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.

    19/156 page 7
    The chemist isolated phenol, which proved to be by far the strongest germicide of all the substances which coal- tar contains. Lister devised a method for investing cut surfaces with an atmosphere of phenol in which it is impossible for germs to live. How far was Rontgen, when he discovered—by accident, truly, rather than by design—that cathodic rays will penetrate organic sub¬ stances, from foreseeing that he was equipping the surgeon with the means of detecting a bullet hidden in the flesh ? We have taken our examples from the department of science of which the applications are of the greatest use to mankind, but similar illustrations are afforded by every subject of ob¬ vious practical utility. The discovery is made by the in¬ vestigator who works without weighing the question of whether his line of research is more likely to benefit man¬ kind than any other line. The practical man who is on the watch for suggestions seizes the discovery and applies it to the uses of his profession. The superiority of pure science to applied science, as a field for research, is even more easily proved from the opposite side. Every investigator who works in a technical labora¬ tory knows the difficulty of following a useful line of research. He is constantly thrown back upon himself with the convic¬ tion that only by some happy accident will he discover the solution to the problem ; while at almost every turn in his investigations he starts questions to which he is astonished to find that no answer has yet been given, problems which tempt him to forget the purpose with which he set out, to leave the main road and to follow the by-path, not because he believes that it will lead him to a source of food or fame, but simply prompted by curiosity to find out whither it leads. It may be a pathologist who sets out to search for an antitoxin. He has no interest, of which he is conscious, in the chemistry of complex nitrogenous compounds. He will apply to the professed chemist for all the information he requires. But when his questions regarding the nature of the albuminoid constituents of serum are not satisfactorily
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