DISCOVERY 



61 



The general reader has more leisure for the study of the 

 liistory of a subject than the ordinary University student. 

 The latter is compelled by his examiners to pursue the 

 poUcy so warmly advocated by Mr. Gradgrind, and go in 

 for Facts, and consequently, in a present-day University 

 curriculum there is httle room for the pleasant occupation 

 of studying the history of a scientific subject. 



Professor Harvey-Gibson, in this excellent book of his, 

 points out, however, that a proper estimate of the relative 

 values of the results achieved by investigators in the past, 

 leads to a picture, in correct perspective in the mind of 

 the reader, of the evolution of the science as a whole. It 

 is an antidote to narrowness of view and to premature 

 speciahsation. There are some people who dislike History 

 just as there are some Scots who dishke England. They 

 do not see the point in getting to know what Linnaeus 

 (for example) thought of such-and-such a subject in the 

 year i686. To them it is as irrelevant as the old panto- 

 mime gag, " What did Mister Gladstone say in '74 ? " 

 Besides, you only get five marks for the history question 

 in the examination I 



But this is a wrong view. In the history of any subject 

 there are ^ways t^vo interests : an interest in the subject- 

 matter itself, and a more human interest in the men who 

 overcame the difficulties in developing their subject. One 

 may be interested in Botany without caring a tig for a 

 fig-tree, but the point not to be overlooked is, that this 

 interest may lead to a deeper one. .\nd so it comes to 

 this : Does the history tend to make one long to study 

 the subject more, and join in the work of development 

 oneself, provided the necessary ability is capable of being 

 produced ? If the history of a subject were the record of 

 an infalhble past, it would never stimulate the worker to 

 be up and doing. He would be in the same plight as the 

 research-worker who complained bitterly that all the 

 obvious things in his subject had long ago been discovered. 

 But such history, if it be properly written, reveals not only 

 success and wonderful achievement, but also failure, error, 

 and even crass stupidity. .\nd it is because of this that 

 we, duffers, and yet at the same time remarkably fine 

 fellows, beheving ourselves akin to the great men of the 

 past, are constrained to take heart and CEirry on the work 

 which their genius initiated. 



Ions, Electrons, and Ionising Radiations. By J, A. 

 Crovvther, Sc.D. (Arnold, 12s. 6d. net.) 

 Dr. Crowther explains in his preface that his book is 

 neither a popular exposition of the " new Physics," nor is 

 it an account in short compass of the whole subject. It is 

 a book from which students who have studied the physics 

 of the ordinary textbook, may obtain a systematic know- 

 ledge of the latest developments in certain definite branches 

 of the subject. The book deals chiefly with the pheno- 

 mena connected with the discharge of electricity through 

 gas, with X-rays, and with radiations from radio-active 

 substances. The older books of J. J. Thomson, Ruther- 

 ford, Townsend, and Bragg on special portions of modern 

 physics are, of course, the authoritative ones, and are 

 indispensable to those who are, or intend, undertaking new 

 work. Dr. Crowther, by choosing carefully the most 

 important portions of the work dealt with in the larger 

 volumes, and by bringing the subject-matter up to date 

 wherever that is necessary, has written a most useful ex- 

 position of the subject. His book is suitable for all those 

 who have had a good grounding in physics and mathe- 

 matics, and who have neither the unlimited time nor the 

 pehnanised brain necessary to follow, in the original 

 papers, all the wonderful developments of the latest 

 work. 



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 Department of the Briti:>h Museum, and embodying many improvcmenls 

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The Mirror is adjustable in any direction. The crystal holder and 

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OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY 

 OF BOTANY 



By R. J. HARVEY-GIBSON, M.A., F.R.S.A., 



Professor of Botany in the Universily of Liverpool. 



Deray 8vo, cloth. 



Price 12s. 6d. net. 



This volume attempts to present a sketch of the 

 history of the science of Botany from the earliest 

 times to, appro.ximately, the present day. The 

 book is an expansion of a course of lectures to 

 University students, and it is primarily adapted to 

 meet their requirements, but it is, at the same time, 

 presented in a form which, it is hoped, may be found 

 acceptable to members of the general public in- 

 terested in Botany, and desirous of making themselves 

 acquainted with the chief landmarks in the histori- 

 cal development of our knowledge of plant life. 



A. & C. BLACK, Ltd. 



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 LONDON W.l 



