R|E VIEWS 



HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



Studies in the History and Method of Science. Edited by Dr. Charles 

 Singer. [Pp. xiv + 334, with 41 plates and 24 illustrations in the text.] 

 (Oxford : At the Clarendon Press, 1917. Price 21s. net.) 



This most remarkable book contains a collection of seven essays ; the first-fruits 

 of an effort made by the Editor and his wife to stimulate research on the 

 history of the development of science, for which purpose they have provided 

 ^100 a year for five years for the provision of fittings and books in a room 

 set apart for the purpose at the Radcliffe Library at Oxford. Four of the 

 essays deal with mediaeval science of the period A.D. 1100 — 1500, and, with the 

 exception of one on Early Renaissance Anatomy, might better be termed Studies 

 in the History of Superstition and Ignorance. Their interest is undeniable ; their 

 usefulness is less obvious, and they can hardly be regarded as a serious con- 

 tribution to the History of Science as that subject is generally understood. This 

 criticism is perhaps a little ungracious ; it is directed rather at the title than the 

 contents, and in wishing the volume the success it deserves we are hoping, 

 with its sponsors, that it may become the forerunner of a series of similar 

 publications. 



The first essay, written by Dr. Singer, contains an account of the " Scientific 

 Views and Visions of Saint Hildegarde " — a remarkable but a somewhat obscure 

 and uncanonised religieuse who flourished in the Rhineland in the middle of the 

 twelfth century. Her views may apparently be regarded as a reflection of those 

 obtaining in the " scientific " circles of her day, and her writings cover the whole 

 field of the theory of the macrocosm and microcosm in an " attempt to demonstrate 

 a relationship between the nature of the Godhead, the constitution of the universe, 

 and the structure of man." The essay is illustrated by some beautifully repro- 

 duced diagrams in colour from various manuscripts of her writings. 



The Editor's other contribution to the collection is the important essay on 

 Renaissance Anatomy already referred to. It is written round an MS. by 

 Hieronymo Manfredi, in the Bodleian Library, which has hitherto escaped notice. 

 Manfredi was primarily an astrologer, but occupied the Chair of Medicine at 

 Bologna. His Anatomy was an amplified edition of Mondino, and was probably 

 the first complete treatise written in Italian. It gives a very clear conception of 

 the subject as it was known at the end of the fifteenth century. 



"The Blessing of Cramp-rings-- a Chapter in the History of the Treatment 

 of Epilepsy," by Raymond Crawfurd, and "Dr. John Weyer and the Witch 

 Mania," by Dr. E. T. Withington, are both essays in which the historic rather than 

 the scientific interest is dominant. They are both records of superstition, and the 

 former contains much curious information. Thus : 



" A silver ring, made of five sixpences, contributed by five different bachelors, 

 conveyed by a bachelor to the hand of a smith that was also a bachelor, was 

 another reputed remedy for epilepsy ; and its virtue was enhanced, if none of the 

 bachelors knew for what purpose or to whom it was given." 



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