Introduction to science / by Alex Hill.

  • Alexander Hill
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introduction to science / by Alex Hill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “How does it act? ” then, “Why does it act in this way rather than in some other way ? ” And be it understood, this question “ Why ? ” is asked with a view to eliciting as answer either that certain forces determine a change in the molecular constitution of the substance, or that the action serves the organism in such or such a way. Science never seeks to determine the relative value of phenomena in the scheme of the universe—in the Cosmos, as our intelligence figures it. Still less does science venture to suppose that she can throw light into the world above the world, the All- intelligent, of which our intelligence is but a dependence. The expression “The contest between Religion and Science” is an absurdity ; there can be no contest in which one of the combatants is absolutely passive. With the struggle between what is true and what false in the expression of religion, in dogmatic theology, science has no concern; but this is a subject upon which we shall have a few words to add later on. The aim of science is to know Nature, and to know for the sake of knowing. As has often been said of art, that it ceases to be art as soon as it is conscious of a moral purpose, so may it be said of science that when the student sets before himself a utilitarian object he runs the risk of prejudicing his conclusions. It is of course only in a limited sense that this is true. Great advances have been made by investigators whose object was wholly technical. Yet, if the history of science were written, it would be found that the first step in advance, the germ of the discovery which developed and became fruitful in the hands of the practical chemist, the mechanician, the pathologist, was discovered by the in¬ vestigator for whom science lost its interest as soon as it could be put to practical use. Who anticipated until Lister devised its practical application that the septic in¬ fection of wounds inflicted by the surgeon’s knife could be certainly prevented by performing the operation under a cloud of water-vapour in which carbolic acid is suspended ? The antiseptic property of coal-tar had long been known.
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