February 6, 1919] 



NATURE 



443 



VISIONARY SCIENCE. 



Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: I Study 

 in the History 0) Scientific Development. By 

 Prof. B. K. S.irkar. Pp. xiii + 82. (London: 

 Long-mans, Green, and Co., 1918.) Price 

 1 dollar. 



SCARCELY would it be supposed from its ail- 

 less title that this little hook deals with whal 

 its authoi styles "the pre-scientific epoch of the 

 history ol science," and that its main object, as 

 declared in the preface, is to place tin- scientific 

 achievement of ancient and medieval India in 

 proper perspective with that of certain other great 

 nations of antiquity. Still less would it be sup- 

 posed that its text would read sometimes like an 

 awkward demonstration of the truism that Hindu 

 civilisation is an indigenous growth little influ- 

 enced from outside, and sometimes indeed, more 

 often like an unhappy attempt to impugn the 

 ■led opinion that the great Hood of Western 

 knowledge had its quickest and freshest rills in 

 the sparkling soil of Hellas. 



But, disregarding its misleading title and its 

 ambiguity of profession, one evident purpose ol 

 the book is to vindicate the propositions that the 

 "tendencies of the mind " have been.prettv much 

 alike in East and West, and that, prior to the 

 present tercentenary, superstition had no more 

 repressive effect in one part of the world than 

 in the other. If "tendencies of the mind" be 

 taken, in the common sense, to include merely 

 the desires, passions, and motives of the wonder- 

 ful piece of work Man, there needs no ghost to 

 ■conic from the grave of buried India to tell us 

 that these have everywhere and at all times the 

 generic constancy predicated by Shylock ; but if it 

 is to denote posture and attention of the mind 

 towards Nature, then the argument that the 

 history of science here reveals no inquisitive dif- 

 ference between Last and West must be supported 

 by something more than brave assertion and an 

 ardent imagination. 



I he author protests that among the sa^cs of 

 Indian antiquity there were numbered "hosts of 

 specialists," who freely explored all fields of 

 Nature by observation and experiment, and 

 systematised the results in "a vast amount, of 

 specialised scientific literature." He asserts ol 

 these set researches into natural phenomena that 

 the) were not less comprehensive, exact, and 

 fruitful than those of the Greeks. Besides the 

 ancient Hindu mathematicians, of whom we have 

 heard, he tells us of physicists, chemists, mineralo- 

 gists, botanists, zoologists, anatomists, and 

 embryologists, whose discoveries are too vaguely 

 summarised, chapter by chapter. In the chapter 

 on physics little is to be found beyond a dis- 

 paraging reference to Greece, and a catalogue of 

 fragments of nuda intellectualia, to which an 

 imaginative pen may give a local habitation and 

 a name among the formal sciences. The chapter 

 on chemistry tells us that the Hindu chemists of 

 the sixth century were "masters of the chemical 

 NO. 25/1, VOL. 102] 



processes of calcination, distillation, sublimation, 

 steaming, fixation, etc.," and that the Saracens 

 learnt their chemistry from the Hindus. Under 

 "Medicine" we learn that, in contrast to the 

 impeding "pseudo-science ol Galen," the great 

 strength of the Hindus lay in observation of 

 Nature. Under "Anatomy" we are informed, 

 after deprecation of the ignorance of Hippocrates, 

 that the "anatomical system" of the Hindus was 

 "almost modern," although, not containing more 

 than an idea of a circulation, it did not anticipate 

 Harvey. Some of the "Hindu embryologists" 

 approached quite respectfully near the level of 

 present-day knowledge, and the following is quoted 

 by the author as containing a kernel of their truth : 

 "The menses, after conception, goes in part to 

 form the placenta, and as the blood flows every 

 month it coagulates to form the embryo, an upper 

 layer being added every month to the embryo, 

 and another portion to the breasts of the mother." 

 As to" Natural History " — well, non semper tendit 

 arcum Apollo; in India — as, it would appear, 

 everywhere else before a.d. 1683 — it was not very 

 much to boast of, yet it is declared to have 

 been minute and comprehensive in its scope, 

 and to have been studied in a truly scientific 

 spirit. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



The Science of Health and Home-making. By 

 E. C. Abbott. Pp. xv + 352. (London: G. Bell 

 and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) Price 35. 6d. net. 

 On the whole, this book is a satisfactory intro- 

 duction to the science of health and home-making, 

 though there are some loose statements which 

 need revision in a future edition. After a brief 

 introduction on the importance of health, succeed- 

 ing sections deal with the structure of the body 

 and the functions of the various organs, food 

 and digestion, the nervous system, germs and 

 disease, the home, clothing, cookery and house- 

 keeping, the care of babies, and school hygiene. 



L'nder "Food" it is stated that mineral oils 

 are chiefly obtained from petroleum and coal-tar, 

 but no mention is made of the chemical differences 

 between mineral oils and . vegetable and animal 

 I. us, or that the former have no feeding value. 

 The sections on disease germs, the formation of 

 toxins and antitoxins, and vaccination are inaccu- 

 rate in many respects. In dealing with the life- 

 cycles of plants and animals it is stated that 

 " plants take in as food CO, 2 from the air, and 

 water and salts from the soil, and with these build 

 up starch and proteids. " This is correct so far 

 as it goes, but some mention should be made 

 of the importance of nitrogenous compounds. The 

 sections on the care and training of children are 

 quite satisfactory. After every chapter subjects 

 are given for working out practically, and also 

 problems for solving, which should prove very 

 useful to the teacher. The book is written in 

 simple language and in an interesting stvle. 



R. t. H. 



