364 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1399 



that the poles were not fixed but oscillated 

 in a circle and he fixed the diameter of that 

 circle and the period of revolution so ac- 

 curately that only the most modern instru- 

 ments can detect the small amount that he 

 waS- in error. 



Perhaps the most noteworthy of the ancient 

 scientists was Hipparchus of Rhodes (about 

 146 B.C.). He discoYered the procession of the 

 equinoxes due to a slight progressive shifting 

 in the equinoxial points where the celestial 

 equator and the ecliptic meet, and predicted, 

 ■with almost modern exactness, the period in 

 ■which the plane of the earth's excentric orbit 

 ■would shift from maximum to maximum. He 

 determined the length of the year within six 

 minutes. He established the Tropics of Capri- 

 corn and Cancer within twenty-four miles of 

 their present location and in order to do 

 this he invented the science of trigonometry. 

 Surely many a modern worker would have 

 rested on his laurels after such a feat. Never- 

 theless he was not content to rest here but 

 prepared a star catalogue of more than 1,000 

 stars, his list of constellations being the basis 

 of the one used at present. One can but 

 wonder what such a genius would have ac- 

 complished had he had modern instruments 

 and libraries. 



The few old manuscripts that are extant 

 tell a wonderous story of science under Egypt 

 and early Greece and we can only wonder 

 how many more of the modern " discoveries " 

 were kno-wn to the ancients. Conklin believes 

 that human evolution reached its crest in the 

 Golden Age of Greece, for he states that 

 Greece produced more great geniuses in that 

 period of 200 years than have ever been pro- 

 duced in a like period before or since. He 

 believes that eugenically the Greeks at that 

 time were a superior race and that inbreeding 

 with their captive races and later with their 

 conquerors has lowered, as it inevitably would, 

 their potentialities for genius. 



But modern science is not derived from the 

 knowledge of the ancients. At no time in 

 the ancient order of things was education the 

 prerogative of every man. Knowledge was 

 rather held to be the property of a secluded 



few and was passed on from the master to a 

 few chosen disciples, so that with the advent 

 of the Dark Ages the light of science soon 

 died out until only a few sparks were left 

 here and there. Meanwhile those nations 

 which had stood foremost in the ancient learn- 

 ing became the vassals of other and less en- 

 lightened powers. The Alexandrian Museum, 

 the repository of all the ancient lore, had been 

 burned by the Turks, and many of the surviv- 

 ing manuscripts had been destroyed by the 

 order of the Church. Consequently with 

 the revival of learning men did not turn to 

 existing knowledge as found in 'written form, 

 but they began to construct anew the story 

 of the earth and its natural wonders. We 

 have thus two cycles of evolution from which 

 to chose in drawing our analogy as to what 

 the future may hold. Because of the fact 

 that we know only fragments of the earlier 

 story, it seems best to ignore it entirely and 

 to draw our conclusions as to the future from 

 the evolution of science since the Dark Ages. 



One can not but wonder, however, whether 

 such a catastrophe as the Dark Ages will ever 

 again occur — ^whether our present knowledge 

 will again be lost in fanaticism and bigotry. 

 We hope and trust that such can never be, 

 but when we think of what has happened in 

 Russia within the past five years, when we 

 read in Science of only last week how the 

 foremost scientists of Russia are dying of 

 hunger, cold and disease, how all scientific 

 progress in that great nation has stopped, 

 we can not be assured that another dark age 

 will never come — we can only hope the tide 

 will not sweep over the rest of the world. 

 Had any one prophesied the present condition 

 of Russia fifteen years ago he would have been 

 laughed at as a dreamer, and we must re- 

 member that the Dark Ages of 400-1000 A. D. 

 extended over a territory measured in square 

 miles scarcely greater than that covered by 

 the present scientific blanket of 1921. Only 

 the wide expanse in which science holds sway 

 at present has prevented a second " Dark 

 Age." 



The Revival of Learning following the Dark 

 Ages was a slow and tedious process. The 



