ; the 
pressure which, when two bodies are in contact, connects 
the motion of each with the position of the other ; and 
attraction or repulsion; that is to say, a change of velo¬ 
city in one body depending on the position of some other 
body which is not in contact with it. We do not know 
that there is anything corresponding to these phe¬ 
nomena in the case of a molecule. A meaning can, 
however, be given to the question of the divisibility of 
matter in this way. We may ask if there is any piece 
of matter so small that its properties as matter depend 
upon its remaining in one piece. This question is reason¬ 
able ; but we cannot answer it at present, though we are 
not at all sure that we shall be equally ignorant next 
year. If there is no such piece of matter, no such limit 
to the division which shall leave it matter; the knowledge 
of that fact would be different from any of our present 
knowledge, but we have no right to say that it is impos¬ 
sible. If, on the other hand, there is a limit, it is quite 
possible that we may have measured it by the time the 
Association meets at Bradford. Again, when we are told 
that the infinite extent of space, for example, is some¬ 
thing that we cannot conceive at present, we may reply 
that this is only natural, since our experience has never 
yet supplied us with the means of conceiving such 
things. But then we cannot be sure that the facts will 
not make us learn to conceive them ; in which case they 
they will cease to be inconceivable. In fact, the putting 
of limits, to human conception must always involve the 
assumption that our previous experience is universally 
valid in a theoretical sense, an assumption which we 
have already seen reason to reject. Now you will see 
that our consideration of this opinion has led us to the 
true sense of the assertion that the order of nature is 
reasonable. If you will allow me to define a reasonable 
question as one which is asked in terms of ideas justified 
by previous experience, without itself contradicting that 
experience, then we may say as the result of our investi¬ 
gation, that to every reasonable question there is an in¬ 
telligible answer, which either we, or posterity, may 
know. 
W® ^ave, then, come somehow to the following con¬ 
clusions. By scientific thought we mean the application 
of past experience to new circumstances, by means of an 
observed order of events. By saying that this order of 
events is exact, we mean that it is exact enough to 
correct experiments by, but we do not mean that it is 
theoretically or absolutely exact, because we do not 
know. The process of inference we found to be in itself 
an assumption of uniformity, and that as the known 
exactness of the uniformity became greater, the strin¬ 
gency of the inference increased. By saying that the 
order of events is reasonable, we do not mean that every¬ 
thing has a purpose, or that everything can be ex¬ 
plained, or that everything has a cause; for neither of 
these is true. But we mean that to every reasonable 
question there is an intelligible answer, which either we 
or posterity may know by the exercise of scientific 
thought. For I specially wish you not to go away 
with the idea that the exercise of scientific thought is 
properly confined to the subjects from which my illustra¬ 
tions have been chiefly drawn to-night. "When the 
Roman jurists applied their experience of Roman citi¬ 
zens to dealings between citizens and aliens, showing by 
the difference of their actions that they regarded the 
circumstances as essentially different, they laid the 
foundation of that great structure which has guided the 
social progress of Europe. That procedure was an 
instance of strictly scientific thought. When a poet 
finds that he has to move a strange new world which 
his predecessors have not moved, where nevertheless 
he catches fire from their flashes, arms from their ar¬ 
moury, sustentation from their footprints,—the procedure 
by which he applies old experience to new circumstances 
is nothing greater or less than scientific thought. When 
the moralist, studying the conditions of society and the 
ideas of right and wrong, which have come down to us 
from a time when war was the normal condition of man, 
and success in war the only chance of survival, evolves 
from them the conditions and ideas which must accom¬ 
pany a time of peace, when the comradeship of equals is 
the condition of national success,—the process by which 
he does this is scientific thought and nothing else. Re¬ 
member, then, that it is the guide of action; that the 
truth which it arrives at is not that which we can 
ideally contemplate without error, but that which we 
may act upon without fear; and you cannot fail to see 
that scientific thought is not an accompaniment or con¬ 
dition of human progress, but human progress itself. 
And for this reason the question what its characters are, 
of which I have so inadequately endeavoured to give you 
some glimpse, is the question of all questions for the 
human race. 
GLYCEROLE OF ASSAFCETIDA. 
The following formula for the above preparation is pub¬ 
lished in the 1 American Journal of Pharmacy,’ by Mr. A. 
Robbins. He states that he has used it many times 
during the last ten years and always found it to give a 
good article of milk of assafeetida : — 
Ijb. Assafoetida. 5 ij. 
Glycerine, q. s., ft. . . . f. 3 viii. 
Select the best assafoetida and cut it quite fine; put 
it into an eight-ounce bottle, and add five fluid ounces 
of glycerine ; cork well and suspend in a can of water, 
which place on the stove where the heat will be very 
moderate ; let it remain so a day or two, shaking the 
bottle frequently; then strain through a coarse cloth, 
and return the residue to the bottle with three fluid 
ounces of glycerine ; let stand as before, and then strain 
into that first obtained, and make up to eight fluid ounces 
by adding glycerine. 
One fluid drachm of this added to seven drachms of 
water will make milk of assafoetida containing the pro¬ 
per quantity of the drug. 
The author has also used glycerine with gum am- 
moniacum, and while the solution was not as perfect as 
that of assafoetida, he found upon examination that the 
amount of ammoniacum taken up is about the same 
as when the mistura ammoniaci is made by the officinal 
U.S. formula. With myrrh he did not succeed well, but 
still obtained a passable preparation which he has no 
doubt could be, by continued experiment, much improved. 
Oil of Cloves for Microscopical Preparations.— 
Dr. Webber, of Boston, recommends the use of oil of 
cloves in preference to turpentine, as it is not so volatile, 
and allows of preparations being kept a day or two for 
examination. It also allows the Canada balsam to be 
used without the previous washing of the preparation, 
which is necessary if carbolic acid be used. 
