Science at the Cross Roads

Abstract

THE file of black-bearded men who marched across the room at South Kensington at the opening meeting of the recent International Congress of the History of Science was one of its most striking features. They were delegates from Russia and had arrived from Moscow by aeroplane. It was the largest deputation which appeared together at that reception from any country except the United States. Finding later that no one speaker could be allowed more than ten minutes to develop his subject, they decided to have their speeches printed and published in London, and this was done in what is probably the record time for a volume bound in cloth and lettered in gold. It appeared on the seventh day after they had handed their manuscripts to the printers, and it was reviewed in at least one weekly journal two days after. The story is typical of the feverish speed with which the work of reconstruction is going on in present-day Russia, and one can only hope that what is being done in such haste will not be repented at leisure by the masses who are undergoing the process.

Science at the Cross Roads.

Papers presented to the International Congress of the History of Science and Technology held in London from June 20 to July 3, 1931, by the Delegates of the U.S.S.R. Pp. iv + 23 + 4 + 24 + 12 + 12 + 10 + 4 + 31 + 62 + 15 + 3. (London: Kniga (England), Ltd., 1931.) 10s. 6d.