THE REVIVAL OF SCIENCE 99 



was the first of the natural sciences to break 

 loose from the scholastic domination which 

 had hitherto ever placed authority above 

 experiment. 



As anatomy on the biological side, so 

 astronomy on the physical, led the way. 

 Copernicus had claimed that the sun was the 

 center of our system; but it was not until the 

 following century, when the truth of his views 

 was mathematically proved, that, first, men of 

 science, and, later, the world at large, aban- 

 doned the views of Ptolemy, which, like those 

 of Aristotle, of Galen and of Hippocrates, had 

 obsessed the learned world since classical times. 



The great outburst of scientific enquiry 

 which occurred during the seventeenth century 

 was partly the result, and partly the cause, of 

 the invention of numerous new methods and 

 innumerable new instruments, by the use of 

 which advance in natural knowledge was 

 immensely facilitated. Early in the century 

 (1614), Napier of Merchiston had made 

 known his discovery of logarithms, and log- 

 arithmic tables were first published in 1617. 

 Seven years later, the slide rule, which today 



