Historia De La Ciencia

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE
BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D.
ASSISTED BY EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, M.D.
IN FIVE VOLUMES
VOLUME I.
THE BEGINNINGS OF SCIENCE

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A History of Science

BOOK I.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE
CHAPTER II. EGYPTIAN SCIENCE
CHAPTER III. SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

CHAPTER IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEALPHABET
CHAPTER V.

THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCIENCE

CHAPTER VI. THE EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY

CHAPTER VII. GREEK SCIENCE IN THE EARLY ATTIC PERIOD
CHAPTER VIII. POST-SOCRATIC SCIENCE AT ATHENS
CHAPTER IX. GREEK SCIENCE OF THE ALEXANDRIAN OR HELLENISTIC
PERIOD

CHAPTER X. SCIENCE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD
CHAPTER XI. A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE AT CLASSICAL SCIENCE
APPENDIX

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A History of Science

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE

BOOK I

Should the story that is about to be unfolded be found to lack
interest, the writers must stand convicted of unpardonable lack
of art. Nothing but dulness in the telling could mar the story,
for in itself it is the record of the growth of those ideas that
have made our race and its civilization whatthey are; of ideas
instinct with human interest, vital with meaning for our race;
fundamental in their influence on human development; part and
parcel of the mechanism of human thought on the one hand, and of
practical civilization on the other. Such a phrase as
"fundamental principles" may seem at first thought a hard saying,
but the idea it implies is less repellent than the phrase itself,for the fundamental principles in question are so closely linked
with the present interests of every one of us that they lie
within the grasp of every average man and woman--nay, of every
well-developed boy and girl. These principles are not merely the
stepping-stones to culture, the prerequisites of knowledge--they
are, in themselves, an essential part of the knowledge of every
cultivatedperson.

It is our task, not merely to show what these principles are, but
to point out how they have been discovered by our predecessors.
We shall trace the growth of these ideas from their first vague
beginnings. We shall see how vagueness of thought gave way to
precision; how a general truth, once grasped and formulated, was
found to be a stepping-stone to other truths. We shall see thatGet any book for free on: www.Abika.com

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A History of Science

there are no isolated facts, no isolated principles, in nature;
that each part of our story is linked by indissoluble bands with
that which goes before, and with that which comes after. For the
most part the discovery of this principle or that in a given
sequence is no accident. Galileo and Keppler must precede Newton.Cuvier and Lyall must come before Darwin;--Which, after all, is
no more than saying that in our Temple of Science, as in any
other piece of architecture, the foundation must precede the
superstructure.

We shall best understand our story of the growth of science if we
think of each new principle as a stepping-stone which must fit
into its own particular niche; and if we reflect that theentire
structure of modern civilization would be different from what it
is, and less perfect than it is, had not that particular
stepping-stone been found and shaped and placed in position.
Taken as a whole, our stepping-stones lead us up and up towards
the alluring heights of an acropolis of knowledge, on which
stands the Temple of Modern Science. The story of the building of
this wonderfulstructure is in itself fascinating and beautiful.

I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

To speak of a prehistoric science may seem like a contradiction
of terms. The word prehistoric seems to imply barbarism, while
science, clearly enough, seems the outgrowth of civilization; but

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A History of Science

rightly considered, there is no contradiction....