The Rôle of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

MARTHA ORNSTEIN was born in Vienna in 1878, and received her early education there. She went to the United States in 1895, and, after,a year spent in perfecting her English, she passed the entrance examination at Barnard College with distinction in 1896. After taking her Master's degree in 1900, she specialised in mathematics for some years; then, turning to historical study, she wrote as her dissertation for the Ph.D. degree (conferred on her in 1913) the work now under review, which has been republished by her friends as a tribute to her memory. It was worth while, for the book is a sound piece of work, well written (with scarcely a trace of a ‘foreign accent’) and well documented, and one which, within its compass, it would be difficult to improve upon. The prodigious amount of labour entailed can be judged by reference to the copious footnotes and to the bibliography at the end, covering no less than thirteen pages. The book is beautifully printed, and presents its fascinating story in a form which also delights the eye. We can only wish the publication the success which it richly deserves.

The Rôle of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth Century.

By Martha Ornstein. Pp. xiv + 308. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; London: Cambridge University Press, 1928.) 15s. net.