750 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1091 



and in astronomy; both were discontinued, 

 and to-day there is established a course in the 

 history of biology. The University of Chicago 

 likewise in the same year announced courses 

 in the history of astronomy and of chemistry, 

 but several years later these were discontinued. 

 The effort to keep up this work at the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago has never ceased, however; 

 we find the history of physics and of geology 

 offered, as well as a course in the history of 

 geography (which of course is not a pure sci- 

 ence subject). At the same university the 

 scientific faculty attempt to institute a very 

 unique and ambitious plan for the fostering 

 and development of the historical courses in 

 science. A letter from Dr. F. E. Moulton 

 explains it: 



The department of philosophy was to initiate the 

 system by giving an introductory course in An- 

 cient Science, developing it to about Galileo's 

 time. From here the following departments 

 (mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, biol- 

 ogy and geology) were to carry over the modern 

 period of science in their particular fields. 



These courses were to be correlated, and so 

 given as to form a large and orderly sequence 

 in the history of science. The one difficulty in 

 the scheme. Dr. Moulton writes, is that it was 

 impossible to get the same students to con- 

 tinue throughout the year ; and worse still, the 

 methods of the different professors were so 

 diverse that there was really no continuity in 

 the discussion. The plan has now been aban- 

 doned. But for a substitute there has been 

 developed an excellent series of coiirses by Dr. 

 G. H. Mead in the philosophy department, on 

 a closely allied subject — the history of the an- 

 cient and modern scientific concepts. 



In time a niunber of other schools followed 

 — Universities of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Illi- 

 nois, Michigan, Northwestern, Stanford and 

 California. This response was felt to be nec- 

 essary in the west as well as in the east, and 

 California and Stanford have maintained it 

 consistently. From 1895 to date a course in 

 the history of chemistry has been offered at 

 the University of California, with slight and 

 varying degree of success. In the department 

 of astronomy from 1896 to date, the historical 



course has been found to be in greater demand, 

 whereas the history of mathematics was given 

 only for a period of three years. Stanford 

 University has, from the time of its founda- 

 tion (1891), offered a comrse in the history of 

 chemistry almost continuously, except that of 

 late it has been given in alternate years. The 

 course in the history of physics has been 

 abandoned. Instead, however, a " Journal " 

 course is given with the same idea, i. e., dis- 

 cussing certain epoch-making problems in 

 physics, from the historical point of view. 



A fiu'ther study of the individual colleges 

 and universities will reveal a like condition 

 regarding the changeable character of his- 

 torical studies in the science departments, and 

 the reasons for this are many, apparent to the 

 individual schools themselves; namely, lack of 

 students, lack of interest, improper correlation 

 and requirements, and no ideals of what con- 

 stitutes true breadth of culture and efficiency 

 in scientific training. A very noticeable and 

 astonishing neglect exists in a number of our 

 larger schools, in which one naturally would 

 expect greater efficiency and continuity. They 

 omit entirely the historical treatment of some 

 of their strongest scientific departments. A 

 historical course should certainly be given in 

 the departments where some degree of strength 

 and prominence has been attained. California 

 and Michigan in astronomy. Harvard in chem- 

 istry, Chicago in physics and mathematics, 

 have carried this idea out partly. 



A study of the conditions in smaller schools 

 is naturally not very different from the larger, 

 except in the total number of courses offered, 

 as well as the types, which center around the 

 physical sciences. 



In order to obtain a scientific account of the 

 present trend of the historical courses given, a 

 statistical study was first undertaken, which 

 was divided into three parts by grouping the 

 universities, colleges and technical schools.^ 

 There are about 600 higher institutions of 

 learning in the coujitry, and it was found im- 

 practical and unwise to use the entire number 

 for this particular study. It is also untrust- 



8 Selected from the Eeport of U. S. Commis- 

 sioner of Education, 1913, Vol. II., pp. 193-209. 



