CHAPTER II 



THE ORIGINS OF SCIENCE IN THE 

 ANCIENT WORLD 



Having established the meaning and importance of science 

 in general, the next step is to examine the historical origins of 

 scientific thinking and knowledge, as a further introduction 

 to biological science in particular. In such an inquiry, 

 attention may be confined to the Near East, since isola- 

 tion rendered India and China unimportant factors in the 

 early intellectual development of the Mediterranean peoples. 

 Commerce is known to have existed between Egypt and the 

 Indian Peninsular at an early date. There were contacts 

 between India and the primitive Mesopotamians. But the 

 very early development of civilization in the Nile valley 

 makes it probable that the tide of cultural influences flowed 

 from west to east and not in the reverse direction. 



BEGINNINGS OF SCIENCE IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 



Beings capable of fashioning flint implements existed in 

 western Europe as early as the Third Inter-Glacial Period 

 estimated as some 125,000 years before our era. 1 Rock 

 carvings and other remains indicate that cultural levels 

 similar to, although not necessarily contemporaneous with, 

 those reached by palaeolithic races of Europe were also 

 attained by implement makers who inhabited northern 



^sborn, H. F., "Men of the Old Stone Age," p. 41. This estimate is a 

 moderate one, as some other authorities place the appearance of the Pre- 

 Chellean flint workers even earlier than the Glacial Period. Buttel-Reepen, 

 H. v., "Man and His Forerunners," p. 10. In the table given by J. C. 

 Merriam, Sci. Monthly, p. 338, Apl., 1920, no time estimate appears, but the 

 Palaeolithic Period begins with the Second Glacial, and the Eolithic Period is 

 extended well into the Tertiary. 



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