The Outline of Science: A Plain Story Simply Told
by Professor . New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1922. Volumes II, III, and IV. Royal 8vo. pp. xiv+297-564, xix+565-864, xv +865-1220. Illustrated. Per volume $4.50. (Volume I was reviewed by Professor Henderson in the Atlantic’s Bookshelf for August 1922.)
THIS work is now complete in four very readable volumes. It consists of thirty-eight profusely illustrated chapters arrayed almost without plan, each of which is a little essay, usually more or less complete in itself. With a few exceptions every chapter reveals the practised pen of the editor, and thus, through Professor Thomson’s efforts to see nature steadily and to see it whole, a very definite outlook upon the world is exemplified and a certain unity achieved.
At their best these essays are very good indeed. As popular science the chapters on ‘The Biology of the Seasons’ and ‘Adaptations to Environment’ could hardly be improved upon. Most of the other essays are well suited to their purpose, and there is only one, entitled ‘Psychic Science,’ which the majority of men of science will think out of place.
As a whole, however, the work does not give an outline of science. In the first place, two thirds of the chapters treat of what may be called, broadly speaking, natural history, while the abstract or theoretical sciences find small place. The neglect of physics is particularly striking, and is not mitigated by the inclusion of a chapter on Einstein. Such slight and hasty reference as there is to the principles of mechanics and of thermodynamics can hardly fail to produce a false judgment of the importance of these subjects, which nevertheless include the achievements of a greater number of men of genius than can be found among the naturalists. There is a somewhat similar omission in the discussion of applied science where ‘Wireless’ and ’Flying’ have crowded out the steam engine.
Another deficiency is in the treatment of scientists themselves. After all, it is these men who are the authors of science. I can find no mention of the greatest of the ancients, Archimedes, or, among others, of Copernicus, Vesalius. or Willard Gibbs. The references to Galileo and Helmholtz do not involve their important work.
Because of the difficulty of theoretical science many of these omissions were unavoidable. Yet, as a result of them, this work is not a guidebook to science. It is, however, a useful popular treatment of many interesting topics, and in its best chapters a source of delight.
L. J. HENDERSON.