NATURE 



i6i 



THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1918. 



OUR HERITAGE OF SCIENCE. 

 ' i) Britain's Heritage of Science. By A. Schuster 

 and A. E. Shipley. Pp. xv + 334. (London: 

 Constable and Co', Ltd., 1918.) Price 85. 6d. 

 net. 

 (2) .4 Short History of Science. By Prof. W. T. 

 Sedgwick and Prof. H. W. Tyler. Pp. xiv + 

 474. (New York : The Macmillan Co. ; Lon- 

 don : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 

 125. 6d. net. 

 (i) 'T^HE main purpose of the first of these two 

 -L historical books is to give a plain account 

 of Britain's great heritage of science : " an heritage 

 that — handed down through several centuries of 

 distinguished achievements^ — will, if the signs 

 speak true, be passed on to the coming age with 

 untarnished brilliancy." It is a legacy to be proud 

 of and to use. Prof. Schuster starts off with a 

 fine chapter on the ten landmarks of physical 

 science associated with the names of Roger Bacon, 

 Gilbert, Napier, Newton, Dalton, Young, Fara- 

 day, Joule, William Thomson, and Clerk Maxwell. 

 Then follows a sketch of physical science in the 

 universities during the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries, and the achievements of men like 

 Halley and Hooke, Bradley and Black. The non- 

 academic succession is illustrated by the work of 

 Bovle, Cavendish, Priestley, Herschel, and Watt. 

 Through Rumford and Davy and George Green 

 the author passes to the golden age of mathe- 

 matics and physics at Cambridge associated with 

 the names of Stokes and Adams, Sylvester and 

 Cayley. His survey broadens out to include the 

 work of Thomson and Tait, Rankine and Fitz- 

 gerald, and other illustrious physicists of the nine- 

 teenth century. Thus, the author deals with such 

 investigators as Graham, Joule, Balfour Stewart, 

 Reynolds, Sorby, Crookes, Rayleigh, George 

 Darwin, Ramsay, Rutherford, Airy, John 

 Herschel, Adams, and Gill, and the distinguished 

 roll fitly ends with Henry Moseley, whose career 

 of singular promise was cut short in 191 5 by a 

 Turkish bullet. The next chapters illustrate the 

 function of scientific institutions, such as the Royal 

 Society, and " the effects of pure scientific research 

 on that complex organisation of the community 

 which usually goes by the name of civilisation." 



Prof. Schuster's historical sketch is illuminating 

 and inspiring — a fine example of wise selection of 

 materials. In illustration of his judicial spirit we 

 may refer to what is said about the estimation of 

 the relative merits of co-operative discoverers. A 

 generalisation gradually matures ; many investi- 

 gators may contribute to it; "when the time is 

 ripe, some one with a better appreciation of the 

 significance of the facts or a deeper insight into 

 their mutual connection touches the matter with a 

 master hand, and presents it in a form that carries 

 conviction." Sometimes there is a long balancing 

 of arguments for and against a new idea ; he who 

 adds the last grain that tips the balance is techni- 

 XO. 2531, VOL. lOl] 



cally the discoverer. "There will always be a 

 conflict between those who attach importance to 

 the intrinsic merit of an ,investigation and those 

 who look only on the actual influence it has had on 

 scientific thought." 



Dr. Shipley begins with the biological science 

 of the Middle Ages ; he sketches the development 

 of botany in Britain from Turner to Ray, from 

 Grew to Hales, from Knight to Brown, fron> 

 Lindley to Hooker ; he outlines the history of 

 British zoology from Pennant and the Hunters to 

 Owen and Huxley, from Erasmus Darwin to 

 Charles Darwin, from Robert Chambers to Alfred 

 Russel Wallace, and on to Balfour and Weldon, 

 and to a master of the craft still with us, Sir E. 

 Ray Lankester. A vivid sketch is given of the 

 progress of physiology from Harvey and Hales to 

 Michael Foster and Burdon Sanderson, and on to 

 Wooldridge and Roy. The growth of geology 

 sketched in the final chapter aff"ords a crowning 

 instance of the glory of the British heritage of 

 science. 



Dr. Shipley's story leaves one a littlie breathr 

 less, but this' is because of the magnitude of hi§ 

 subject and the compulsory compression. His 

 style is as vivid and delightful as ever ; but we 

 cannot approve of a construction like "the latter 

 of whose work ..." Some omissions strike us as 

 curious ; thus mention is made of four marine 

 laboratories, but that at Millport, with the second 

 largest record of researches, is left out ; we find 

 no mention of John Goodsir, whose work had far- 

 reaching importance ; and we are a little startled 

 by finding no reference to the author of "The 

 Principles of Biology." But we must not pursue 

 the quest for omissions. Dr. Shipley makes some 

 wise remarks on the limitations of science: "No 

 body of scientific doctrine succeeds in describing 

 in terms of laws of succession more than some 

 limited set of stages of a natural process ; the 

 ; whole process — if, indeed, it can be regarded as a 

 1 whole — must for ever be beyond the reach of 

 I scientific grasp. The earliest stage to which 

 i science has succeeded in tracing back any part of 

 i a sequence of phenomena itself constitutes a new 

 : problem for science, and that without end. There 

 is always an earlier stage, and to an earliest we 

 j can never attain. The questions of origins con- 

 cern the theologian, the metaphysician, perhaps 

 ' the poet." 



The authors have no thesis to establish, but 



I their valuable book will leave in the minds of those 



who read it a strong impression of the large 



I number of contributions of the first rank in import- 



I ance that Britain has made to science, which is 



I bv its very nature cosmopolitan ; and of the 



I extent to which, in spite of our calamitous neglect, 



we are nationally indebted to science for advance- 



' ment in mind, body, and estate. But we have not 



had more than the first-fruits. 



(2) The aim of the second book is "to 

 j furnish a broad, . general perspective of the 

 ' evolution of science, to broaden and deepen 

 I the range of the students' interests, and ,to 

 i eticourage the practice of discriminating scientific 



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