Page:Blackwell 1898 Scientific method in biology.pdf/59



HE apparent opposition between popular and medical judgment in relation to certain methods of biological research, which claim to be scientific, necessitates a clearer knowledge of what science is, and a recognition of the methods of research which can alone be called scientific.

It is certain that knowledge of truth must reconcile varying but honest opinions, and furnish plans of investigation that neither shock the humane development of our nature nor hinder our intellectual progress towards truth.

The terms 'science' and 'scientific' are constantly used and abused. They are often applied to the accumulating of facts or of phenomena; but such accumulation is not necessarily science, and may