DIRECTIONS: Four reasons, none of them stupidity, all still at work today. Read, then answer.
Then look back at sheet 10, question 5.
1. Evidence without an explanation. If nobody can say why a thing works, it looks like every other folk remedy — and most folk remedies are wrong. Lind had a result and no reason; there was no such thing as a vitamin for another 170 years.
2. Somebody has to pay, and it is whoever moves first. Harrison's clocks worked and cost a fortune each. A captain convinced by the evidence still could not buy one.
3. It needs a system, not a person. A seat belt in a car nobody wears is worth nothing; lemon juice needs a supply chain that reaches every ship in every port. One convinced person cannot build either.
4. It makes somebody the villain. Semmelweis's finding said, unavoidably, that doctors had been carrying death from one patient to the next on their own hands. That is true and it is also an accusation, and people do not weigh an accusation the way they weigh a fact.
Which reason fits which row from sheet 10?
Reason 1, 2, 3 or 4 — and why
1. Lemon juice stops scurvy
2. Washing your hands between patients
3. A clock at sea, for knowing where you are
4. The three-point seat belt
Read what you wrote on sheet 10. Say whether you still think it, and what you would change.
Not Stupidity — Going Back to Your Answer
Why it took so long to change · Page 2 of 2
"People used to be stupid" is the most popular explanation for all of this. Say why it is not just wrong but dangerous — what does believing it stop you from noticing?
Reasons 2 and 3 are about cost and systems, and neither is anybody being wrong. Say which of the four you think is hardest to fix, and why.