348 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



An immense amount of pioneer work is still necessary to give to the 

 history of science the same completeness and accuracy which have 

 been reached in other investigations.^ 



My work during the first year will be briefly considered under the 

 following headings: (1) Leonardo studies; (2) history of physics; (3) his- 

 tory of science; (4) history of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



1. Leonardo studies. — The greatest part of my time has been devoted 

 to the study of the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci. This great 

 artist was also the greatest scientist and engineer of his time, and his 

 interests were universal to such an extent that my study of his papers 

 will lead me to the writing of what might be called an encyclopedia 

 of science and technology at the height of the Italian Renaissance.^ 

 I am still in the analytical stage of my investigation and have thus far 

 examined and classified the contents of about half the manuscripts. 

 There are dispersed in various European libraries probably about 5,800 

 pages, of which perhaps about one-fifth is practically unread. This 

 proves sufficiently the great need of a thorough study of Leonardo's 

 writings. A part of these manuscripts (most of them owned by the 

 King of England) contain anatomical drawings and notes which I am 

 not qualified to study, but I have fortunately secured the collaboration 

 of Dr. J. Playfair McMurrich, professor of anatomy at the University 

 of Toronto, who is now investigating them. 



2. History of physics. — There does not yet exist a satisfactory account 

 of the development of physics, and especially of modern physics. This 

 is the more unfortunate in that physics is perhaps the most central of 

 all sciences. I am accumulating materials for a history of physics in 

 the nineteenth century, my purpose being to treat the subject in a very 

 catholic way, making frequent short excursions into mathematics, 

 chemistry, astronomy, even biology, and also in the engineering and 

 technical arts. 



3. History of science. — I have given a good deal of time to the 

 establishment of a critical bibliography of the books and papers pub- 

 Hshed on the history of science during the war and to the preparation 

 of No. 6 of Isis.^ I have also continued my activity in behalf of the 

 New Humanism — that is, the reconciliation of science and the human- 

 ities — and in this regard I have given two lectures to Professor L. J. 

 Henderson's students at Harvard, one at the Art Association of Mon- 

 treal, and one at the Fogg Museum of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



1 For further development of these ideas see George Sarton: The history of science, The Monist, 

 XXVI, 321-365, Chicago, 1916; Le Nouvel Humanisme, Scientia, xxiii, 161-175, Bologna, 1918; 

 The teaching of the history of science. Scientific Monthly, vii, 193-211, New York, 1918. 



^ George Sarton: The message of Leonardo; his relation to the birth of modern science, Scrih- 

 ner's Maga?ine, lxv, 531-540, New York, May 1919; Une Encyclopedie L6onardesque, Raccolta 

 Vinciana, x, 235-242 Milano, 1919. 



^ George Sarton: The publication of Isis, Science, n. s., vol. 49, 170-171, 1919; Letter to the 

 editor of the New York Evening Post, February 22, 1919; The history of science, Science, n. s. 

 vol. 49, 497, 1919. 



