The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1909. PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 598, 28 August 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1909. PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

The.; proceedings of the British Asso-, ciation for the Advancement of Science, which , (as we','were informed in a cablegram published in yesterday's issue) is now; holding 1 its annual' congress at Winnipeg, will be of great interest to' all who adequately realise the ■ important part which science has played in the extension of the ,mental'outlook and . the improvement of the acicial conditions ,of . mankind. The' Association this year has a verj f distinguished; President in tho person of Sir J. J. Thomson, Professor.of Experimental ' Physics at Cambridge; who. is* in charge of the famous ,Cavendish Laboratory. .His. preeminence in certain- branches of ..research has afc tracted students from all parts of the world to the University of New-Clerk-Maxwell,. and Stokes. Some of his: experiments demand a very , thorough' knowledge ;of certain branches of mathematics, and this no doubt accounts for the fact that ,in his presidential ad: dress he emphasised th 6 need for closer uiiiop. between the ' study of physits and that of mathematics. It-haVteen stated that the problom'of the. scientific interpretation of Nature iB to' redescribe 'natural happenings in the 1 simplest available terms—the terms of mechanics in tho wide sense. Some of these redescriptions are-so intricate that only.; the ■ mathematicallyminded can deal with them, and over the gateway.; to this department of knowledge are written the words, "£et no one ignorant. of mathematics enter hero." The .results of scientific rosearch aro felt in; almost every sphete of civilised life, and. there are :no indications that the limits/ of progress: in this direction are in Bight. :It -iB hardly hecessary : to state that the,process of discovery: is not' confined to our own times. We are the inheritors of the; thoughts and inventions of the. great • scientists of all ages, but during the last hundred years there has been such a; marvellous succcssion of discoveries: that tho present may ' without boastfulncsq be called the golde.u age of; science. It. has seen the birth bf tho epoch-making theories of- Darwin and; Wallace, tho telegraph, . the telephone, the Kontgen rays, tho motor-car, tho airship, and the utilisation of electricity in various' forms;. it has- seen great 'develbpments :in. 'surgery. arid medicine, and a loading authority, has gone so far as to say. that if.'We cared enough "all ' epidemic diseases coiild be abolished in .fifty years"; and now it is witnessing a wonderfully, interesting attempt to 'solve the' deep problems connected with the .origin of life and matter. This is a marvellous record, and discovery after discovery has come upon'ius with Buch rapidity that we are in dang'or of losing the very capacity for wonder. "Almost every day we get a fresh instance .of the: way in, which' "Science reaches forth her arms to feel from world to world, - and charms her secret\froiri :the .latest: moon."' . .In the words of Professor J. Arthur; Thomson, "we annihilate distance with bux'' deep devices and, make the other carry our signals. .We bring the moon so n?ar that our maps of it are better than those of. Africa three generations ago. We measure the distance of'the stars; we analyse the chemioal, composition. of, the sun." : . .' .V ■

But, . notwithstanding the wonderful story he has to tell, the scientist of today is much more modest than some iof his predecessors. Ho has learned that behind almost'-every mystery he has apparently, explained there lies; another and a deeper. He recognises the limitations of his, work. It is true that some people occasionally talk as though tho riddle of. the universe: was about to be solved;, but the candid scientist readily admits that it is nearer the truth to say that nothing has been really explained. It is tho function of science to describe rather than explain. Its object "is to fit together a consistent and harmonious model whioh shall represent to our minds the, phenomena which act on' our senses." The frank recognition of this fact has. done much to remove the suspioion with which many pooplo were at one time inclined to regard tfye scientific spirit. . It has done away with what Piiofessor Htfxley called the "nightmare view of an advancing tide of matter threatening to drown •6ur'wwk" , ;X''Whttt, after all," he writes, "do we know of this terrible 'matter' except as it name for. the unknown and hypothetical cause of states-of our own consciousness." Our one certainty, he dqclarcs,, is not "matter" at all, but tho (txintoioa : oi tlio manial warlcL ■ So

far from soionco explaining everything, another master mind, Sin Oliver Lodge, tells us "that of real origin, even of the simplest thing, wo know nothing; not oven of a pcbblo," Physical, science, as such, has nothing to do with ultimate origins; it gives us a , picturo of thc v world developing of itself; it docs not protond to know whenco the mechanism of tho univorso has como. ThcßO probloms belong to philosophy and theology, and true science will raise no word protest when wc dcclaro in the words of Kant that "the universe must sink into the abyss of nothingness unless wc admit that, besides this infinite chain of contingencies, ; thcro , exists something that is primal and self-subaidtent, something which, as tho causo of thin phenomenal world,, secures its continuance and preservation,": • •