A History of Science-1910.Pdf

THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES BOOKS BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS THE STORY OF NINETEENTH CENTURY SCIENCE. Harper & Bros., 1900. "He must have a dull mind indeed who can read this book without fascination." Christian Register. THE HISTORY OP THE ART OF WRITING. (Four massive portfolios with 200 fac-similes in tone and color.) Merrill & Baker, 1902-1903. "One of the most superb examples of book-making in America since Audubon's masterpiece." Rupert Hughes in the Marconi- gram. THE HISTORIANS' HISTORY OF THE WORLD: A Compre- hensive Narrative of the Rise and Development of Nations. (25 vols. with about 3,000 illustrations.) Edited with the collab- oration of many specialists, European and American The Out- look Company, 1904-1905. "A work of epoch-making importance comparable in scholar- ship and authority to La Grand Encyclopedic, the Dictionary of National Biography, the New English Dictionary, and the En- cyclopaedia Britannica." The Times, London. A HISTORY OF SCIENCE. (5 vols., fully illustrated.) Harper & Bros., 1904. "At once a source of information and an inspiration." Prof. Louis G. Nolte. ALCOHOL: How it Affects the Individual, the Community, and the Race. The Century Co., 1909. "By your clear and dispassionate presentation of this subject you have earned the respect and gratitude of a generation, and have done the good of an average lifetime." Letter to the Author. RACE CONQUEST; OR THE LESSON OF HEREDITY: A Study in Eugenics. The Goodhue Co. In press. Based on a series of lectures delivered at the Hartford School of Sociology. "I am glad to learn that Dr. Williams' highly important theories of racial development are at last to be given to the world in permanent form." J. M. Keyes, M.D. THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS : An Optimistic Study of the Art of Living. Harper & Brotners, 1910. "B3tter than medicine for patients of a certain class." Dr. Walter M. Seward. EVERY-DAY SCIENCE: A Record of the Evolution of Ideas, the Development of Ideals, and the Application of Organized Knowledge to the Needs of Practical Life, n vols., profusely illustrated. The Goodhue Co., 1910. "I have examined advance sheets of Dr. Williams' new book with great interest. There is certainly no work closely comparable to it in any language with which I am familiar. It will surely have enormous influence for the advancement of scientific education and of general culture." Geo. H. Casamajor, C.E. A HISTORY OF SCIENCE BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D. ASSISTED BY EDWARD H. WILLIAMS. M.D. KEY AND INDEX NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS v MDCCOCX Copyright, 1910, by THE GOODHOK Co. AU rights reserved DEDICATION To the boys and girls of to-day, who hold all the pos- sibilities of the future in their keeping. To mothers and fathers, upon whom rests the vast responsibility of directing the minds and moulding the characters of the coming generation; To educators by profession in every rank from kinder- garten to university; To members of the traditional "learned" professions, who are of necessity leaders of thought and formulators of ideals in the community; and To intelligent men and women in any walk of life who aspire to keep abreast of their times and to broaden their horizons: The books of this series, designed to contribute to the progress of civilization through the dissemination of useful knowledge, are dedicated. 772301 CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION AND KEY, outlining the general schemeof the entire work and giving complete tables of contents by chapters. II. TECHNICAL INDEX AND GLOSSARY, in which the technical terms of every department of Science are defined, with illustrative comment. III. BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX, comprising a full list of the dis- coveries in every department of Science, theoretical and practical, with brief sketches of their work. IV. ENCYCLOPEDIC GENERAL INDEX, covering fully all the topics treated, with abundant cross-references. KEY AND INDEX VOLUME A KEY TO THE TEXT THE present volume is devoted to Indexes which analyze the text of the preceding volumes from various standpoints. Two of these indexes are of somewhat novel character, inasmuch as they introduce specific explanatory matter concerning technicalities of science, or biographical data regarding important scientific workers, in addition to guiding the reader to the pages of the preceding volumes. The third Index is of more conventional character, and is designed solely as an analysis of the text; yet its references are always so phrased as to convey a clear idea of the exact subject to which the reader is guided. AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT As preliminary to these Indexes it will, perhaps, oe a convenience to the reader to have presented here a brief of the varied contents of the very analysis preceding volumes from two different standpoints: First, a