A Survey of Science
THE author promises too much. The Origin Progress and Significance of Scientific Knowledge is a sub-tide fitted for the magnum opus of a great archaeologist, scholar and savant, while this book is, in fact, a popular survey of the history and present state of modern science. It consists of twenty-
one chapters, each of which deals with some aspect of science, tracing its development from the earliest times to the present day. In this fashion the author presents us both with a history of science and an account of its present state. He writes clearly, and unquestionably the layman and scientific amateur can find in the book much to interest them. Un- fortunately, however, it is marred by inaccuracies, which make us doubt if the author is qualified for his task.
Popular science and history are debarred by lack of space from telling the whole truth, but they should tell the truth and nothing but the truth. Incompleteness is unavoidable, but important events and elementary phenomena should be correctly described. The character of the historical portion of this book arouses the suspicion that Mr. Shepherd has relied on derivative works for much of his information, and that he is not very familiar with such aspects of modem science as organic chemistry and atomic physics. Many examples could be cited, but his treatment of Galileo and his contemporaries affords a striking instance. He tells us that "Galileo, obtaining permission to use the Leaning Tower of Pisa for the purpose, dropped a variety of sub- stances from the balustrade, and by careful timing was able to show that the rate of fall is the same for all substances
whatever the weight." It does not seem unfair to expect a historian of science to have read the works of Galileo ; he
who does so will find that they make no mention of such an incident. His biographer, Viviani, writing sixty years after the supposed event, tells us that Galileo repeatedly dropped weights from the Campanile of Pisa, which were seen by a
large assembly to arrive at the ground at the same time. Let us accept this for what it is worth : the "obtaining of per- mission," the "variety of substances," and "the careful timing" (impossible with the available apparatus) are products of the brain of Mr. Shepherd and his secondary or tertiary sources. His declaration that the Copernican doctrine was heretical at the time of Giordano Bruno's condemnation is quite
incorrect, and his statement that Galileo proved the theories
of Kepler about planetary motion is equally untrue, for the former regarded the idea of elliptical orbits as absurd. Errors of this kind are not necessarily a serious blot on a historical work if they are redeemed by understanding ; but Mr. Shepherd lacks that sympathy and historical sense which engendered only by familiarity with the original works. Any- one who can subscribe to 'the theory that the Chinese >In and yang represented nitrogen and oxygen, and that the mediaeval Chinese separated these gases, is evidently un- familiar with their culture. Nor can we attribute much familiarity with classical sources to one who believes the name of Cyprus to be derived from the Greek work for copper, and supposes the sal ammoniacum of Pliny and Dioskurides '0 be our modern sal ammoniac.
The author's account of modern science is not who!" reliable. He attributes the sensation of cold felt when er e blows sharply on one's hand to the Joule-Thomson effe t.
The cooling due to this effect might be a fiftieth of a degree, and, of course, quite imperceptible to the senses. His account of protein structure is entirely misleading and is illustrated by an incorrect formula for a type of amino-acid that is never found in proteins. His modern X-Ray tube has for some years been obsolete. A millionth of a gram of radium does not now cost sixpence but a penny . . .
If the reader treats Mr. Shepherd's book with a certain caution he will find much of interest, especially in the parts dealing with geography and geology but he will not find "science presented whole." Let it, none the less, be to the author's credit that he has perceived the need, not only to present science as a unity, but also to bridge or abolish the gap between the scientific, the aesthetic, and the religious or philosophic attitude of mind. The sundering of the two great sides of man's activity, his dealings with matter and with mind, is a cause of the deep spiritual malaise which has issailed the world, and whose symptoms are to be found in the decline of the arts, of manners, and of morals. The world awaits the man who can take into his brain the vast corpus of human achievement and distil therefrom a system of thought and conduct, wide enough and deep enough to comprehend all philosophy, natural and divine.
F. SHERWOOD TAYLOR.
Previous page
