UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 179 
but with these difficulties overcome, advancement was 
rapid. 
Going back to the very dawn of history we find the 
Egyptians possessed of considerable knowledge of the stars 
and the seasons. They also understood the properties of 
the triangle and used this knowledge in resurveying the 
land that was flooded each year by the Nile. 
There was no real development in science, however, 
until the Greeks began their rather systematic observa- 
tions of nature. Aristotle (384-322 B. C.) and his student 
Theophrastus recorded many accurate observations from 
their studies of animals, plants and rocks; but all the 
science of the Greeks was so intermixed with speculation 
and philosophizing that a great deal of error crept in. At 
that time the methods of modern science were entirely un- 
known, but the scope of the work was so broad that practi- 
cally all the sciences now trace their origin to the time of 
Aristotle. 
Later, Alexandria became the center of the Greek 
world; here all the learning of the time was centered. 
Euclid, Hipparchus, and others collected data on astronomy, 
geometry, trigonometry, optics, heat, and even anatomy. 
The greatest work during this time was done at Syracuse 
by Archimedes (287 B. C.) who created the science of 
statics. 
The Romans did little for science. Pliny (23-79 A. D.) 
collected all the writings of those who had gone before, 
but he contributed nothing new. His compilation, however, 
did much to preserve the information that had been dis- 
covered by earlier scholars. 
During the middle ages practically nothing was done 
in science. The people were so completely bound to authority 
that original studies were almost unknown. Aristotle was 
the universal authority on all branches of science. The 
story is told of a heated discussion arising over the number 
of teeth in the horse’s mouth. All the authorities were 
searched and ponderous writings submitted on this question 
that could have been so easily settled by simple observation. 
The whole attitude of mind led to study of authorities who 
