MS 1343 (1902) - Of the Classification of the Sciences

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A. Sciences ministrant to Suicultural Instincts.

Ministrant to the gamboling instinct are Gymnastics, what is called Balneology (Balaneutic would be Greek), and medicine, or Iatric, the last consisting of Hygiene and Therapeutics. If any class of men now exists or seems destined to exist who devote their lives to inquiring how people can best enjoy the free exercise of body or mind, those inquiries are sciences; but the author does not call any such to mind. Men devote themselves to the arts of puzzle making, especially of making chess-problems; but not to inquiry into the principles on which they should be made. Men do, however, devote themselves to the theory and descriptions of games, such as chess, draughts, whist, and billiards. The Gore instinct enters largely into these, but only as servicing the Gambol-instinct; so that these sciences may be placed here. As for such sports as boating, yachting, automobiling, shooting, etc. the sciences of them are mere

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modifications of serious industries.

The medical sciences constitute an immense body of lore, though we must exclude all those inquiries which are in themselves theoretical. It is conceivable that a disease should be studied without any reference to alleviating it or recognizing it; but in point of fact diseases are always studied by iatrics whose business it is to treat them, and their students always have that business more or less in view. Physiology, on the other hand, and anatomy are not in themselves ministrant to the Gambol-Instinct. Of the two great divisions of Medicine, Hygiene and Therapeutics, the former divides itself into Personal Hygiene and the Hygiene of Communities. Between these, however, we may insert the Hygiene of houses, which is much the same whether it be a hermit's cell or a large school. Little violence would be done and the classification would be compacted by including Gymnastics and Balaneutics under personal hygiene, where Massage, must in any case be placed. Other branches are hypnotic

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(if anybody devotes himself to inquiries into the hygiene of sleep), diet, and the legally obligatory study of the deleterious effects of alcohol. Obstetrics is a special branch of hygiene closely allied to Thereapeutics. Under the Hygiene of Houses are included Ventilation, Drainage, Sewerage, destruction of vermin, etc. Public hygiene seems at present to include only Military Hygiene, Municipal Hygiene, and Quarantine (and the like), with the new science of combatting mosquitoes and flies. There may be a science of Nautical Hygiene. Hospital and Prison hygienes are hardly separate sciences. The most important division of Therapeutics is according to the method of treatment. The leading divisions are Surgery, physic, or Pharmacotherapeutics, and the ancillary science of Nursing, etc. There are besides Homeopathy, Hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, light-cure, X-ray cure, cathode-ray cure, etc. Surgery includes certain specialized branches pursued by person[s] widely removed from regular surgeons and from one another, such as makers of artificial limbs and eyes, dentists,

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chiropodists, bonesetters, oculists and opticians. Physic has special divisions for the diseases of special classes of patients, who are served by veterinarians, gynecologists, infantile physicians, military surgeons, naval surgeons, etc. There are also special sciences of special classes of diseases professed by neurologists and psiphiatrics, dermatologists, genitourinary physicians, otologists, specialists for tuberculosis, for cancer, for diseases of digestion. There are also branches relating to special parts of the physician's business, as diagnostic, legal-medicine, etc.

The sciences ministering to the Gust-Instinct usually consider chiefly the pleasures of the table. The general science of these pleasures is Gastronomy, a word borrowed, of course, from the French, being introduced in 1800 by Berehvux, who defines it in these lines, the title of his poem being 'La gastronomie':

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Je me suis emparé d'une heureuse matière: Je chante l'Homme à table, et dirai la manière D'embellir un repas; je dirai le secret D'augmenter les plaisirs d'un aimable banquet, D'y fixer l'amitié, de s'y plaire sans cesse, Et d'y déraisonner dans une douce ivresse.

Of sciences investigating how best to prepare food for immediate eating, we may mention Cookery, Pastry-cooking, Confectionery, Pickling, Bakery, Cheese-making, Churning, and Butter-working, Oleomargarine Manufacture, etc. Of those whose corresponding parts sometimes or always leave something for the cook to do, there are Sausage-making, Flouring, Chocolate-making, Fruit-preserving, Meat-packing, Fish-canning, Milk-condensing, Slaughtering, Vinegar-Making, etc. Sciences relating to beverages are Making table-waters and Brewing. Distilling, etc. are merely general processes accidentally applied to making liquor. Wine-tasting and Blending is a difficult science and un-