ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1542, 11 September 1912, Page 4

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

, Sir,—The leader' of your Saturday's issue, having reference to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, is interesting inasmuch as' if indicates that material science is gradually waking from its lethargy; though Professor Schaefer is still much deluded by the search for tho missing link between living and dead matter. Tho word "science' as generally understood has many diverso significations. Tho original meaning of tho word science" is "knowledge," and the more we keep to this original meaning the better. Tho mischief and tho cause of complaint comes in when this very 'science forgets its solo aim and purpose, and makes itself synonymous with arrogance, pride, prejudice, bad logic, worse metaphysics, and last, but not least, gross ignorance. Our knowledge is accurate so "«" goesp-we don't delude ourselves with tho notion that tho earth is tho absolute centre of tho universe, and that tho sun and starry firmament were expressly . made for the edification of creatures whom Professor Teufelsdrockh was wont to apostrophise. "0, inv friends we 'are (in Yoricjt Sterne's words) but as turkeys driven with a stick and a red elout to the market." It is a wonderful step forward for man to know' that ho dwells on an of molecules called the earth, which in the vast chart pf creation is but a mathematical point, flie progress of science-means the acquisition of knowledge v respecting the cosmos, both as a whole and in its parts, btnctly adhering to this idea of science, we cut off very sharply an immense portion of what has been called science by the scientific man. Take, for instance the attitude of what has been called' modern science" towards the world of occultism—that is what Tvndall called "the subsensible world." It has been one long cry of derision and scoffing. Now the tables are turned, and it is the fashion to. admit what then it was the fashion to deny and denounce as "unscientific." Science proclaimed that such and such a thing impossible science indeed! It was not-proclaimed impossible by science, which is but a Latin word meaning knowledge,,.but by the very opposite of science-xrude ignorance and arrogance.. . • Tho material, knowledge of to-day is extremely valuable, and is so far advanced that if one can only get the right clue to follow,, it can be turned to splendid account. How incongruous the idea that Tyndall, who could analyse a beam of light with a master hand, who could transmute one form of force into ijnother, electricity into . magnetism, magnetism. into electricity, etc., who could put planets and stars "in the scales" and tell you their approximate weight and mass, yet could not go to sleep when he wished, and was a martyr to insomnia for months together! From the lofty pedestal of the knowledgo which this grand intellect attained, lie bad to come down to the level of that pieco of absurdity called "medical science," and take at its bidding dose after dose of mixtures which lower vitality and sap the very core, of health and vigour. It is not without cause that Dr. Fonwick, in "A Strange Story," exclaims, "Recognised science! E*»gnised ignorance! Had I been less devoted - a bigot to this vain school-craft, which we call medical art, and which, alone in this age of science has,made no perceptible progress since the days of, its earliest teachers; had I said in the true humility of genuine knowledge," etc; What is a-paltry existence of seventy or eighty or one hundred years compared to the duration of life held out to man as the fruit of a wider and more profound science of life? One hundred years a long life! Nonsense. It is but a drop in the ocean compared to the life of Nature. Man dies, not because Nature ordains him to do so at a certain age, but because he has transgressed, the laws of Nature so much that vitality cannot longer inhabit his organism. Nature merely tells man to live ns long ns ho can. No limit whatever hns been aligned, but iho limit newssadly .imposed upon ignornntin legis. It is the seieneo and art of living t lint: man wants now to develop. The conquests of science at the present, day are magnificent in the external realm of Nature, but in the realm of Medicine no real advance has been' made. I am not speaking of surgery, which, of course, is a mechanical nit, and is practised now with great skill, but of what is taught under the head of medicine in the medical schools of to-day. I will not denv that ft certain amount of knowledge is acquired by the student, but it is not a science. It is not an art by which a person who follows it can acquire greater vitality and self-mastery which bids de- ] fiance to the attack of pain<and disease There is a growing feeling that life is wonderful, divine, an.d consequently ' a great repugnance to squander it in'useless speculation on questions which even the most, advanced amongst us can onlv see as in a glass darkly. Althntas, tho mauician in Dumas's novel, "Memoirs of a Physician." expresses this impatience of theoretical 'peculation;—" And what slime have you stored ud? eh.? The best

—the slime of philosophy." "Oh! so you nro selling to work with your Etopias, your baseless visions, your fogs and mists! fools! yo discuss tlio existence or noneiistonco of God, instead of trying, liko me, to make gods of yourselves." There are intiuito powers lying dormant in man, here, now. Powers which, could ho but catch a glimpse of, would endow his life on this planet with greater splendour, and impart to it redoubled interest. Until man learns the science of "the spirit," which science teaches man to know the spirit as himself, and tho mind and body as his sen-ants, these' powers will ever remain dormant. When material science understands that wise precept, "Man know thyself," it will, recognise that there is no such thing'' as ('Mid inert matter, and cease looking for "the missing link between living and dead matter." Science will then be recognised in ltsjruo and primordial sense as "knowledge," and science. Knowledge is power. —I am, eto., . L , INNER MAN. September 8, 1912.