To Teach the History of Science? 59 



teaching the history of science in, say, 60 lectures and is warned to give 

 due importance to modern science, what else can he do? He will prob- 

 ably devote 40 to 50 lessons to modern science and the small remainder 

 to the whole past. This is bad, but not as terrible as it might seem. 

 The main point is to teach well what he teaches, and always to warn the 

 students that much, very much, is unavoidably left out. 



If the whole of science is considered as a continuous living body, 

 which it is, moving with us toward the future, head forward, of course, 

 and the tail trailing back to the beginnings, and if we have no time to 

 study the whole beast, then we must concentrate our attention on the 

 head rather than the tail. If we must let something go, let it be the past, 

 the more distant past. Yet, it is a pity, a thousand pities. 



As a historian of ancient and mediaeval science, I may be suspected 

 of prejudice in their favor, yet I have made many investigations concern- 

 ing modern science and devoted many more lectures to it, hundreds of 

 them, than to the rest. I can assure you that the history of ancient and 

 mediaeval science is not only very interesting, even from the most 

 modern point of view, but that it can be used to fulfill the main purpose 

 of our teaching, to wit, to explain the meaning of science, its function, 

 its methods, its logical, psychological and social implications, its deep 

 humanity, its importance for the purification of thought and the integra- 

 tion of our culture."^^ 



The problems of ancient and mediaeval science have this advantage 

 over those of modern science that they are on the whole simpler, more 

 free of disturbing technicalities and easier to discuss before a nontechni- 

 cal audience; yet many of those problems are fundamental. 



In the selection of professors in charge of a new discipline, the most 

 important factor to be considered is the man himself and his singular 

 gifts. Of course, one whose knowledge is too special and esoteric could 

 hardly be selected except as a second man, another being responsible for 

 the main teaching; but barring extreme cases, it would be easier to adapt 

 the program to the man rather than do the opposite. The best candi- 

 date might be a physician, more familiar with medical and biological 

 matters than with the mathematical sciences. That would be regrettable, 

 yet might be better than to take a poorer candidate who knows mathe- 

 matics. The teaching of the former might be excellent within its limita- 

 tions. The professor of the history of science in small universities, 

 where there can be only one, might be a physician at one time and be 

 succeeded by an astronomer and the latter by a chemist. The teaching 

 would thus vary from man to man, yet if they were good men, each 

 would be able to teach the outstanding messages of science and tradi- 

 tion, knowledge and humanity. 



Or the apostolic succession might imply other difficulties. At one 



"^ It is noteworthy that my courses on ancient and mediaeval science are as 

 well attended as my other courses, in spite of the fact that the majority of my students 

 are scientific or premedical. 



