The Rise of the Experimental Method

Ladies and Gentlemen of Sigma Xi: I look upon it as a special honor to be invited to address you, not alone because of your traditions of scholarship and scientific attainment, but in particular because you are a body of men and women who desire to increase natural knowledge by means of experiment. I am in sympathy with those who believe this to be the highest of human aims, and, when taken collectively, it represents the raison d'etre of a university. We are frequently asked whether, as members of a great educational body, such as Yale, our chief duty is to make new knowledge or to disseminate information. I would answer without reservation that the former is our primary objective, and that our capacity for disseminating knowledge generally increases with the amount we add. In the broad field of science experimentation has been the touchstone of discovery. It is the common approach to all fundamental problems, and the link which binds us in common enterprise. The rise of the experimental method, therefore, lends itself appropriately to discussion. Experimentation may be defined as a process by which questions are put to Nature in such a way that Nature can return a prompt and decisive reply. The art of the experimenter is thus twofold-he must select his questions and he must arrange things suitably for Nature to answer them. Rarely are these two faculties highly developed in one individual, and the great scientist is the man who commands and cultivates both. Many ask fruitless questions and spend years and fortunes attempting to have them answered. Others put questions pregnlant with meaning, but fail to arrange things suitably for the reply. At the risk of stressing the obvious I have mentioned these time-worn themes, for I feel that one should think upon them whenever devising an experiment.