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AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE
BY WALTER LIBBY, M.A., Ph.D. PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY WALTER LIBBY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS U. S. A TO MY STUDENTS OF THE LAST TWELVE YEARS IN THE CHICAGO AND PITTSBURGH DISTRICTS THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED IN FURTHERANCE OF THE ENDEAVOR TO INCULCATE A DEMOCRATIC CULTURE, EVER MINDFUL OF THE DAILY TASK, NOT ALTOG
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PREFACE
PREFACE
The history of science has something to offer to the humblest intelligence. It is a means of imparting a knowledge of scientific facts and principles to unschooled minds. At the same time it affords a simple method of school instruction. Those who understand a business or an institution best, as a contemporary writer on finance remarks, are those who have made it or grown up with it, and the next best thing is to know how it has grown up, and then watch or take part in its actual working. Genera
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SCIENCE AND PRACTICAL NEEDS—EGYPT AND BABYLONIA
SCIENCE AND PRACTICAL NEEDS—EGYPT AND BABYLONIA
If you consult encyclopedias and special works in reference to the early history of any one of the sciences,—astronomy, geology, geometry, physiology, logic, or political science, for example,—you will find strongly emphasized the part played by the Greeks in the development of organized knowledge. Great, indeed, as we shall see in the next chapter, are the contributions to the growth of science of this highly rational and speculative people. It must be conceded, also, that the influence on West
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
F. H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine . H. V. Hilprecht, Excavations in Assyria and Babylonia . Max Neuburger, History of Medicine . A. H. Sayce, Babylonians and Assyrians ....
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THE INFLUENCE OF ABSTRACT THOUGHT—GREECE: ARISTOTLE
THE INFLUENCE OF ABSTRACT THOUGHT—GREECE: ARISTOTLE
No sooner did the Greeks turn their attention to the sciences which had originated in Egypt and Babylonia than the characteristic intellectual quality of the Hellenic genius revealed itself. Thales (640-546 B.C. ), who is usually regarded as the first of the Greek philosophers, was the founder of Greek geometry and astronomy. He was one of the seven "wise men" of Greece, and might be called the Benjamin Franklin of antiquity, for he was interested in commerce, famous for political sagacity, and
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Aristotle, Historia Animalium ; translated by D'A. W. Thompson. (Vol. IV of the Works of Aristotle Translated into English . Oxford: Clarendon Press.) A. B. Buckley (Mrs. Buckley Fisher), A Short History of Natural Science . G. H. Lewes, Aristotle; A Chapter in the History of Science . T. E. Lones, Aristotle's Researches in Natural Science . D'A. W. Thompson, On Aristotle as a Biologist . William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences . Alfred Weber, History of Philosophy ....
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SCIENTIFIC THEORY SUBORDINATED TO APPLICATION—ROME: VITRUVIUS
SCIENTIFIC THEORY SUBORDINATED TO APPLICATION—ROME: VITRUVIUS
Vitruvius was a cultured engineer and architect. He was employed in the service of the Roman State at the time of Augustus, shortly before the beginning of the Christian era. He planned basilicas and aqueducts, and designed powerful war-engines capable of hurling rocks weighing three or four hundred pounds. He knew the arts and the sciences, held lofty ideals of professional conduct and dignity, and was a diligent student of Greek philosophy. We know of him chiefly from his ten short books on Ar
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Lucretius, The Nature of Things ; translated by H. A. J. Munro. Pliny, Natural History ; translated by Philemon Holland. Professor Baden Powell, History of Natural Philosophy . Seneca, Physical Science ; translated by John Clarke. Vitruvius, Architecture ; translated by Joseph Gwilt, 1826. Vitruvius, Architecture ; translated by Professor M. H. Morgan, 1914....
