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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 649 



the vast progress resulting therefrom, 

 seemed to foreshadow an entirely unpre- 

 cedented epoch in the history of science, 

 and the generation of that age was only 

 too eager to sever all links connecting it 

 with the accomplishments of former ages. 



The inauguration of the twentieth cen- 

 tury presents a somewhat contrary aspect. 

 One of its primary tendencies has been 

 towards a restoration of our lost connection 

 with the eighteenth century and with 

 earlier periods, resulting in a movement of 

 such earnest and impressive character that 

 we can not foretell at the present moment 

 whether the eighteenth century will not, at 

 some day not far off, seem nearer to us 

 than the sober prose of the nineteenth. 



It is not mere chance that at the dawn 

 of the new age the war-cry 'Historical in- 

 vestigations!' is sounded from all camps, 

 and that in consequence a broader scientific 

 knowledge is obtained through this pursuit 

 of historical research. In nearly all lines, 

 students had become weary of the worn and 

 time-honored ruts, and from the dry atmos- 

 phere of specialized specializations yearned 

 for the purer air of loftier heights; and 

 not least among the causes of this reaction 

 was the disappointment due to the misap- 

 plications and failures of the evolutionary 

 theory. New ideals were thus created, and 

 found their expression in an extended his- 

 torical movement, which led to radical 

 changes and to amplifications in literary 

 activity, in academic instruction, and in 

 museum policy — or rather in encouraging 

 prognostics of a new museum era— at least, 

 so far as Germany, Austria and Switzer- 

 land are concerned. To give a concise idea 

 of what has been accomplished, and is being 

 proposed to be done in this line, is the 

 object of this paper. 



To review even hastily all literary pur- 

 suits pertaining to this large field is nat- 

 urally beyond the scope of my purpose. 



The most noteworthy, in my estimation, 

 are the following: the journal Zoologische 

 Annalen, founded in the interests of the 

 history of zoology in 1904 by Max Braun, 

 professor of zoology at the University of 

 Konigsberg, and the organization of the 

 Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Geschichte der 

 Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, in 

 Hamburg, on September 25, 1901,— a most 

 active and industrious society, which, now 

 under the able leadership of Professor 

 Karl Sudhoff, of Leipzig, has thus far pub- 

 lished six volumes of 'Mitteilungen zur 

 Geschichte der Mediziu und Naturwissen- 

 schaften.' The pages of this journal are 

 full of interesting original contributions 

 and copious reviews concerning the history 

 of anthropology, botany, zoology, geog- 

 raphy, geology, mineralogy, chemistry, 

 physics, mathematics, astronomy, technics, 

 and medicine. A distinguished production 

 of German scholarship is the 'Handbuch 

 der Geschichte der Medizin, ' established by 

 Theodor Puschmann, the late celebrated 

 medico-historian of Vienna, and edited by 

 Max Neuburger and Julius Pagel. It was 

 recently completed in three volumes, with 

 thirty-one contributors, and embraces the 

 history of medicine in all its departments 

 and epochs, among all peoples of the globe, 

 inclusive of primitive tribes. Despite its 

 very numerous shortcomings— chiefly due 

 to inaccessibility or want of material, espe- 

 cially on Asiatic medicine, but partially 

 also to lack of historical criticism — it re- 

 mains, nevertheless, a remarkable monu- 

 ment, but more prospective than retro- 

 spective. The recent proposed action of 

 the Berlin Academy of Sciences in regard 

 to the publishing of a complete edition of 

 the Greek medical authors may also be 

 mentioned in this connection; and the new 

 epoch-making researches on the life, per- 

 sonality and works of Theophrastus Para- 

 celsus. 



