10. AN INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF 

 SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION 



There has been much talk in recent years of the need of hu- 

 manizing science, but nothing has been done on a sufficient scale 

 to satisfy that need. Large endowments are found for the creation 

 of new laboratories and observatories, but the relatively small 

 endowment needed for historical and humanistic purposes is ap- 

 parently unavailable. There is plenty of money for instruments of 

 increasing cost, but no money is available to make sure that the 

 men using these instruments will remain sufficiently educated. 

 Putting it bluntly, a certain percentage (say 5%) of the scientific 

 budget should be devoted to the humanization of science as an in- 

 surance against its gradual barbarization. Scientific studies and 

 teaching are so lop-sided on the purely technical side that a 

 healthy balance cannot be restored by pious exhortations and 

 half-hearted measures. 



Secular continuity — The most disheartening feature of his- 

 torical work to-day is the frequent replacement of older books by 

 newer ones which are less good and give a new currency to old 

 errors. This is due to the inexperience of many historians of 

 science, to the historical dilettantism of some distinguished scien- 

 tists, and above all to the lack of standards. 



The best way to cure these evils is slowly to produce accounts 

 of the history of science as comprehensive and accurate as pos- 

 sible, and sufficiently massive to justify the publication of peri- 

 odical errata and addenda, and from time to time of new editions 

 incorporating the accumulated improvements. My Introduction to 

 the History of Science and Isis are good but insufficient begin- 

 nings in that direction. I cannot do more, though I am desperately 

 straining all my energy and every resource in the effort, because I 

 am not sufficiently supported. 



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