An Introduction to the History of Science. By Walter Libby.
(George G. Harrap and Co. Os. net.)—This pleasantly written. little book, by a Professor of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, is intended to interest young people in the development of the sciences which play so great a part in the modern world. The author ranges over a wide field, from the Pyramid-builders of Egypt to Pasteur, the inventors of the aeroplane, and the discoverers of radium, but he is never dull. In a closing chapter he urges that " the cultivation of the Sciences tends to promote a type of culture that is democratic rather than aristocratic, sympathetic rather than austere, inclusive rather than exclusive," and reminds us of the many great men of science who were of humble origin. He remarks that modern secondary schools have developed with democracy in English-speaking countries, and points to the sig- nificant fact that " the Kindergarten was suppressed in Prussia after the revolt of the people in the middle of the nineteenth century, and that it found a more congenial home in a democratic country." Despotism sterilizes the intellect, despite the boasted efficiency of the Prussian school system for the wealthier classes.
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