Page:Blackwell 1898 Scientific method in biology.pdf/86



HE attainment of truth, not the gratification of curiosity or of personal ends, is the sole and distinctive aim of genuine scientiﬁc research.

II. It is a radical intellectual error to apply the same methods of investigation, suitable to inorganic facts, to the study of organic facts. Natural law being mind ruling matter, every method employed in research into organic Nature must respect and take into account the inseparable mental factor in each type of sentient life, or it becomes unscientiﬁc, and may promote fallacy, not truth. Destructive experiment on living creatures, even under the partial suspension of consciousness produced by anæsthetics, is an erroneous method, producing confused or contradictory results.