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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1036 



sity, and will begin his duties December 1, 

 1914. The following additional full-time in- 

 structors began service this year : Henry O. 

 Feiss, A.B., M.D. (Harvard), D.Sc. (Edin- 

 burgh), in experimental medicine; Gains E. 

 Harmon, M.D. (Boston), C.P.H. (Mass. 

 Inst.), in hygiene; Bradley M. Patten, A.B., 

 Ph.D. (Harvard), in histology and embryol- 

 ogy; George E. Simpson, B.S. (Illinois) in 

 organic and biochemistry. 



The following appointments have been 

 made in the department of psychology at the 

 University of Illinois : Dr. Homer B. Reed, 

 instructor ; Dr. Joseph E. De Camp, assistant ; 

 Miss Anna Sophie Rogers, graduate assistant, 

 and Miss Helen Clark, fellow. 



Db. Rudolf Rothe, professor of mathemat- 

 ics in the Technical School at Hanover, has 

 been called to the Technical School at Ohar- 

 lottenburg to succeed the late Professor Hett- 

 ner. 



Dr. Peter Debye, professor of physics at 

 Utrecht, has accepted a call to Gottingen. 



DISCUSSION AND COEBESFONDENCE 



THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



To THE Editor of Science : During the past 

 months I have written a number of professors, 

 deans and college presidents, as well as direc- 

 tors of institutes of technology, in reference to 

 the value to American undergraduates of the 

 study of the history of the sciences and indus- 

 tries. In each case the response received has 

 been marked by cordiality and enthusiasm; so 

 that I am now encouraged to seek a larger 

 audience than can be reached by private corre- 

 spondence. May I hope that the columns of 

 your periodical will be open for a discussion of 

 the matter? 



Many of my correspondents (whose names, 

 unfortunately, I have not yet sought permis- 

 sion to quote) feel that if in their undergrad- 

 uate days they had been given a survey of the 

 development of the sciences, or, better still, 

 had been led to trace the evolution of scien- 

 tific thought, their individual mental progress 

 would thereby have been much stimulated and 

 advanced. They feel, moreover, that such a 



course of study as I suggest would be of spe- 

 cial value in America, where our life and in- 

 stitutions commit us to the ideals of a demo- 

 cratic culture. 



It is of course widely recognized that the 

 individual sciences would be better taught if 

 presented on an historical background; we 

 know most vividly what we know in its ori- 

 gins. An old-fashioned course in chemistry 

 taught us that oxygen was a colorless, taste- 

 less, odorless gas, non-combustible, but a sup- 

 porter of combustion, and left it to later 

 chance reading to disclose the thrilling story 

 of the discovery of oxygen. Those fortunate 

 enough (perhaps years after graduation) to 

 read eventually of the men of genius, Scheele, 

 Priestley, Lavoisier, who had agonized to at- 

 tain the generalization that had seemed so 

 tame and valueless to the undergraduate, real- 

 ized the defectiveness of instruction that 

 sought to give the results of scientific investi- 

 gation without availing itself of the historical 

 motive. 



The practise of teaching the sciences in their 

 evolution is a needed modification of Herbert 

 Spencer's pedagogy, without which his theory 

 is both inconsistent and rude. On the one 

 hand, he, like a true follower of Auguste 

 Comte, held that the development of the indi- 

 vidual intellect should rehearse the course of 

 the history of civilization; on the other hand, 

 he attacked as too primitive what he called 

 the esthetic and ornamental studies. If he had 

 supplemented his devotion to the sciences (as 

 he understood them) by a recognition of the 

 sciences in their development he would have 

 been more consistent, and perhaps have been 

 less bellicose in his attitude toward those lan- 

 guages in which Archimedes, Lucretius and 

 Galileo wrote. That the history of the sciences 

 was the essential history of civilization and 

 as such should be rehearsed by each develop- 

 ing mind he still could have maintained. 



Another defect in the undergraduate cur- 

 riculum that might be made good by the gen- 

 eral history of science is the lack of connec- 

 tion between scientific studies. In the old- 

 fashioned college the student was permitted 

 to take up biology in the freshman year, phys- 



