A Guide to the History of Science

A GUIDE TO THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE. By George Sarton. Waltham, Mass., The Chronica Botanica Co.; New York, Stechert-Hafner Inc., 1952. xvii + 316 pp. $7.50. More than any other living man, Professor Sarton of Harvard has given to scientists the documentation of the humanistic character of their pursuit. No longer should a student of science look at his subject only as a set of facts to be memorized, or a logical structure encompassed in a series of mathematical expressions. When viewed through the eyes of the historian of science, these data and equations become parts of developing chapters in human history. Professor Sarton has reminded us that in approaching the humanization of science there is a technique to be mastered. The work under review is an introduction to that technique. Its appearance is especially welcome at a time when many scientists not trained in the methods of historical research are beginning to examine the structure of their disciplines from a historical point of view. In George Sarton, the novice will find a stern but sure guide. The book begins with three introductory essays on Science and Tradition, based on lectures delivered at University College, London, in 1938. Those who have read Professor Sarton's earlier writings, such as the introductory chapters in the separate volumes of his monumental Introduction to the History of Science, or his book reviews in Isis, will find in these lectures the same breadth of view and the same uncompromising devotion to the principles of critical scholarship. If the three essays are the reader's first meeting with Professor Sarton, the desire to study the earlier works should be a natural consequence. The second and major part of the book is a superb bibliography for the student who wishes to enter some area of the history of science. The listing of reading matter is not complete, nor did Professor Sarton intend it to be so; as he explains, the bibliography is a selected one based primarily on his own library. However, the variety and number of titles mentioned make the listing a very comprehensive one. It is with a measure of apology to the author that this reviewer, as a Yale biochemist, must record with regret the absence from the bibliography of Russell H. Chittenden's The Development of Physiological Chemistry in the United States. Scientists owe Professor Sarton much for his scholarly work; in giving us a glimpse of the tools of his research, he has placed us further in his debt. This book should be consulted by everyone who wishes to discover for himself that the stuff of science is among the noblest products of the human spirit. JOSEPH S. FRUTON