December 16, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



589 



with biology and physics. The lecturer him- 

 self is a physiological chemist, and would be 

 expected to take the experimental viewpoint. 

 Such a combination of these subjects is quite 

 natural when one considers the parallel steps 

 in their development. For example, how 

 closely were they connected in the early work 

 of the Royal Society, and how evidently i-s 

 the apparatus of modern biology borrowed 

 from the physical laboratory! In this same 

 institution a special lecturer has dealt with 

 specific phases of the history of science, and 

 also written much, advocating its wider 

 study. His method seems to be that of fol- 

 lowing the growth of an idea and the phi- 

 losophy involved. Both methods of approach 

 are proper and will undoubtedly leave their 

 separate imprints on the later forms in which 

 the history of science will be handled. 



One further arrangement for approaching 

 this subject in a general way may be men- 

 tioned, although the course referred to is not 

 offered primarily as a history of science. At 

 a certain college a general culture course has 

 recently been organized under the all-em- 

 bracing title of " Evolution." The fact that 

 it is given by the department of biology might 

 lead one to expect the usual restricted mean- 

 ing of the term. However, in the words of 

 one of the instructors responsible for its 

 direction, 



It is a composite course that covers so wide a 

 field that the bare facts are emphasized rather than 

 historical developmeut, although the latter is by no 

 means ignored. Fundamental chemical and phys- 

 ical principles are given without any historical set- 

 ting, but the lectures on astronomy necessarily take 

 up the historical side, especially in the development 

 of evolutionary theories. The same may be said 

 for the biological lectures where we cut out all pos- 

 sible detail yet give a skeleton outline of the con- 

 tributions of the more celebrated men to the theories 

 of organic evolution. The course ends with a review 

 of the present known facts regarding the organic 

 development of man himself while a certain amount 

 of time is given to social and mental growth (cul- 

 ture) . 



As this course itself is still in the early 

 stages of its evolution, its real value can not 

 as yet be ascertained, but it is not impossible 



that it, too, may serve as one of the pioneer 

 attempts that will form the basis for the future 

 courses on the history of science. 



HISTORY OF SPECIFIC SCIENCES 



There are many evidences that much more 

 success has been obtained in the shaping and 

 conducting of courses on the history of the 

 specific sciences than where the whole field of 

 science has been engaged in a single campaign. 

 Here the difficulties to be met by the lecturer 

 in crossing the boundary between two branches 

 of science are largely avoided, and although 

 the interrelation of the several sciences can not 

 be lost sight of, his natural limitations do not 

 prevent him from presenting the history of his 

 specialty in a manner that is sufficiently con- 

 nected to lead to logical conclusions. He is 

 able — by limiting his attention to a single field 

 of development — to secure a picture so com- 

 plete as to impress the student's mind with the 

 one fact of paramount importance, namely, 

 that he is reviewing a growth, one that never 

 goes backward, and one which in its latest 

 stage — the present — is an integral part of the 

 world as he now sees it. Such a study, to be 

 of greatest worth, is, of course, suitable for ad- 

 vanced students only in the particular science 

 to which it relates. Here is an unquestionable 

 case in which the advocates of prerequisite 

 scientific training are thoroughly sound. The 

 field is not new. Enough has been written to 

 make great blunders no longer unavoidable, and 

 many such courses are at present being ofl^ered 

 in American colleges, though so far their use- 

 fulness has been limited by the lack of time on 

 the part of the teachers and the failure of 

 others to appreciate the value in such things in 

 this age of seeking after immediate practical 

 results. 



Naturally, mathematics is one of the leading 

 subjects whose history is now being taught as an 

 independent course. The maturer the student 

 and the wider his knowledge of the methods of 

 mathematics, the greater will be his pleasure 

 and benefit from a review of the philosophy 

 and labors that have developed the powerful 

 mathematics of the present. In some institu- 

 tions it has been possible to combine something 



