The Methods of Observation of Quantity in general are, Numeration, which is precise by the nature of Number; the Measurement of Space and of Time, which are easily made precise; the Conversion of Space and Time, by which each aids the measurement of the other; the Method of Repetition; the Method of Coincidences or Interferences. The measurement of Weight is made precise by the Method of Double-weighing. Secondary Qualities are measured by means of Scales of Degrees; but in order to apply these Scales, the student requires the Education of the Senses. The Education of the Senses is forwarded by the practical study of Descriptive Natural History, Chemical Manipulation, and Astronomical Observation.
1. I SHALL speak, in this chapter, of Methods of exact and systematic observation, by which such facts are collected as form the materials of precise scientific propositions. These Methods are very various, according to the nature of the subject inquired into, and other circumstances: but a great portion of them agree in being processes of measurement. These I shall peculiarly consider: and in the first place those referring to Number, Space, and Time, which are at the same time objects and instruments of measurement.
2. But though we have to explain how observations may be made as perfect as possible, we must not forget that in most cases complete perfection is unattainable. Observations are never perfect. For we 146 observe phenomena by our senses, and measure their relations in time and space; but our senses and our measures are all, from various causes, inaccurate. If we have to observe the exact place of the moon among the stars, how much of instrumental apparatus is necessary! This apparatus has been improved by many successive generations of astronomers, yet it is still far from being perfect. And the senses of man, as well as his implements, are limited in their exactness. Two different observers do not obtain precisely the same measures of the time and place of a phenomenon; as, for instance, of the moment at which the moon occults a star, and the point of her limb at which the occultation takes place. Here, then, is a source of inaccuracy and errour, even in astronomy, where the means of exact observation are incomparably more complete than they are in any other department of human research. In other cases, the task of obtaining accurate measures is far more difficult. If we have to observe the tides of the ocean when rippled with waves, we can see the average level of the water first rise and then fall; but how hard is it to select the exact moment when it is at its greatest height, or the exact highest point which it reaches! It is very easy, in such a case, to err by many minutes in time, and by several inches in space.
Still, in many cases, good Methods can remove very much of this inaccuracy, and to these we now proceed.
3. (I.) Number.—Number is the first step of measurement, since it measures itself, and does not, like space and time, require an arbitrary standard. Hence the first exact observations, and the first advances of rigorous knowledge, appear to have been made by means of number; as for example,—the number of days in a month and in a year;—the cycles according to which eclipses occur;—the number of days in the revolutions of the planets; and the like. All these discoveries, as we have seen in the History of Astronomy, go back to the earliest period of the science, anterior to any distinct tradition; and these discoveries presuppose a series, probably a very long series, of observations, made 147 principally by means of number. Nations so rude as to have no other means of exact measurement, have still systems of numeration by which they can reckon to a considerable extent. Very often, such nations have very complex systems, which are capable of expressing numbers of great magnitude. Number supplies the means of measuring other quantities, by the assumption of a unit of measure of the appropriate kind: but where nature supplies the unit, number is applicable directly and immediately. Number is an important element in the Classificatory as well as in the Mathematical Sciences. The History of those Sciences shows how the formation of botanical systems was effected by the adoption of number as a leading element, by Cæsalpinus; and how afterwards the Reform of Linnæus in classification depended in a great degree on his finding, in the pistils and stamens, a better numerical basis than those before employed. In like manner, the number of rays in the membrane of the gills[1], and the number of rays in the fins of fish, were found to be important elements in ichthyological classification by Artedi and Linnæus. There are innumerable instances, in all parts of Natural History, of the importance of the observation of number. And in this observation, no instrument, scale or standard is needed, or can be applied; except the scale of natural numbers, expressed either in words or in figures, can be considered as an instrument.
[1] Hist. Ind. Sc. b. xvi. c. vii.
4. (II.) Measurement of Space.—Of quantities admitting of continuous increase and decrease, (for number is discontinuous,) space is the most simple in its mode of measurement, and requires most frequently to be measured. The obvious mode of measuring space is by the repeated application of a material measure, as when we take a foot-rule and measure the length of a room. And in this case the foot-rule is the unit of space, and the length of the room is expressed by the number of such units which it contains: or, as it may not contain an exact number, by a number with a fraction. But besides this measurement of linear space, 148 there is another kind of space which, for purposes of science, it is still more important to measure, namely, angular space. The visible heavens being considered as a sphere, the portions and paths of the heavenly bodies are determined by drawing circles on the surface of this sphere, and are expressed by means of the parts of these circles thus intercepted: by such measures the doctrines of astronomy were obtained in the very beginning of the science. The arcs of circles thus measured, are not like linear spaces, reckoned by means of an arbitrary unit, for there is a natural unit, the total circumference, to which all arcs may be referred. For the sake of convenience, the whole circumference is divided into 360 parts or degrees; and by means of these degrees and their parts, all arcs are expressed. The arcs are the measures of the angles at the center, and the degrees may be considered indifferently as measuring the one or the other of these quantities.
5. In the History of Astronomy[2], I have described the method of observation of celestial angles employed by the Greeks. They determined the lines in which the heavenly bodies were seen, by means either of Shadows, or of Sights; and measured the angles between such lines by arcs or rules properly applied to them. The Armill, Astrolabe, Dioptra, and Parallactic Instrument of the ancients, were some of the instruments thus constructed. Tycho Brahe greatly improved the methods of astronomical observation by giving steadiness to the frame of his instruments, (which were large quadrants,) and accuracy to the divisions of the limb[3]. But the application of the telescope to the astronomical quadrant and the fixation of the center of the field by a cross of fine wires placed in the focus, was an immense improvement of the instrument, since it substituted a precise visual ray, pointing to the star, instead of the coarse coincidence of Sights. The accuracy of observation was still further increased 149 by applying to the telescope a micrometer which might subdivide the smaller divisions of the arc.
[2] Hist. Ind. Sc. b. iii. c. iv. sect. 3.
[3] Ib. b. vii. c. vi. sect. 1.