--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - F. S. Harris collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 21 number: 4 published: 1918-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "F. S. Harris, “The Makers of Science: V,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 4 (February 1918): 334–336." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2104unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2104unse start_page: 334 end_page: 336 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2104unse publication_year: 1918 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Makers of Science: V The Makers of Science By F. S. Harris, Ph. D., Director Experiment Station, Utah Agricultural College V — Aristotle For twenty centuries Aristotle was the chief authority on natural science. In him the science of the ancient world found its culmination, and it was back to his writings that every ques- tion was referred throughout medieval times and until modern scientific workers began to study nature. The highest culture of the ancient world was found among the Greeks. They gath- ered learning from all lands and themselves made great advances in science, literature, art, and philosophy. Science originated in Egypt and Babylonia, but not until the superior intellect of the Greeks was turned to it was any noteworthy advancement made. Thales (640-546 B. C), the first of the Greek philosophers, was also founder of Greek astronomy and geometry, but it was with Aristotle that science reached its highest development. Aristotle was born 384 B. C, at Stagira, a Greek colony on the Macedonian peninsula Chalcidice, and lived to be sixty-two years old. He came from a long line of physicians. His father was physician to King Amyntas II of Macedonia, who was grand- father of Alexander the Great. At eighteen Aristotle went to Athens to study under Plato, the great Athenian teacher of the time. Plato being absent at Syracuse, Aristotle spent three years studying books till he returned, when a close friendship between the two was formed. So brilliant was the pupil that Plato called him the "intellect of the school." Aristotle remained in Athens twenty years, during part of which time he conducted a school of rhetoric. At the age of forty-two he was invited by King Philip to Macedonia to educate his son Alexander who was then only thirteen years old. He remained as instructor of Alexander at least three years, and must have been well liked by his pupil, since Alexander in later years contributed 800 talents, equivalent *to about $200,000, to help out his studies in natural history. Almost every science traces its history back to Aristotle. While his chief contributions were in the field of biology, his great systematizing mind made its imprint on many branches, among which may be mentioned, physical astronomy, physical geography, meteorology, physics, chemistry, geology, botany, as- THE MAKERS OF SCIENCE 335 tronomy, physiology, embryology, and zoology. His work in these lines was greatly assisted by his pupil Theophrastus. Aristotle strongly urged that facts should first be sought and that the explanations should not be given till the facts were well established. "We must not," he said, "accept a general prin- ciple from logic only, but must prove its application to each fact; for it is in facts that we must seek general principles, and these must always accord with facts. Experiments furnish the particular facts from which induction is the pathway to general laws." In spite of this teaching, the scientific facts that he dis- covered were often so intermingled with philosophy and logic that it was difficult to tell where fact ended and theory began. He had a rather sound knowledge of animals, plants, and rocks. His works show a knowledge of over five hundred living forms, and he dissected over fifty different species of animals. He traced with considerable care the embryological development of the chick during incubation. His knowledge of the propaga- tion of animals was not sufficient, however, to make him reject the belief in spontaneous generation from mud, sand, foam, and dew. In several places in his works he gave evidence to show that the earth is round, although it was at that time almost uni- versally thought to be flat. In the field of botany he showed considerable knowledge of plants, their mode of propagation, nourishment, and relation to animals. He knew very little of human anatomy, as the body was not thought to be a fit subject of study. He held that the brain was bloodless and that the arteries carried air instead of blood. Without doubt some of his errors in physical science had a retarding influence, since during the middle ages he was con- sidered to be so infallible an authority. His statement that bodies fall toward the earth at a speed proportional to their weight was held by many to be correct even after Galileo had demonstrated its falsity by actual experiment. He taught that there were four elements : the hot, the cold, the wet, and the dry. In spite of his mistakes he contributed much of value con- cerning the natural world, and for the first time turned the at- tention of students toward a systematic study of nature and her laws. He held that even the lower things of nature are worth consideration. He said. "We ought not with puerile fastidious- ness to neglect the contemplation of more ignoble animals; for in all animals there is something to admire, because in all there is the natural and the beautiful." This point of view is decid- edly wholesome even in modern times. An attitude that places him definitely in the class of great scientists is that expressed in the following words: "I found no basis prepared; no models to copy ..... mine is the first step, and therefore a small one, though worked out with much 336 IMPROVEMENT ERA thought and hard labor. It must he looked at as a first step and judged with indulgence. You, my readers, or hearers of my lectures, if you think. I have done as much as can fairly be required for an initiatory start, as compared with more advanced departments of theory, will acknowledge what I have achieved and pardon what I have left for others to accomplish." He realized the immensity of nature and that many workers would be required to discover all her laws. Logan, Utah