PREFACE 



DURING the summer of 1922, nineteen men cooper- 

 ated in presenting a course of lectures in Teachers Col- 

 lege, Columbia University. The purpose of the course 

 was primarily to provide interesting and engaging in- 

 formation about the achievements of modern science. 

 It attempted to give students of all subjects an under- 

 standing of certain types of achievements of modern 

 science, to suggest the meaning of science in various 

 aspects of modern life and thought; to indicate the 

 place of science in modern, social, and industrial rela- 

 tions. Before half of the lectures had been presented, 

 hundreds of listeners had requested me, as organizer ot 

 the course, to assemble and publish part of the lectures 

 and if possible, to find means for wide distribution of 

 the resulting volume. In my desire that the volume, 

 when published, might benefit from the unusual style 

 and scientific clarity of Dr. E. E. Slosson, his assis- 

 tance was successfully importuned in the venture. Then, 

 a gracious and generous though anonymous benefactor 

 agreed to finance the placement of a limited number of 

 copies of the proposed volume in libraries of educational 

 institutions. Finally, the publishers cooperated by pro- 

 viding at bare cost of production the first lot of copies for 

 general distribution, depending upon later sales for their 

 profits from the publication. The authors and the 



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