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THE CONTINUITY OF SCIENCE—THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH AND THE ARABS
THE CONTINUITY OF SCIENCE—THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH AND THE ARABS
Learning has very often and very aptly been compared to a torch passed from hand to hand. By the written sign or spoken word it is transmitted from one person to another. Very little advance in culture could be made even by the greatest man of genius if he were dependent, for what knowledge he might acquire, merely on his own personal observation. Indeed, it might be said that exceptional mental ability involves a power to absorb the ideas of others, and even that the most original people are th
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
The Catholic Encyclopedia. J. L. E. Dreyer, History of the Planetary Systems . Encyclopædia Britannica. Arabian Philosophy; Roger Bacon. W. J. Townsend, The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages . R. B. Vaughan, St. Thomas of Aquin; his Life and Labours . Andrew D. White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom ....
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THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES—FRANCIS BACON
THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES—FRANCIS BACON
The preceding chapter has shown that there is a continuity in the development of single sciences. The astronomy, or the chemistry, or the mathematics, of one period depends so directly on the respective science of the foregoing period, that one feels justified in using the term "growth," or "evolution," to describe their progress. Now a vital relationship can be observed not only among different stages of the same science, but also among the different sciences. Physics, astronomy, and chemistry
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Bacon's Catalogue of Particular Histories by Titles (1620)
Bacon's Catalogue of Particular Histories by Titles (1620)
The fragment containing this catalogue ( Parasceve —Day of Preparation) was added to Bacon's work on method, The New Logic ( Novum Organum ), 1620. Besides completing his survey and classification of the sciences ( De Augmentis Scientiarum ), 1623, he published a few separate writings on topics in the catalogue— Winds , Life and Death , Tides , etc. In 1627, a year after his death, appeared his much misunderstood work, Sylva Sylvarum . He had found that the Latin word sylva meant stuff or raw ma
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Bacon's Philosophical Works , vol. IV , Parasceve , edited by R. L. Ellis, J. Spedding, and D. D. Heath. Karl Pearson, Grammar of Science . J. A. Thomson, Introduction to Science ....
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SCIENTIFIC METHOD—GILBERT, GALILEO, HARVEY, DESCARTES
SCIENTIFIC METHOD—GILBERT, GALILEO, HARVEY, DESCARTES
The previous chapter has given some indication of the range of the material which was demanding scientific investigation at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. The same period witnessed a conscious development of the method, or methods, of investigation. As we have seen, Bacon wrote in 1620 a considerable work, The New Logic ( Novum Organum ), so called to distinguish it from the traditional deductive logic. It aimed to furnish the organ or instrument, to indic
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Francis Bacon, Philosophical Works (Ellis and Spedding edition), vol. IV , Novum Organum. J. J. Fahie, Galileo; His Life and Work . Galileo, Two New Sciences ; translated by Henry Crew and Alphonse De Salvio. William Gilbert, On the Loadstone ; translated by P. F. Mottelay. William Harvey, An Anatomical Disquisition on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals . T. H. Huxley, Method and Results . D'Arcy Power, William Harvey (in Masters of Medicine ). [1] This is Harvey's monogram, which he u
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SCIENCE AS MEASUREMENT—TYCHO BRAHE, KEPLER, BOYLE
SCIENCE AS MEASUREMENT—TYCHO BRAHE, KEPLER, BOYLE
Considering the value for clearness of thought of counting, measuring and weighing, it is not surprising to find that in the seventeenth century, and even at the end of the sixteenth, the advance of the sciences was accompanied by increased exactness of measurement and by the invention of instruments of precision. The improvement of the simple microscope, the invention of the compound microscope, of the telescope, the micrometer, the barometer, the thermoscope, the thermometer, the pendulum cloc
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Sir Robert S. Ball, Great Astronomers . Robert Boyle, Works (edited by Thomas Birch). Sir David Brewster, Martyrs of Science . J. L. E. Dreyer, Tycho Brahe . Sir Oliver Lodge, Pioneers of Science . Flora Masson, Robert Boyle; a Biography ....
