The Book of Scientific Discovery: how Science has aided Human Welfare

Abstract

MISS DOROTHY TURNER (now Mrs. Féjer) has given us an admirable book which would serve well as a foundation for the teaching of the history of science in any school, and yet at the same time is mature and comprehensive enough to be welcome to any adult who does not despise the good things devised primarily for his juniors. There is so much to praise that one hastens to discharge one's only grumble. It seems a pity not to have given the few pages which would have been necessary to introduce the work of the Greeks as the indispensable foundation. As the book stands, no one would gather from it that the Greek work was indispensable; in fact, where a Greek is mentioned, it is only to point out that he made some mistake or at best a lucky guess. We start in the first sentence by “living in the twelfth century”, and “searching for what any ancient writer said” to enlighten our ignorance.

The Book of Scientific Discovery: how Science has aided Human Welfare.

By Dr. D. M. Turner. Pp. 259 + 31 plates. (London, Bombay and Sydney: George G. Harrap and Co., Ltd., 1933.) 7s. 6d. net.