How to Use the Popular Science Library

Volume Xvi Is in Three Parts: First, the Editor, Garrett Serviss, in

"How to Use the Popular Science Library," describes the way the reader may enjoy and profit most from its store of scientific knowledge in connection with his everyday experiences. Then follows Arthur Selwyn-Brown's "History of Science," an excellent foundation for the study of man's achievements in his struggle to understand and turn to his own use the forces of nature. Here is a concise record of progress from the earliest times until now--discoveries and inventions past, present, and about to come.

The third part of Volume XVI occupies nearly half the book. It is the General Index, which is as complete and as practical as it is possible for an index to be. Here, then, we have sixteen volumes on science, every work agreeable to read, every work complete in itself, and all of them, including the Index, prepared by specialists, each of whom has already gained distinction in the field he covers. The Index binds the collection into a consistent whole, making every bit of knowledge in the sixteen books available to reader or student without delay.

The style employed in the Index is a standard for such material. Volume numbers are represented by the Roman numerals, i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, x, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xv, xvi. Pages are indicated by figures. All topics and subtopics are arranged alphabetically.

When you read or study the Popular Science Library, keep the Index volume at hand whenever it is convenient. It will add greatly to your interest and give you a depth of insight into these matters if you can compare one author's opinions and descriptions with those of another. If you are consulting the Library as a reference collection for information on particular topics, the Index will give you volume and page for every bit of text on the subject you are considering.

The Popular Science Library is unique in the number and standing of its authors and in the care that has been taken to make it the easiest as well as the most engrossing of all scientific collections for the reader or student to use.

CONTENTS

PAGE

HOW TO USE THE POPULAR SCIENCE LIBRARY. BY GARRETT P. SERVISS 9

HISTORY OF SCIENCE 39-198

CHAPTER

I. HISTORY OF SCIENCE 39

II. PRIMITIVE MAN AND EARLY CIVILIZATIONS 46

III. PRE-BABYLONIAN SCIENCE 56

IV. EGYPTIAN SCIENCE 64

V. FOUNDING OF SYSTEMATIC SCIENCE IN GREECE 76

VI. GOLDEN AGE OF GREEK SCIENCES 86

VII. THE ROMAN AND MIDDLE AGES 97

VIII. SCIENCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 106

IX. PRELUDE TO MODERN SCIENCE--THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 117

X. PHYSICAL SCIENCES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 129

XI. THE NATURAL SCIENCES 139

XII. ORGANIC EVOLUTION, VARIATION, AND HEREDITY 149

XIII. CHEMICAL AND BOTANICAL THEORIES 159

XIV. GEOLOGY, METALLURGY, AND METEOROLOGY 168

XV. MEDICINE AND PHARMACY 178

XVI. ELECTRICITY AND RADIOACTIVITIES 188

XVII. SCIENCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 195

GENERAL INDEX 199-384

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE MAJESTIC, LARGEST STEAMSHIP IN THE WORLD Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