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COÖPERATION IN SCIENCE—THE ROYAL SOCIETY
COÖPERATION IN SCIENCE—THE ROYAL SOCIETY
The period from 1637 to 1687 affords a good illustration of the value for the progress of science of the coöperation in the pursuit of truth of men of different creeds, nationalities, vocations, and social ranks. At, or even before, the beginning of that period the need of coöperation was indicated by the activities of two men of pronouncedly social temperament and interests, namely, the French Minim father, Mersenne, and the Protestant Prussian merchant, Samuel Hartlib. Mersenne was a stimulati
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Sir David Brewster, Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton . E. Conradi, Learned Societies and Academies in Early Times, Pedagogical Seminary , vol. XII (1905), pp. 384-426. Abraham Cowley, A Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy . D. Masson, Life of Milton . Vol. III , chap. II . Thomas Sprat, The History of the Royal Society of London . The Record of the Royal Society (third edition, 1912)....
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SCIENCE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
SCIENCE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Of the Fellows of the Royal Society, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) is the most representative of that age of enlightenment which had its origin in Newton's Principia . Franklin represents the eighteenth century in his steadfast pursuit of intellectual, social, and political emancipation. And in his long fight, calmly waged, against the forces of want, superstition, and intolerance, such as still hamper the development of aspiring youth in America, England, and elsewhere, he found science no mean
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
American Philosophical Society, Record of the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Benjamin Franklin . S. G. Fisher, The True Benjamin Franklin . Paul L. Ford, Many-sided Franklin . Benjamin Franklin, Complete Works , edited by A. H. Smyth, ten volumes, vol. X containing biography. [2] See The Advice of W. P. to Mr. Samuel Hartlib for the Advancement of some Particular Parts of Learning , in which is advocated a Gymnasium Mechanicum or a College of Tradesmen with fellowsh
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THE INTERACTION OF THE SCIENCES—WERNER, HUTTON, BLACK, HALL, WILLIAM SMITH
THE INTERACTION OF THE SCIENCES—WERNER, HUTTON, BLACK, HALL, WILLIAM SMITH
The view expressed by Franklin regarding the existence of a fiery mass underlying the crust of the earth was not in his time universally accepted. In fact, it was a question very vigorously disputed what part the internal or volcanic fire played in the formation and modification of rock masses. Divergent views were represented by men who had come to the study of geology with varying aims and diverse scientific schooling, and the advance of the science of the earth's crust was owing in no small m
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Sir A. Geikie, Founders of Geology . James Hutton, Theory of the Earth . Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology . John Playfair, Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory . K. A. v. Zittel, History of Geology and Palæontology ....
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SCIENCE AND RELIGION—KANT, LAMBERT, LAPLACE, SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL
SCIENCE AND RELIGION—KANT, LAMBERT, LAPLACE, SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL
Hutton had advanced the study of geology by concentrating attention on the observable phenomena of the earth's crust, and turning away from speculations about the origin of the world and the relation of this sphere to other units of the cosmos. In the same century, however, other scientists and philosophers were attracted by these very problems which seemed not to promise immediate or demonstrative solution, and through their studies they arrived at conclusions which profoundly affected the scie
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
G. F. Becker, Kant as a Natural Philosopher, American Journal of Science , vol. V (1898), pp. 97-112. W. W. Bryant, A History of Astronomy . Agnes M. Clerke, History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century . Agnes M. Clerke, The Herschels and Modern Astronomy . Sir William Herschel, Papers on the Construction of the Heavens ( Philosophical Transactions , 1784, 1811, etc.). A. R. Hinks, Astronomy (Home University Library). E. W. Maunders, The Science of the Stars (The People's Books)....
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THE REIGN OF LAW—DALTON, JOULE
THE REIGN OF LAW—DALTON, JOULE
In the middle of the eighteenth century, when Lambert and Kant were recognizing system and design in the heavens, little progress had been made toward discovering the constitution of matter or revealing the laws of the hidden motions of things. Boyle had, indeed, made a beginning, not only by his study of the elasticity of the air, but by his distinction of the elements and compounds and his definition of chemistry as the science of the composition of substances. How little had been accomplished
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Alembic Club Reprints, Foundations of the Atomic Theory . Joseph Priestley, Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air . Sir William Ramsay, The Gases of the Atmosphere and the History of their Discovery . Sir Henry E. Roscoe, John Dalton . Sir E. Thorpe, Essays in Historical Chemistry ....
