Any Observation May Have Value.
Michael Faraday, that consummate observer, held that at times the observations of comparatively untrained men are well worth attention. In one of his note-books he wrote:—“Whilst passing through manufactories and engaged in the observance of the various operations of civilized life, we are constantly hearing observations made by those who find employment in these places, and are accustomed to a minute observation of what passes before them which are new or frequently discordant with received opinions. These are frequently the result of facts, and though some are founded in error, some on prejudice, yet many are true and of high importance to the practical man. Such of them as come in my way I shall set down here, without waiting for the principle on which they depend; and though three fourths of them ultimately prove to be erroneous, yet if but one new fact is gathered in a multitude, it will be sufficient to justify this mode of occupying time.”