EDITORIAL NOTE, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, 

 AND SOURCES 



The essays making up this volume have been chosen to give both 

 the general reader and the student a better understanding of the 

 history of science, its scope, purpose, and methods. They have 

 been selected from the author's writings over a period of some 

 thirty years. "East and West in the History of Science" was sug- 

 gested for inclusion by Professor Henry Guerlac of Cornell. "Cast- 

 ing Bread Upon the Face of the Waters" was suggested by Mrs. 

 George Sarton. The remaining essays were chosen and prepared 

 for publication by Frances Davis Cohen and I. Bernard Cohen. 



Although some of these essays have been printed elsewhere, 

 chiefly in scholarly journals of limited circulation, they have not 

 hitherto been available to the reader at large. In reprinting them, 

 no attempt has been made to publish them verbatim et literatim. 

 Since they appeared in different places, and at different times, 

 there was a certain amount of repetition which has been elimi- 

 nated. In one case, selections from two separate essays were com- 

 bined in order to form an introductory section to Part Two: 

 "Secret History," the title of which derives from an essay which 

 appeared in Scribner's 'Magazine, 1910, 67-. 187-192; in other 

 cases, sections primarily of interest to research scholars and scien- 

 tists, as well as references to contemporaneous matters no longer 

 of immediate concern, have been eliminated; finally, the extensive 

 bibliographic and iconographic footnotes, as well as facsimiles, 

 have been suppressed, since they are of interest only to the special- 

 ist. In the list which appears below, all such deletions and emenda- 

 tions are indicated. 



Grateful thanks are offered the publishers of the essays listed 

 below for permission to reprint them in this volume. 



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