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THE SCIENTIST—SIR HUMPHRY DAVY
THE SCIENTIST—SIR HUMPHRY DAVY
Humphry Davy (1778-1829) was born in Cornwall, a part of England known for its very mild climate and the combined beauty and majesty of its scenery. On either side of the peninsula the Atlantic in varying mood lies extended in summer sunshine, or from its shroud of mist thunders on the black cliffs and their time-sculptured sandstones. From the coast inland, stretch, between flowered lanes and hedges, rolling pasture-lands of rich green made all the more vivid by the deep reddish tint of the plo
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
John Davy, Works of Sir Humphry Davy . John Davy, Fragmentary Remains, literary and scientific, of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. Bence Jones, Life and Letters of Faraday . John Tyndall, Faraday as a Discoverer . E. v. Meyer, History of Chemistry . S. P. Thompson, Michael Faraday; his Life and Work . Sir Edward Thorpe, Humphry Davy, Poet and Philosopher ....
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SCIENTIFIC PREDICTION—THE DISCOVERY OF NEPTUNE
SCIENTIFIC PREDICTION—THE DISCOVERY OF NEPTUNE
Under this heading we have to consider a single illustration—the prediction, and the discovery, in 1846, of the planet Neptune. This event roused great enthusiasm among scientists as well as in the popular mind, afforded proof of the reliability of the Newtonian hypothesis, and demonstrated the precision to which the calculation of celestial motions had attained. Scientific law appeared not merely as a formulation and explanation of observed phenomena but as a means for the discovery of new trut
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Sir Robert Ball, Neptune's Jubilee Year, Scientific American , Supplement, Oct. 10, 1896. Sir Robert Ball, The Story of the Heavens , chap. XV . B. A. Gould, Report on the History of the Discovery of Neptune, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge , 1850. Robert Grant, History of Physical Astronomy . Simon Newcomb, Popular Astronomy . Benjamin Peirce, Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , vol. I , pp. 57-68, 144, 285, 338-41, etc. [3] See article "Neptune," Encyc. Brit....
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SCIENCE AND TRAVEL—THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE
SCIENCE AND TRAVEL—THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE
Sir Charles Lyell, in his Principles of Geology , the first edition of which appeared in 1830-1833, says: "If it be true that delivery be the first, second, and third requisite in a popular orator, it is no less certain that travel is of first, second, and third importance to those who desire to originate just and comprehensive views concerning the structure of our globe." The value of travel to science in general might very well be illustrated by Lyell's own career, his study of the mountainous
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Charles Darwin, A Naturalist's Journal . Francis Darwin, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin . W. A. Locy, Biology and its Makers (third revised edition), chap. XIX . G. J. Romanes, Darwin and After Darwin , vol. I . A. R. Wallace, Darwinism . See also John W. Judd, The Coming of Evolution (The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature)....
