Treatises and Handbooks 117 



it was often resorted to. The authors were not critical historians but they often had 

 the advantage of being relatively close to the events which they described; they 

 were able to tell stories taken from the lips of contemporaries. Therefore, the best 

 of those eighteenth century histories {e.g., those of Priestley and Montucla) are 

 valuable sources of information to this day. 



The following list includes large treatises and smaller handbooks; it did not seem 

 practical to separate the latter from the former. Therefore, they are all listed to- 

 gether in the alphabetic order of the authors' names. I am unable to choose between 

 them, because there are many which I have not read, and some of which I have 

 never used. When a wise and experienced scholar writes an elementary book, we 

 may be sure that it contains worthwhile novelties, yet those novelties are neces- 

 sarily lost in a mass of commonplace. Such books are written for novices and old 

 scholars can hardly be expected to read them for the sake of finding a few novelties. 



When scholars are beginning to take an interest in our studies, their first query 

 is, naturally enough, "Could you recommend a single volume giving an outline of 

 the whole subject?" Such a volume does not yet exist, and this is not surprising 

 when one knows how the matter stands with regard to treatises. Elementary books 

 can only be written in a satisfactory way when elaborate treatises are available. 

 It is possible to-day to vn-ite a httle book covering the whole of, say English litera- 

 ture, or the Reformation, or any other standardized subject, and to be confident that, 

 however small the scale, nothing essential, from the standpoint of that scale, is likely 

 to be overlooked. For the history of science such a feat of selection and com- 

 pression is still impossible, because the introductory analyses and surveys have not 

 yet been completed; or, if not impossible, it is very much of a wager and a gamble. 



If we had to select a guidebook to Europe, purporting to indicate and to 

 explain within the covers of a single volume the chief curiosities of the whole con- 

 tinent, our first question would concern the personality of the author. Of course 

 we should have more confidence in him if we knew he had himself travelled all 

 over Europe than if we discovered that he had compiled his guide in the New York 

 Public Library. In a similar way, for the appreciation of a handbook on the history 

 of science, the prime consideration must be the wisdom and experience . of the 

 writer. Therefore, we shall try to indicate in each case the author's background, as 

 much as this can be done in a few words. 



Baden-Powell: see Powell, Baden. 



Boynton, Holmes (editor): 



1948: The beginnings of modern science. Scientific writers of the IGth, 11th 

 and I8th centuries (655 p., New York; Isis 40, 163). 



Butterfield, Herbert: 



1949: The origins of modern science 1300-1800 (228 p., London; Isis 41, 

 231-33). 



The author is a professor of history in Cambridge. 



CandoUe, Alphonse de (1806-93): 



1873: Histoire des sciences et des savants depuis deux siecles. (489 p., Geneve). 

 — German translation by Wilhelm Ostwald (Grosse Manner, vol. 2; 486 p., Leipzig 

 1911; Isis 1, 132). 



Alphonse de Candolle was a Swiss (Genevese) botanist. 



Conant, James B.: 



1947: On understanding science. An historical approach (160 p., 10 fig.. New 

 Haven; Isis 38, 125-27). 



Examination of a few "cases" illustrating the methods and progress of sci- 

 ence. Dr. Conant was trained as a chemist. He was for a time professor of 

 organic chemistry in Harvard University, and is now the president of that university. 



1950/.: Harvard case histories in experimental science (Harvard, Cambridge, 

 Mass.; Isis 42, 65). Thus far, four case histories have been published, nos. 1-2 

 edited by Conant, 3 by Duane Roller, and 4 by Leonard K. Nash). 



