426 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



Sarton, George, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Associate in the History of 

 Science. (For previous reports see Year Books Nos. 18, 19.) 



The general purpose of my work was set forth in my first report 

 (Year Book No. 18, pp. 347-349). The present (third) report covers 

 the period from September 1, 1920, to August 31, 1921. 



1. Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science. — I have 

 been engaged mainly in the preparation and the writing of this intro- 

 duction, the aim of which is to offer a preliminary survey of the history 

 and philosophy of science and of every one of its branches, to provide 

 the student with a synthetic bibliography^ of the whole field and a 

 master key to its problems. The fundamental purpose is to establish 

 the history of science as an independent and organized discipline, 

 having its own tools and methods, and placed on the same level as, 

 say, the history of art or the history of religion. My activity is now 

 centered upon this work because of its urgency. The writing of a 

 full history would occupy the life-time of many scholars and until 

 completed its normative value would remain relatively small. The 

 outline in preparation will enable the student to survey, with com- 

 parative ease, either the total progress accomplished at any period of 

 the past or the continuous development of each science throughout 

 the ages; it will enable hun also to undertake the study of any special 

 subject with a sufficient knov/ledge of its bearings.^ 



The classification of my material was completed and the actual 

 writing begun on January 12. The very abundance of material 

 available both in my own and in the Widener library is such, and the 

 unforeseen gaps and difficulties have been so many, that the work 

 has progressed much more slowly than I had expected. However, 

 the chapters dealing with the successive centuries from the ninth B.C. 

 to the sixth century after Christ (inclusive) are ready for publication, 

 subject to addition and correction. The following centuries down to 

 the fifteenth promise to give a great deal of trouble, but from the six- 

 teenth century on, though the complexity of science and the number of 

 scientists increase tremendously, the treatment is on the whole easier, 

 the moot questions being far less numerous. 



2. The publication of Isis. — My work on the introduction has fre- 

 quent small interruptions and each year two longer ones (of about 

 a month each) because of the editing of Isis, the international center 

 of information on the history of science and civilization. Such inter- 

 ruptions, however, do not take me entirely away from my work, but 



'I have explained what I mean by this in Synthetic Bibliography with special reference to 

 the History of Science. Isis, III, 159-170, 1920. 



*For more details see Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science, preliminary 

 Dote. Ins, IV, 23-31, 1921. 