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SCIENCE AND WAR—PASTEUR, LISTER
SCIENCE AND WAR—PASTEUR, LISTER
In the history of science war is no mere interruption, but a great stimulating influence, promoting directly or indirectly the liberties of the people, calling into play the energy of artisan and manufacturer, and increasing the demand for useful and practical studies. In the activities of naval and military equipment and organization this influence is obvious enough; it is no less real in the reaction from war which impels all to turn with new zest to the arts and industries of peace and to che
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
W. W. Ford, The Life and Work of Robert Koch , Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dec. 1911, vol. 22. C. A. Herter, The Influence of Pasteur on Medical Science , Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dec. 1903, vol. 14. E. O. Jordan, General Bacteriology (fourth edition, 1915). Charles C. W. Judd, The Life and Work of Lister , Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Oct. 1910, vol. 21. Stephen Paget, Pasteur and After Pasteur . W. T. Sedgwick, Principles of Sanitary Science . René Vallery
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SCIENCE AND INVENTION—LANGLEY'S AEROPLANE
SCIENCE AND INVENTION—LANGLEY'S AEROPLANE
In his laudation of the nineteenth century Alfred Russel Wallace ventured to enumerate the chief inventions of that period: (1) Railways; (2) steam navigation; (3) electric telegraphs; (4) the telephone; (5) friction matches; (6) gas-lighting; (7) electric-lighting; (8) photography; (9) the phonograph; (10) electric transmission of power; (11) Röntgen rays; (12) spectrum analysis; (13) anæsthetics; (14) antiseptic surgery. All preceding centuries—less glorious than the nineteenth—can claim but s
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Alexander Graham Bell, Experiments in Mechanical Flight, Nature , May 28, 1896. Alexander Graham Bell, The Pioneer Aerial Flight, Scientific American , Supplement, Feb. 26, 1910. S. P. Langley, Experiments in Aerodynamics . S. P. Langley, The "Flying Machine," McClure's , June, 1897 (illustrated). Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge , vol. 27, no. 3 (illustrated). Scientific American , Jan. 13, 1912, A Memorial Honor to a Pioneer Inventor. The Smithsonian
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SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESIS—RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES
SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESIS—RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES
The untrained mind, reliant on so-called facts and distrustful of mere theory, inclines to think of truth as fixed rather than progressive, static rather than dynamic. It longs for certainty and repose, and has little patience for any authority that does not claim absolute infallibility. Many a man of the world is bewildered to find Newton's disciples building upon or refuting the teachings of the master, or to learn that Darwin's doctrine is itself subject to the universal law of change and dev
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List of Radioactive Substances
List of Radioactive Substances
Even a glance at this long list of new elements reveals certain analogies between one series of transformations and another. Each series contains an emanation, or gas, which through the loss of α particles is transformed into the next following member of the series. Continuing the comparison in either direction, up or down the lists, one could readily detect other analogies. There is some ground for thinking that lead is the end product of the Uranium series. To reverse the process of the transf
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
J. Cox, Beyond the Atom , 1913 (Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature). R. K. Duncan, The New Knowledge , 1905. H. Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis . E. Rutherford, Radioactive Substances and their Radiations . F. Soddy, The Interpretation of Radium . F. Soddy, Matter and Energy (Home University Library). Sir William A. Tilden, Progress of Scientific Chemistry in our Own Time , 1913....
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THE SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION
THE SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION
Psychology, or the science of mental life as revealed in behavior, has been greatly indebted to physiologists and to students of medicine in general. Any attempt to catalogue the names of those who have approached the study of the mind from the direction of the natural sciences is liable to prove unsatisfactory, and a brief list is sure to entail many important omissions. The mention of Locke, Cheselden, Hartley, Cabanis, Young, Weber, Gall, Müller, Du Bois-Reymond, Bell, Magendie, Helmholtz, Da
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Baldwin, J. M., History of Psychology , 1913. 2 vols. Dessoir, Max, Outlines of the History of Psychology , 1912. Klemm, Otto, A History of Psychology , 1914. Merz, J. T., History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century , vol. II , chap. XII , On the Psycho-physical View of Nature. Rand, Benjamin, The Classical Psychologists , 1912. Ribot, T. A., English Psychology , 1889. Ribot, T. A., German Psychology of To-day , 1886....
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SCIENCE AND DEMOCRATIC CULTURE
SCIENCE AND DEMOCRATIC CULTURE
Education is the oversight and guidance of the development of the immature with certain ethical and social ends in view. Pedagogy, therefore, is based partly on psychology—which, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, is closely related to the biological sciences—and partly on ethics, or the study of morals, closely related to the social sciences. These two aspects of education, the psychological and the sociological, were treated respectively in Rousseau's Emile and Plato's Republic . The fo
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REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism , and Culture and Anarchy . Matthew Arnold, Civilization in the United States . Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Future of our Educational Institutions , vol. VI. of the Complete Works ; translation edited by Dr. Oscar Levy. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil , vol. V , chap. VI. of the Complete Works . Plato, Republic , Book VIII ; vol. III. of Benjamin Jowett's translation of the Dialogues of Plato , 1875....
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