Abstract
MR. HOLMYARD is well known as one of the most active and vigorous exponents of the humanistic school of science teaching, and his viewpoint finds complete expression in this very entertaining and instructive volume. We could wish for nothing better than that the scoffer at the ‘romance of science ’ should read it. For our part we found ourselves compelled to complete a first reading in one sitting. Mr. Holmyard's style is peculiarly happy and easy, and one feels that he thoroughly enjoyed his task. His object is to present science as a whole to the young beginner. He refuses to admit of barriers as between one branch of the subject and another, and in this he is right. Further, he has shown how it can be done. He enlists to his purpose the framework of the past—the Aristotelian scheme of the four ‘elements’ of air, water, earth, and fire, and after a historical introduction he deals with these one by one, and makes each the theme for a series of facts and phenomena of Nature. So we find simply and naturally interlocked a number of important and fundamental principles usually detached into separate ‘subject‘volumes. Finally, passing from the inanimate to the animate, the author presents a brief but interesting account of the phenomenon of life.
Science: an Introductory Textbook.
By E. J. Holmyard. Pp. x + 230. (London and Toronto: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1926.) 4s.
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H., I. Science: an Introductory Textbook . Nature 118, 297 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118297a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118297a0