SCIATICA 289 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT and half-way up the adjacent mountain San Calogero caves that have been used as steam baths since Phoenician times. Off the coast very productive coral banks were discovered in 1875-1880. Agatho- cles, tyrant of Syracuse, was a native. Pop. about 25,000. SCIATICA, acute pain produced by neuralgia following the course of the great sciatic nerve, generally in only one limb. It extends from the sciatic notch down the posterior surface of the thigh to the popliteal space, or even to the foot, and arises from pressure on the nerve by intestinal accumulations, or from tumors, inflammation, over-fatigue, exposure to cold and wet, or rheumatism. There are often nocturnal exacerbations of pains. It is most common from 50 to 60 years of age, and may continue for weeks or months. Electricity has been success- fully employed. SCIDMORE, ELIZA RUHAMAH, an American writer, born at Madison, Wis., in 1856. She was educated privately and for many years served as foreign secre- tary of the National Geographic Society. Her writings include "Guide to Alaska and the Northwest Coast" (1890) ; "Java, the Garden of the East" (1897) ; "China, the Long-Lived Empire" (1900) ; and "As The Hague Ordains" (1907). SCIENCE, in its widest significance the correlation of all knowledge. To know a truth in its relation to other truths is to know it scientifically. For example, the recognition that the alternation of day and night depends on the apparent daily motion of the sun is a distinct sci- entific achievement, being one of those elementary scientific truths which have been the possession of thinking minds from time immemorial. The end of science is the rational in- terpretation of the facts of existence as disclosed to us by our faculties and senses. The scientific method is essentially in- ductive, i. e., from particulars to gener- alities, and is to be contrasted with the method of philosophy which is deductive, i. e., from general truths to particular truths. This distinction was first clearly indicated by Francis Bacon and elabo- rated by Descartes and Comte. No bet- ter instance of pure and extensive and scientific research can be cited than that pursued by Darwin in his biological in- vestigations. Experiment is the great aid to sci- entific inquiry. In it we arbitrarily interfere with the circumstances of a phenomenon, or produce an entirely new phenomenon by an appropriate combina- tion of causes. Contrasted with experi- ment is observation, in which we simply watch and record the events as they *c- cur in nature. But even in astronomy, emphatically an observational science, experiment plays an important part. The dynamical knowledge which Newton de- veloped into the cosmic law of gravita- tion was founded on experiment; and every time the astronomer points his tel- escope to a celestial object he experi- ments by arbitrarily interfering with the course of the rays of light. Meteorology again, which 20 years ago could hardly be called a science, has made great strides in these days by appealing to laboratory experiments for the elucidation of its phenomena. Sciences may be grouped, or science partitioned, on a broad and intelligible principle. There are the physical sci- ences, which have to do with inorganic nature — i. e., with the laws and proper- ties of matter, energy, and ether. Then there are the biological sciences, which consider the laws of life. And finally there are the psychical sciences, which deal with the phenomena of mind. Numerous attempts have been made to give a detailed classification of the sci- ences, so as to bring out the natural re- lation of the one to the other. One of the most celebrated is the classification due to Comte, who first explicitly drew the distinction between abstract and con- crete sciences, or what might better be termed fundamental and derivative sci- ences (see Positivism). From the pres- ent outlook of science the existences of the universe are five — namely, ether, matter, energy, life, and mind. The first three are inseparable agents in the sim- plest phenomenon that occurs in nature. They may ultimately be reduced to two or conceivably to one. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT refers to the administration of industrial and other organizations according to methods based on laws deduced from facts accumu- lated by systematic observation. Its aims are many, among the most important being the elimination of wasted effort, increased output, the utilization of the special qualifications of every worker with a resultant improvement in both quality and quantity of product and greater con- tentment of the worker. The science may be said to be still in its infancy, as it has received serious consideration only since the latter party of last century. It seeks to eliminate unnecessary ef- fort by analyzing the movements made in performing any operation. It applies this analysis not only to human beings, but also to machinery or groups of ma- chinery. By examining each motion sep- arately, and then in its relation to the
