700 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



" philosophy in its rise and development is necessarily governed by the body of 

 positive knowledge preceding or accompanying it" (p. iv). The knowledge 

 presented in this book maybe assigned to the period 500 B.C. to 500 a.d., and 

 Colebrooke's account of Hindu algebra and Hoemle's of Hindu osteology have 

 made it unnecessary for Dr. Seal to write separate monographs on these subjects ; 

 but he rightly remarks (p. iii) that the former account requires to be brought up 

 to date. There are seven chapters : the first deals with the mechanical, physical, 

 and chemical theories of the ancient Hindus ; the second with Hindu ideas on 

 mechanics ; the third with their ideas on acoustics ; the fourth with those about 

 plants and plant-life ; the fifth with those on the classification of animals ; the 

 sixth with those on physiology and biology ; and the seventh with Hindu doctrine 

 of scientific method. 



The author gives extensive quotations from the Sanskrit text, and remarks : 

 " I have not written one line which is not supported by the clearest texts. The 

 ground trodden is, for the most part, absolutely new. Fortunately, the Sanskrit 

 philosophico-scientific terminology, however difficult from its technical character, 

 is exceedingly precise, consistent, and expressive. I may add that I have 

 occasionally used (perhaps with a questionable freedom) scientific terms like 

 isomeric, polymeric, potential, etc., in a broad sense, as convenient symbols to 

 express ideas nearly or remotely allied" (p. iv). Here is indicated the first point 

 which must be criticised. Such terms as " the conservation of energy," " the 

 dissipation of energy," " mass," and "energy" are names which have grown up 

 with years of exact experimental and mathematical research, and the reviewer 

 cannot but regard it as a mistake, which is only saved from being misleading by 

 its absurdity, to attribute what is denoted by these names to the ancient Hindus. 

 A result of this mistake is to make parts of Dr. Seal's book read like a popular 

 exposition of the results of modern science written by a very incompetent hand. 

 In particular, pp. 3, 6-8 are like a pale reflection of passages of Herbert Spencer. 

 What Dr. Seal calls "the conservation of energy" (p. 12) is less of a discovery 

 than the "discovery" that philosophers used to be so fond of talking about that 

 " there must be some constant in phenomenal variation." When dealing with 

 Udyotakara's remark that the gravity of a body is not the same as the sum of the 

 gravities of the particles. Dr. Seal actually remarks that " The concept of mass in 

 the New Mechanics of Lorenz may lend some countenance to this curious 

 metaphysical speculation " (p. 140) ; and this is written of a time when " Galileo's 

 discovery was not anticipated, as Galileo's observations and measurements of 

 motion were wanting" (p. 141). This is zreductio ad absurdum of the attempt 

 to make Hindu science an anticipation of modern science. 



A second ground of criticism is the utterly exaggerated importance given to 

 such simple remarks as those which Dr. Seal calls "the discovery of the principle 

 of the Differential Calculus" (pp. 77-80, 150), and "the anticipation of the founda- 

 tions of solid geometry" (pp. 117-18, 150). 



It is interesting to notice that the traditional three " laws of thought" appear 

 in ancient Hindu logic (p. 245), and that Mill was anticipated by the Hindus in 

 parts of his theory of inductive method (pp. 254-62). 



Philip E. B. Jourdain. 



