Scientific method seeks to establish relations between isolated facts or
phenomena, and the relation generally takes the form of cause and
effect; so that persons with a scientific training are accustomed to
examine the grounds for considering this relation of cause and effect in
circumstances which are selected with a view to exhibiting the reality
of the relation. From that training it becomes possible for them, when
confronted with circumstances presenting some difficulty, to form a
better opinion as to what is the cause of the difficulty than they could
if they were confronted with the same difficulty without the previous
training. Any attentive observer of human nature will be struck by the
fact that every person is accustomed to refer every event to some cause;
if it is an illness, the occasion for contracting the illness is
defined; if it is any unforeseen event in the domestic economy, a reason
is nearly always forthcoming; the question which the housewife is called
upon to decide is whether the reason offered is a real and sufficient
one. Meteorologists tell a familiar story of an Indian nabob who found
that there was a deposit of moisture on the outside of his tumbler of
brandy and water, and tasting it with his finger, remarked it was very
curious that the water came through the glass but the brandy did not.
Plenty of reasons offered for domestic incidents have no better ground
of fact than the nabob's opinion that the water came through the glass.
A good deal of the comfort of a modern house turns upon a right judgment
as regards cause and effect, and therefore some preparation which will
fit the housewife to appreciate the rights and wrongs of domestic
reasoning is an indispensable qualification for success. It is not
always possible for the most profound student to offer offhand the true
explanation of various facts of domestic life, but it is possible to
approach the consideration of these questions with some hope of deciding
whether the explanation offered is a true or a fictitious one. The
ability for this is largely a question of habit of mind or training; and
for our purpose the training must include those departments of
knowledge, the laws of which find daily expression in the manifold
experiences of domestic life. The ultimate foundation for these laws is
to be found in the study of Physics, which deals with those changes in
the state of matter which stop short of the alteration of its
composition; of Chemistry, which deals with changes involving an
alteration of the composition of the substances under consideration; and
of Physiology, which is the identification of the processes which take
place in living animals and plants and their relation to the laws of
physics and chemistry. Without a knowledge of the fundamental principles
of these sciences and of the methods by which those principles are
established, it is not to be expected that any person can deal
adequately with the common experiences of life.
It is true that experience, if it is sufficiently extensive and
prolonged, may lead to the formulation of a set of practical rules that
will carry a housewife through the ordinary household round without
discredit, but the question which we have to put to ourselves is
whether, by organising and directing the experience, success may not be
made certain and more instructive. In these days domestic life is more
complicated than it used to be; at the same time experience is in a
sense more restricted. Many of the instructive processes, practical
experience in which conveyed valuable if unconscious scientific
training, are now conducted on a large scale, and are outside the range
of domestic duties, and the housewife has to supply, by special training
in scientific principles, the judgment that in days gone by was acquired
as a matter of habit.
It is impossible in the short space of a single article to set out the
details of a systematic course of training sufficient to fit the
housewife to use her judgment wisely in circumstances which require a
knowledge of the principles of the fundamental physical sciences. The
most that we can attempt is to give a few examples which illustrate the
application of the principles of physics and chemistry. Our purpose in
doing so is to suggest illustrations which appeal to every householder,
and may create a desire for fuller knowledge rather than to supply a
course of instruction. What we aim at is not to provide the equipment of
scientific training, but to show that the scientific habit of mind will
find opportunities for useful employment in many of the most ordinary
affairs of life. The problems that present themselves in the course of
experience are sometimes difficult and intricate; patience and careful
observation as well as knowledge are required for their solution.
Sometimes this solution is beyond the immediate resources of those
concerned, and it is a part of scientific training to recognise when
this is the case, so that effort and money may not be wasted in
endeavours which are foredoomed to failure. We may cite a case in point
where an extra bell was desired in a system of electric bells in a flat
at a time when electric installations in private houses were somewhat
rare, and workmen with any knowledge beyond that necessary for carrying
out instructions were not easily found. To the confusion of the tenant,
the introduction of this extra bell caused all the bells in the flat to
strike work. A mathematical lecturer living in the same building was
consulted, and opined that the battery of two somewhat small-looking
cells was insufficient, so he obtained and added a larger cell, but the
bells were obdurate and did not resume work. A lady with knowledge of
physics examined the installations and discovered that the wire
connections as altered were entirely wrong and did not connect the bells
to the battery. A plan of the correct connections was shown to the
workman, who a few days later reported that now all the bells rang at
once, and he had had to disconnect the battery! He produced a sketch of
the connections he had made, and on his error being pointed out he was
able to rectify it, and the bells answered to touch without the use of
the extra cell. Generally speaking, a failure on the part of electric
bells is corrected by filling up the cells which compose the battery
with water, an operation which any one may undertake.
It is not safe, however, for an inexperienced person to interfere with
electric light fittings further than to remove a worn-out lamp and place
a new one in the socket, and even this operation may be attended with
disaster. A young friend of ours who was taking part in some private
theatricals obtained the loan of a row of electric footlights. It did
not occur to any one concerned to ask the voltage of the lamps or of the
current to which they were to be applied. When the footlights were
turned up they blazed for a brief period, and then every light in the
house went out! Electrical science for the housewife has been resolved
into a knowledge of electric terms and of a few practical rules useful
and interesting in themselves, but not immediately suitable for our
purpose of showing how scientific study may aid the housewife in her
daily routine.