RECENT BOOKS THE BACKGROUNDS AND FOUNDATIONS 01. MODERNSCIENCE. An Integration of the Natural Sciences for the Orientation of College Freshmen. Richard E. Lee, A.M., M.Sc., Sc.D., Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Freshman Course in Science in Allegheny College. The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, 1935. xxv 536 pp. (53 blank pages.) 13.8 X 21.4 cm. 20 illustrations. 12 tables. $4.00.
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This book attempts the difficult task of supplying t o young students, not yet expert in any branch of science, a synoptic view of science as a whole. what it is in its method. its orisins.. and its devclopmtnt, what it has Irxrncd, what mart amounts to. what he know-to the end that the studcrit m a y diccovrr his awn lrobitivnin the urrlrr of things and, having basis for judgmcnt. may develop a sense of values and find in positive knowledge a guide for conduct. The author has used a preliminary edition of the book for three years in classes of from two to three hundred students. The following quotations from the preface indicate his point of view. "An effort is made to orzanize the maior concentions of science " in a rnnoncr which will cmhle the student to develup insights. . Kew inslahts, not mcrely more of what he ha5 had. are rrquinvl to motivate the heshmm inaugurating his college course The beginnings of a true appreciation of science are coeval with glimpses of it as an intellectual technique devised by man to serve social ends; as a demonstrated way of knowing; as a mode of thought; as a way of looking a t the universe in the effort to rationalize and manipulate environment; as a great public storehouse of social knowledge in terms of which the individual may find a t least a partial interpretation of countless daily experiences, etc. A broad basisaf insights rather than anaccumulation of unrelated facts about this and that is productive of a rational synoptic outlook. . . The objective of this book is the orientation of the student. . . "Man has always wanted a 'picture' of the universe that he might loosen the bonds of Nature and discover his 'prospects' and significance. Thus, he is introduced t o the student as both a 'scientist' and a 'philosopher.' Consciously or unconsciously, he has been striving to formulate a few fundamental conceptions or 'first principles' in terms of which he might describe or symbolize the universe. Thus man is conceived as a 'universe-builder.' I n the corridor of universes running from Thales to Einstein are found the 'pictures' of the conceptions of the universe which have been dominant at various periods during.a span of 2500 . years. "In viewing scientific knowledge as being constituted of interlocking systems of correlated and subordinated facts rooting into a few primary concepts, the student easily arrives a t a conception of the unity of science. . . . "A continuous historical background is presented t o the end that the growth of science through the centuries may be reviewed in terms of incidents, intellectual outlooks, or personalities. It is believed that such procedure will enable the student to attain a background of culture now necessary to all walks of life. . "The 'scientific method' is definitely an intellectual technic. The craftsman should be familiar with his tools." The book is divided into five parts: Part I. Introduction: Adjustment and Techniques (two chapters); Part 11. Man's Major Techniques: Scientific and Philosophic (four chapters); Part 111. Development of Modern Scientific Techniques (seven chapters); Part IV. Historical Backgrounds of Man's Techniques (seven chapters); and Part V. A Special Study of Various Aspects of the "Primary Stuff" of the Universe (ten chapters). The fifth part, "wherein the student collaborating in the writing of a book needs resort t o the ezperimental or scientij5c method as well as t o a 'recall and integration' of previously acquired facts," contains 53 blank pages for written exercises. The account of chemistry appears to be good, and the experiments are well chosen t o illustrate the important principles. Physics and astronomy are described in terms of the latest
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developments. Students will be impressed with the wonder of it all, but one questions whether they will be able t o assimilate it and t o place its parts in proper perspective. How can students be expected t o answer questions t o which the best informed men of science can give no answer? such questions, for example, as this (page 516), "Account for the positively charged fountain-pen handle after it was rubbed with a woolen cloth." If a student thinks that he can answer the question, it will be because he has no notion a t all of cause and effect or of what it is that constitutes an explanation. One wearies of the author's vocabulary, of techniques, and stuff, and universe-builders (what of universeunderstanders?), of his too frequent use of italics and of quotation marks around unusual wards, of his use of the word, social, in accordance with the prevailing vague of the New Deal, where another word would convey the meaning mare exactly. Science is certainly not "a great public storehouse of social knowledge"; science is your positive knowledge, my positive knowledge, everybody's knowledge, public positive knowledge, but social knawledge is summarized in treatises on sociology as chemical knowledge is summarized in treatises on chemistry. Nor is science "an intellectual technique devised by man t o serve social ends." If it is an intellectual technic, then surely it serves whatever intellectual ends man has. Let us he reasonable in our socialism. The author's account of the method of science is weak, and his descriptions of tlw various philosophical ductrincs arc inadequate or misleading. Professor Lee's book is one t o be chewed and digested, chewed by those with strong teeth and digested by those whose gastric juices are potent. We doubt whether freshmen can handle it. Perhaps they may think that they digest it, more's the pity; perhaps they become like the senior about t o graduate from college whose admiring fiancee, invited for Commencement Day, remarked t o him, "Well, it must be wonderful now t o k m w everything." "Yes," he replied, "it is." A very proper use of Professor Lee's book would he in a graduate seminar by students who had already acquired the things which are supposed to constitute a liberal education. I t would polish them up, tie their ideas together, and make them educated. The more one knows, the more, we believe, he will find in the book to question, and the more t o stimulate him. I t would he a good hook for every teacher of science t o read and chew thoroughly. The hook is clearly printed and well put together. Except for the Christian name of Avogadro, we have noted no typographical errors. TENNEYL. DAVIS MASSAC=VSBIIS I N S ~ ~ Or O TBCANOLOGY ~ B c*xenrocs. M*ss*cn"serrs
POPULARSCIENCE TALKS.SEASON OP 1934. Presented by members of the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, and published under the auspices of the American Journal of Pharmacy, Volume X I I , edited by Ivor Grifllh, P.D., Ph.M., Sc.D., Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, Philadelphia, Pa., 1935. 198 pp. 15 X 23 cm. $1.00.
For the past nine years the Popular Science Lectures by the Philadelphia College of Phannacy and Science have been puhlished. and the volumes sold a t cost a s Dart of the educational proram of the College. As a reservoir of interc*ting informatton they hare p r o v d useful to high-school ~ t u d e n t sand trarhcrs, librarians, and thus* called upon to mnkc luncheon and club talks on science. The contents for Volume X I I : "The Herbs and the Stars," by Charles H. Lawall; "Conquest of the Planet Earth," by George Rosengarten; "Living Light," by Arno Vieboever; "Tooth Truths." bv Ivor Griffith: "Free Air." bv Arthur Osol: "Famous ~ i n d sb; ~harmacists;" by ~ o h n& m u ; he History and Romance of Microscopy," by Louis Gershenfeld; and "Silver, Metal of the World," by Clifton C. Pines. As one would expect in such a collection of popular lectures. there are wide differences in merit. "The History and Romance ~
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