50 Years Ago

Fortunately, our distant ancestors appear to have had a mania for making lists. Some of these lists are in a sense the beginnings of history, just as others, which perform a preliminary work of classification, are in a sense the beginning of the natural sciences. It was when they put together their lists of successive kings or priests that these ancient peoples acquired their first impressions of the tremendous stretch of time behind them. The ancient Greeks had very defective lists and thought that only a comparatively short period separated them from the age when the gods had walked and sported about on the Earth. But some of them learned about the huge lists of Egyptian priests and came to realize that there had been thousands of years of human history before their day. If the whole of this is taken together, it involves a change in what it means to have an existence in time — a time which stretches behind and before.

From Nature 11 December 1965

100 Years Ago

First Aid in the Laboratory and Workshop by A. A. Eldridge and Dr. H. V. A. Briscoe

The authors of this little book, who have been in charge of first aid organisation in chemical and physical laboratories, have found that the ordinary text-books devote too much space to serious fractures and other injuries, but give little information regarding ordinary accidents, such as are apt to occur in laboratories and workshops, for instance, burns produced by chemicals, eye injuries, shocks produced by electric currents, and poisoning. They have therefore written this pamphlet to meet this need.

From Nature 9 December 1915 Footnote 1