The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-09-28


r HOLD that science is incompetent to make
comprehensive denials. even about the
ether. and that 1t goes wrong when 1t
makes the attempt. Science should not deal
In negations; 1t is strong In afirmations' Out
nothing based abstraction ought 1t to pre-
sumo to deny outside Its own region. It often
happens that things distracted from and liz.
nored b. one branch OF science may be taken
into consideration by another.
Experimental scientists should not deny the
existence OF spirit apart from matter, for they
know nothing, expermentally. OF the ether OF
space. the substance which binds all matter
throughout the universe together.
am not alone In feeling the fascination OF
this portentous entity It's curiously elusive
and intangible character. combined with Ito
universal and unifying permeance its appar-
emily infinite extent, its definite and perfect
properties. make the ether the most interesting
1t Is by far the largest and most tunda-
mental ingredient In the material cosmos
Matter 1t is not. but material 1t is; 1t be-
longs to the material universe and is to be
investigated by ordinary methods. But to say
This Is h. no means to deny that IL may nave
mental and spiritual functions TO subserve IN
some other order Of existence. as matter has
In this
CINE Of continuity 1t may be much more for
without It there could hardly be material
universe at all. Certainly. however, 1t Is es-
seutal 70 continuity: 1t is the one all-per.
meating substance which binds the whole OF
the PARTICLES OF matter together. 1t Is the
uniting and binding medium without which, II
matter could exist at all. II could exist only
as chaotic and isolated fragments; and 1t ID
the universal medium OF communication De-
tween worlds and particles And yet IT Is
possible for people to deny It's existence be-
cause !, Is unrelated 20 any or our senses, ex.
cept sisht-and to that only In an inoirec'
and not easily recognized fashion.
Life itself introduces an incalculable element
into many phenomena, The vagaries OF
Are or cyclone could all be predicted by
La place Calculator, given the initial posltions
velocites and the law OF acceleratton OF the
molecules: bu, no mathematician could eaica'
late the orbit OF common house ny MA
physicis. into whose galvanometer a spider
had crept would be liable 10 get phenomena
Of kind quite inexplicable. until he discoverea
the supernatural. |. G.. literally superphysical,
cause. | will risk the assertion that life In.
troducet something incalculable and purposefui
amid the laws OF physics; II thus distinctly
supplements those laws. though II leaves them
otherwise precisely as they were and ooeys
them all. 80,
itself Conversion OF inorganic into organic
is effected always by living organisms. The
conversion under those conditions certainly
occurs. and the process may lie studied i.te
clearly takes place under the guidance of life.
though In Itself II Is q physical and chemical
process. Many laboratory conversions take
place under the guidance OF lie, and, out ior
the experimenter, would not have occurred.
Again. putrefa ction. and fermentation and
publication OF rivers and disease are not
purely and solely chemical processes. Chem.
teal processes they are, but they are Initiated
and conducted by living organisms. Just when
medicine is becoming biological, and when tho
hope Of making the tropical belt OF the earth
healthily habitable by energetic races Is at
tracing the attention of people OF power.
philosophizing biologists should not attempt TO
give their science away 10 chemistry and
physics.
Scientific men are hostile 10 superstition,
and rightly So for great many popular SUI
perstitons are both annoying and contempti-
BILE; yet occasionally the term may be wrongly
applied to practises OF which the theory Is un'
known. To superficial observer some of thu
off i0lOgiStS themselves
grossly supersttious. To combat malaria SIR
Ronald Ross does not indeed erect an altar
no. he ellis pond, making lbaton to presiding
genii. What can be moro ludicrous than the
curious and evidently savage ritual, insisted
on by United States officers. at that hygienic-
ally splendid achievement the Panama
Canal-the ritual OF punching hole in every
discarded tin, with the object Ct keeping off
disease! What more absurd, again-in super
fetal appearance-than the practise of burn.
.7lg or poisoning soil to make 1t extra ferte
biologists In their proper field are splendid,
and their work arouses keen interest and en-
thusias;, in all whom they guide into their
domain. Most of them do their work by In
tense concentration, by narrowing down their
scope, not by taking wide survey or com
prehensiye grasp. Suggestions OF broader
views and outlying fields OF knowledge seem
foreign to the intense worker. and he resents
them. For his own purpose lie wishes to ig'
more them, and practically he may be quite
right. The folly OF negation is not his, but
belongs to those who misnterpret or misapply
his utterances and take him as guide In
region where, for the time at least. he is
stranger Not by such aid is the universe in
its broader aspects to be apprehended. If PEG.
ple in general better acquainted with
science they would not make these mistakes.
They would realize both the learning and the
limitations, make use OF the one and allow for
The other. and not take the recipe OF practical
worker for formula wherewth TO interpret
the universe.
SO II ever In their enthusiasm scientific
workers go too far and say that the things they
exclude from study have no existence In tho
universe must appeal against them to di.
rect experience. We ourselves are alive, we
possess life and mind and consciousness we
have frst-hand experience OF these things