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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1309 



pulblioations going to its members and read 

 by a wide public are forces making for ap- 

 preciation of tbe value of science to society 

 and the need of giving adequate support to 

 scientific researcb and to scientiiic men. Eacb 

 member of tbe association contributes to this 

 end and does his part to improve tbe situation 

 for others as well as for himself. It is conse- 

 quently to be hoped that no one wiU permit 

 his membership to lapse on account of the 

 necessary increase in nominal dues, but, on the 

 contrary, rthat every member use all possible 

 efforts to increase the membership of the asso- 

 ciation and to promote its influence and its 

 usefulness. — The Scientific Monthly. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



The System of the Sciences; PHnciples of 

 the Theory of Education. By Wilhelsi 

 OsTWALD. The Eice Institute Pamphlet, 

 Vol. n., No. 3, Nov., 1915. 

 These two lectures were prepared to be 

 given at the inauguration of Eice Institute 

 but the author was prevented from delivering 

 them in person by the outbreak of the Great 

 War. The pm'pose of the lectures is ambi- 

 tious, being no less than to propose a fun- 

 damental system or classification for the 

 branches of science and, on the basis of this 

 system, to suggest a system of pedagogy which 

 should replace, in some measure, our present 

 system. The subjects now taught, in our 

 universities, in particular, have grown up in 

 an irregular, hit-or-miss fashion, especially as 

 regards the introduction of new subjects, 

 because " Wherever there is a gifted repre- 

 sentative of a new discipline who is an ex- 

 cellent teacher and at the same time scien- 

 tifically productive, he will be able sooner or 

 later to acquire the means and influence to 

 develop this new discipline into a recognized 

 science." Professor Ostwald wishes to sub- 

 stitute for this accidental development a 

 rational, systematic cultivation of those fields 

 which will be most useful — presumably, 

 though he avoids saying so directly, with 

 the repression and discouragement of the 

 gifted individual who does not properly fall 

 into the scheme which has been laid down. 



This is scarcely in accord with that "Lehr- 

 freiheit " of which the older Germany was so 

 proud. 



The historical method is used, in part, to 

 discover the proper system. " All sciences in 

 the early stages of their development formed 

 one great whole, which, together with all 

 other departments of human activity having 

 to do with mental work and cogitation, was 

 intrusted to the oversight of a single corpor- 

 ation — the priesthood." And so the theolog- 

 ical faculty is the oldest — then came law — 

 he might have said, perhaps, the Eoman Law, 

 for our modern world — and medicine. All 

 the remaining sciences are vmited in the 

 fourth, the philosophical faculty. The great 

 technical schools form, practically, a fifth 

 faculty, which is not, however, recognized as 

 such. 



The statement on p. 112 that " the pure and 

 abstract sciences grow by degrees out of the 

 applied sciences " seems scarcely consistent 

 with the beginnings of the higher forms of 

 knowledge in the hands of the priesthood. 

 !N"or does it agree with the development of 

 science through such great masters as Gallileo, 

 ISTewton, Boyle and Lavoisier. Applied sci- 

 ences made very slow progress until men 

 came who were interested to know the secrets 

 of nature rather than to apply their knowl- 

 edge to practical ends. The same idea is 

 emphasized again on p. 121 in the statement 

 that " all sciences have had their origin in 

 the needs and desires of life." This is a 

 utilitarian point of view which we are 

 scarcely prepared to accept. 



The over-emphasis on classical and linguis- 

 tic studies is traced back to the time of the 

 Eenaissance when such studies opened to the 

 world a wealth of material from an old and 

 superior, but half-forgotten civilization. At 

 such a time the exact knowledge of the lan- 

 guages which should bring back the old life 

 and philosophies of the Greeks and Eomans 

 was well worth while. But now that we have 

 developed a different and very much better 

 civilization of our own the time devoted to 

 classical studies can not be so well justified. 

 It is possible, however, that the author under- 