very general survey of the subjects treated; secondly, a more detailed presentation of these subjects as re- vealed by the titles of the successive chapters, volume by volume. Perhaps the most general analysis that could be made of the text as a whole would characterize it as a comprehensive presentation of the growth of scientific KEY AND INDEX knowledge in all its departments, and the application of that knowledge to the affairs of every-day life. So general a characterization, of course, can convey but a vague impression to the mind. To make this impression somewhat specific, let us say that there are six or seven large groups of subjects that form the theme of our successive chapters. These might be summarized in various ways, but perhaps the follow- ing somewhat arbitrary classification will serve as well as another: 1. Cosmical Sciences, as specifically represented by the science of astronomy, with its practical applications to the art of navigation. Here we have to do with the ferreting-out of the secrets of the starry universe and the planetary systems, from the visionary interpretations of the ancient Egyptian and Babylonian star- gazers to the accurately measured records of the modern observer, equipped with telescope, spectro- scope, and photographic plate, or with sextant and compass. 2. Telluric Sciences; specifically, geography, geology, paleontology, and meteorology. Here we deal with those studies through which a knowledge of the earth's geographic masses and of its rocky structure has been gained; with interpretations of the method of world- building that have been made possible by the study of fossil remains; and with the investigations of at- mospheric phenomena to which the modern practical science of weather prediction owes its origin and its success. 3. Physical Sciences, or what the students of the elder day termed natural philosophy, including the phenomena of gravitation, heat, light, sound, and electricity and magnetism. This is a field at once of the most obvious interest and the utmost practical importance. Not only do its studies have to do with A KEY TO THE TEXT the most familiar yet baffling and inscrutable of phenomena, but they deal also with the applications and transmutations of energy upon which practically all the mechanisms that perform the world's work depend from water wheels and windmills to steam engines, gasoline motors, and electric dynamos. 4. Chemical Science, and the Chemical Industries. Here we have virtually an extension of the physical field to the world of the atom. We deal with inscrutable forces which have, nevertheless, the most tangible manifestations. Our studies range from the visionary dreams of the ancient alchemist, and the scarcely less mystical calculations of the modern student of atoms, valences, and periodic functions, to such highly practical fields as the work of electro-plating metals, com- pounding dye-stuffs, and manufacturing artificial gems in the laboratory. 5. Biological Sciences, including botany, zoology, biology proper, anatomy and physiology, medicine, experimental psychology, and anthropology. Here the very list of subjects is sufficiently explicative of the wide range of interests involved. We deal with the origins of life itself; with the evolution of species; with the applications of scientific knowledge to the con- of disease and with those subtle studies that are quest ; concerned with the brain itself and with the disembod- ied evidence of its functionings which we term the mind. 6. The Applied Sciences, or Mechanical Arts. Much that is implied by this title might properly be included, also, in the preceding ones. There are, however, a good many of the mechanical arts for example, paper-making, printing, book-binding, the manufacture of cloth, the development of the flying- machine, and the like that have depended for their development upon the ingenious application of familiar principles rather than upon any novel discovery. Yet [3] KEY AND INDEX the story of the application of these principles is full of interest, and in many cases the ingenuity displayed in the application of old principles to new purposes is fully entitled to be described as the work of genius. Indeed such application of theoretical principles to the development of the practical mechanisms through which the entire structure of civilization has been developed constitutes the crowning achievement of scientific investigation. CONTENTS BY CHAPTERS The summary just presented will serve, perhaps, to give at least a general notion of the scope of our text. A notion still more precise may be gained from a survey of the contents of the successive volumes by chapters. Such a Table of Contents is here presented. By glancing at it the reader will be enabled to locate any specific subject as regards its main treatment. The list may, therefore, serve as an index of the most general character, preparatory for the detailed analyses made by the Indexes that follow, which are, as already noted, of three types: I.

Load more