588 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1407. 



veys in the fields of mathematics, chemistry, 

 biology, psychology, physics, geology and 

 astronomy. Naturally, these were not of a 

 type suitable for elementary presentation. 



One institution — a college of engineering 

 — gives a two-hour course on the history of 

 science to all sophomores. In another, two 

 courses have apparently gradually merged 

 into one. For many years a course dealing 

 with the history of the inductive sciences had 

 been offered by the professor of biology. 

 Later he was joined by the professor of mathe- 

 matics, and between them they rounded out 

 the course into a fair approximation of a 

 general history of science, or more correctly, 

 a brief history of several associated branches 

 of science. The usual limitation of time 

 made it impossible for them to cover every- 

 thing, and so, e.g., the history of chemistry 

 was handled independently by the professor 

 in that department. The lecture notes of the 

 two men thus associated finally reached such 

 proportions tliat they were printed, and now 

 form a well-known elementary text on the 

 subject According to one of the authors, 

 the real object in putting the material into 

 book form was to lessen the dependence of 

 the students on the lectures. As originally 

 worked out, the time was divided about equally 

 between the two instructors, the mathemati- 

 cian covering most of the Greek period, and 

 mathematical science previous to the calculus 

 of Newton. The biologist has traced the de- 

 velopment of modern science and the special 

 phases of the entire review with which he 

 was most familiar. Each student is supplied 

 with blank forms for his reports on collateral 

 reading of biographies and other historical 

 subjects in connection with the course. Es- 

 says are required, for it has been the feeling 

 of the instructors that nothing short of this 

 written work secures a sufilciently intensive 

 study of the assigned reading matter. The 

 two parts of the course may be taken inde- 

 pendently, and although the work has been 

 elementary enough to make no definite pre- 

 scription of preliminary scientific work neces- 

 sary, it has quite naturally been found that 



" some degree of scientific background and 

 some maturity are desirable." 



This method of procedure has been dis- 

 cussed here somewhat in detail because it 

 shows very admirably what may be accom- 

 plished by pioneers. However inadequate 

 such courses may seem, they are of the type 

 that may be organized in almost any col- 

 lege if there is but time. The form of cooper- 

 ation will depend on the men and material 

 available. 



A well-known college for women has found 

 some value to be obtainable in a collateral 

 reading course which is carried on privately 

 throughout two years. In still another col- 

 lege, the cooperative method referred to above 

 has proven quite successful. Apparently, the 

 department of philosophy gives two lectures 

 a week on " Life Yiews of Great Men of 

 Science." At first this would seem like a 

 rather large responsibility for such a depart- 

 ment to assume, but the college catalogue 

 shows that associated with the instructors in 

 philosophy — one of whom is the president of 

 the institution — are men from the depart- 

 ments of astronomy, geology, chemistry, 

 mathematics, physics, anatomy, physiology, 

 zoology, economics and sociology. Such wide 

 cooperation, while not free from some of the 

 objections made above, is most gratifying 

 and must make not only for good feeling be- 

 tween the several departments, but serve the 

 students as material evidence that each so- 

 called science is only one phase of a great 

 body of truth — that its various developments 

 are all aspects of one growth. 



In one of the greater universities, two as- 

 sociated courses are given, one a " History 

 of Science from the Physical Standpoint," 

 and the other, a "History of Science from 

 the Biological Standpoint." The lecturer in 

 each case occupies a prominent place in his 

 chosen field. Undoubtedly, these courses are 

 primarily historical reviews of physics and 

 of biology, respectively, and should be classed 

 with the rather narrow histories of specific 

 sciences to be considered later. 



In another university there has for some 

 time been given a composite course dealing 



