Makers of Science

REVIEWS MAKERS OF SCIENCE* G. S. BRETT The works of Professor Wolf and Professor Brown are concerned with the same period of time but not with the same material. Taken together they illustrate in a significant way the diversity and the unity of possible interests. Professor Wolf has been mainly interested in philosophy and especially in that part of it called logic. As a teacher in the University of London and author of various works . concerning logic, together with others on Spinoza and Nietzsche, he has be'en led naturally to a study of the history of the sClences in what has been called the century of genius. It is in many respects an ideal epoch to choose. In the perspective of time it is not difficult to distinguish the right degrees of importance and select the most vital issues: the sciences were never more fresh and vigorous; lack of knowledge left indefinite scope for rapid progress and a multitude of inventions which brought fame to their discoverers arl:d were) in general} real contributions to the progress of civilization. If the limitations and errors of Francis Bacon must always make his status among men of science painfully ambiguous, there is no reason to dispute his right to be a most typical figure of the days when men were learning that "nature is conquered by obedience" and that knowledge is one of the forms of power. Professor Brown has approached his subject along a different path. As a student of French literature he has made a comprehensive and penetrating study of the documents relative to the social and scientific life of the French in the years from 1620 to 1680. The words social and scientific may be rightly joined together in this connection, for the main topic is not the actual contributions to science made by some of those who appear in the pages of this book, but rather the forms of co-operation and communication which sustained and fostered the growth of science. In effect the *A History oj Scienu, Technology, and Philosophy in the 161h and 17th Cen- /urieJ, by A. Wolf, George Allen and Unwin, 1935. Scientific Organizations in Seventeenth Century France (J620-J680}, by Harcourt Brown, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1934. 605 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY I book is a documentary history' of the more obscure activities which finally reached their goal in the foundation of the Academie Fran.:. ~aise and the Academie des Sciences. The emergence of these institutions marks a crisis in the social history of the sciences; with their foundation, as the author says, "the secular foundation for intellectual pursuits comes from a corner ,where existence was uncertain and hazardous into the front rank of national policy." The prelude to these more stable societies is to be found in several minor associations fostered by royal and, later, private patronage, differen t from the characteristic salons of this and the next century. There was, indeed, some difficulty in keeping the discussions on the higher intellectual plane, and still greater difficulty in making the garrulou-s adherents recognize the prime necessity of experimental evidence. But in spite of these human frailties there was progress. The embryo societies, such as the Montmor Academy and La Compagnie des Sciences et des Arts, were destined to succumb to inevitable decay, but not until they had created a sense of the value of communication and co-operation. Apart from their function as places for the exchange of ideas and the stimulation of interest, these less-known associations deserve to be remembered with gratitude for the 'part they played in creating the pre'sent republic of the sciences. For the reader who is not primarily interested in the details of this evolution, there is also the wider question of the relations between France and England. A similar process went on in England, namely, the spontaneous growth of small groups intent on experimental science and anxious to keep in touch with all the novelties or useful devices which appeared in different countries. The men of Gresham College were the forerunners of the Royal Society as the minor societi"es were of the Academie des Sciences. The Journal des Savants, founded...