Morris Goran Roosevelt University Chicago, Illinois
Scientists Are Also Writers
The popular image of the scientist is that of a laboratory worker. In academic circles, the image is that of a member of the "non-talking" departments; only members of the non-science departments are considered articulate. J. Willard Gibhs, one of America's foremost 19th century scientists, rarely spoke at, Yale University faculty meetings. Hardly anywhere, even among scientists, is the image of the scientist as a writer present. Yet scientists always have been writers and continue to have huge literary outputs. Moreover, the style of many laboratory workers rivals and sometimes exceeds that of the literary Blite. The ancient scientists left prodigious amounts of writing. The Hippocratic corpus is so overwhelmingly large that it awaits more scholars to sort the real from t,he pseudo. Pliny the Elder is credited with a 37volume "Natural Hist,oryV and in addition left his nephew 160 notebooks. Most of Galen's writings are lost due to the fire that gutted Rome's Temple of Peace in 142 A.D., but the incomplete collection of his works published in the early 19th century has more than 21/2 million words. Perhaps 75% of Alberlus Maguns's total literary production fills 38 volumes. Medieval scholar Et,ienne Gilson has said that Magnus had "a gigantic literary production." At the birt,h of modern science, the scientists appear to he more literary rather than less. I t is well known that Galileo was surrounded by a circle of literati and may indeed be considered a writer as well as a scientist. John Baptista Porta (1535-1615), organizer of the first, scientific society of modern times, wrote 14 prose comedies, two tragedies, and one tragi-comedy; his Watural Magick" went through several Latin editions. Sir Humphry Davy, an early 19th century chemist wrote as follows about Benjamin Franklin's work; "In Franklin's language, science appears . . . in a dress wonderfully decorous, the best adapted to display her nat,ive loveliness"; hence "the st,yle and manner of his publication on electricit,yare almost as worthy of admiration as the doctrine it contain^."^ The. early scientists were literary in the sense of continually writing and revising. It is reported of Isaac Newton that "in addition to his books he left behind him manuscripts comprising millions of words, and after his death these were dispersed. Large and small portions of them have been published, some in orderly fashion, others almost haphazardly as they come to hand. The principal masses of manuscripts are still unexplored."? 'Quoted in COHEN,I. BERNARD,"Franklin and Newton," American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1956, p. 73. CLARK, SIR GEORGE, Scientije Ameriwn, January, (1960), in a review of TL'RNBULL, H. W., editor, "The Correspondence of Issac Newton," vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, London, 1960.
Newton wrote cold, sterile, almost mathematical prose as well as more vibrant and human pieces. His "Principia" is in the modern mien of some scientific journals; his "Opticks" could appeal more to the nonscientist. His contemporaries and scientists ever since have worked hard to clarify the meanings in the "Principia," not the "Opticks." Charles Darwin made six revisions of his "Origin of Species"; the lasts one was published in 1872. The first published edition was really the fourth version of a long manuscript on natural e election.^ Lord Kelvin, the 19th century British physicist, was the author of 661 papers; he completely or partly wrote 24 books, and had 70 patent^.^ The characteristic of being a writer cannot be considered one for only the most celebrated scientists. Lazzaro Spallauzani (1729-1799), was accustomed to write down his observations from day to day in one or more notebooks.6 The papers of J. N. Delisle, an 18th century astronomer, together with those of his brot,hers and father, fill 20 folio volumes.6 More recently, the writings of the Dutch physicist, H. A. Lorentz, fill nine volumes. Ilya Prigogine, a Belgian physical chemist who received his PhD degree shortly after World War 11,had written 150 papers and six books by 1960. The literary work of scientists has not abated. There are now over 50,000 scientific and technical journals; about 60,000 new science books appear evcry year: and tens of thousands of research reports are circulated in government, industry, and research institute circles. Furthermore, these numbers increase continually. Kew science journals are received by the British Science Museum Library at the rate of about two per day. It was reported in 1960 that the "amount of chemical literature which will be published in the next three years will be equal to, or greater than, all the chemical literature that has been published so far."' The evidence is overwhelming that today's scientific worker is also a writer, however specialized the writing. A Fisher Award winner in analytical chemistry is described as having 140 papers, on an average of one paper every two mont,hs. A French geneticist and philosopher is credited with approximately 40 books. A professor of chemistry has written seven textbooks in general chemistry, qualitative analysis, and inorganic chemistry, besides 8.5 articles or hook chapters.
STAUFFER. Robert C.. Seiace.130.1449 (1959). , .
' KOENIG,~rederick,o., istar tar^ bf Science and Second Lrts-
of Thermodynamics," in EVANS,H. M., Editor, "Men and Momenta in the History of Science," U. of Washington Press, Seattle, 1959, p. 71 DIJKGRAAF, SVEN,Isis, 5, March, 10 (1960). &WOOLF,H., "Transit8 of Venus," Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, N. J., 1959, p. 23. SKOLNIK, HERMAN, Hemules Chemist,June, 1960. Volume 39, Number 9, September 1962
/
479
Many scientists have the ability to write for the general reader. A glance at the list of paperbacks available today shows much good popular writing by working scientists. There is the Physical Science Study Committee series of hooks, those of the Scientific American, and books by George Gamow, Selig Hecht, Morris Kline, Isaac Asimov, and veritably scores of others. In addition, the relatively new profession of science writer is helping. I n 1934, the United States had about 12 full-fledged science writers; in 1959, the National Association of Science Writers had about 370 members. Admirers of the early 20th century physicist, J. J. Thomson, call him the last of the scientists equally a t
480
/
Journal of Chemical Education
home in the classics. However, there are today scientists who have become literary men of note. Both Sir Charles P. Snow of England and Mitchell Wilson of the United St,ateswere trained in science and worked in science hefore becoming novelists. JeanRostand,in accepting the 1959 Kalinga Prke for "outstanding contributions to the dissemination of scientific knowledge to the general public," said: "In a word, the ideal of the popularization of science (and here lies its moral value) is to develop and assist a community of thought."s Is this not literary, and rival to an important aim of the best novels, poetry, and non-fiction? SScience, 131, May 20,1491 (1960).
