vi CLASSICS OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 



epoch-making scientific papers, but they do not help the 

 layman. Many educated men and women of to-day feel 

 a desire to know more about the scientific interpretation 

 of the external world. The specialist in one branch of 

 science is little more than a layman in others, and he too 

 desires a wider acquaintance with the working of the 

 scientific spirit throughout the ages. The enlightened 

 teacher of science realises that he has failed in his duty 

 if he has done no more than communicate certain 

 scientific facts to his pupils. There is, in short, a de- 

 mand for a new literature of scientific appreciation. 



The aim of this series is to provide reproductions of 

 the great masterpieces of science in convenient form, 

 together with a complete account of the action and re- 

 action of ideas which, through the process of time, led 

 up to the crucial experiments carried out and described 

 by some great master. Biographical details will be 

 introduced, and an attempt will be made to show the 

 various social and other influences as they assist or retard 

 the growth of knowledge. It is hoped that a reader 

 who takes up a volume of the series, dealing with a branch 

 of science of which he is ignorant, will be able, without 

 further aid, to trace the steps by which the human mind 

 has passed from chaotic ignorance to ordered knowledge. 



E. R. T. 



NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. 