EOHIPPUS--FROM WHICH THE MODERN HORSE DEVELOPED 16

ORNITHOLESTES--A PREHISTORIC ANIMAL OF AMERICA 17

HUNTSMAN, HORSE, AND HUNTING DOG OF LONG AGO--FROM AN ANCIENT CRETAN FRESCO 17

PREHISTORIC PAINTINGS--AN EXHIBITION OF COPIES FROM THE CAVERN AT ALTAMIRA, SPAIN 24

SABER-TOOTHED TIGER THAT ONCE ROAMED OVER NORTH AMERICA 25

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S PRINTING PRESS 33

MODEL OF THE "SANTA MARIA," THE FLAGSHIP OF COLUMBUS 48

CURTISS NAVY RACER, THE AIRPLANE THAT WON THE PULITZER RACE OF 1921 49

U. S. ARMY DIRIGIBLE ON A TRANSCONTINENTAL FLIGHT 49

ELECTRIC MOTOR OF 1834 64

TURNING LATHE OF 1843 64

EDISON PHONOGRAPH OF 1878 65

WHITNEY'S COTTON GIN 65

DE WITT CLINTON TRAIN OF 1831 BESIDE A MODERN LOCOMOTIVE 80

LOCOMOTIVE OF THE 1870 PERIOD 81

"JOHN BULL," A LOCOMOTIVE BROUGHT FROM ENGLAND IN 1831 81

WEATHER AND ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS ON THE ROOF OF GREENWICH OBSERVATORY, ENGLAND 112

MOORING TOWER FOR AIRSHIPS, WITH THE "R-24" FASTENED HEAD ON 113

HOSPITAL ROOM IN WHICH INFECTED ARTICLES ARE STERILIZED 160

MODERN OPERATING ROOM IN PARIS, FITTED WITH A GLASS DOME AND RADIO MICROPHONES FOR OBSERVING STUDENTS AND DOCTORS 161

EDOUARD BELIN AND THE TELAUTOGRAPH, WHICH TRANSMITS PICTURES BY WIRE 176

LEE DE FOREST, INVENTOR OF THE OSCILLATING AUDION 177

AUTOMOBILE WITH RADIO EQUIPMENT FOR LISTENING IN EN TOUR 177

GIFTS FOR TUTANKHAMEN BROUGHT BY ONE OF HIS VICEROYS 192

TUTANKHAMEN'S TOMB--BRINGING UP THE HATHOR COUCH 193

QUEEN NEFERTITI, MOTHER-IN-LAW OF TUTANKHAMEN AND WIFE OF AHKNATON 193

HOW TO USE THE POPULAR SCIENCE LIBRARY

This series of books is written for all the people and not for specialists only, though it is the work of specialists who know how to explain their subjects clearly and interestingly, without unnecessary technicalities and with keen appreciation of the popular and constantly increasing desire for scientific knowledge.

The supreme importance of science in the wonderful age in which our lot has been cast was demonstrated with overwhelming force of conviction by the events of the World War. If, as certain persons assert, science may be accused of having rendered war more destructive and terrible, yet, on the other hand, no one can deny that it was science that saved the world from sliding backward into an age of despotism.

The true importance of science for everybody arises from its rapidly increasing service in the development of human industry in all its forms, for industry is the mother of democracy.

Said Gabriel Lippman, the French physicist, inventor of color photography, who died in the summer of 1921: "For thousands of years science progressed by groping and feeling its way, and coincidentally industry got slowly on by guesswork; but within the last century science has developed more than during all preceding time, while industry has sprung upon its feet and begun to march with the strides of a giant."

Notwithstanding its immense importance and the vast extent and complication of its application in modern times, science is not really difficult for any person of ordinary school education and of good natural intelligence to comprehend, provided it is presented in a clear, plain, common sense manner, in popular language with illustrations drawn from everyday life and experience. The much talked-of methods of science are, after all, nothing more than the methods of common sense, applied with systematic care by minds disciplined to a high degree of efficiency. And, in fact, the only practical difference between the mind of a trained scientist and that of any other intelligent person is that the scientist has acquired a way or habit of looking at and thinking about things and events, which enables him to get at their inmost nature and meaning more swiftly and accurately than he could do if he went to work in a haphazard manner as, in truth, his forerunners of the earlier centuries were obliged to do. The pioneer must always work by rule of thumb, but when he has exploited his field he knows better ways.

Each branch of science has its own particular methods, but it is not necessary for the average reader to study these special methods in order to become able to grasp the facts and principles that have been developed by them. The results are all thrown into a common store--or should be if science is to attain its utmost usefulness to humanity--and from the common store the great public, the people at large, should be enabled freely to draw. The object of this series of books is to form such a store of science for the people.

It may encourage those who look with some degree of timidity upon the task of trying to understand the great discoveries and achievements of modern science to know that even the ablest scientists, leaders in their own particular branches, do not pretend, or attempt, to grasp the special methods or the technicalities of any division of science except that one in which their own work is done. They stand, with regard to other branches, practically on the same footing with the unscientific reader, having over him only such possible advantages as their special training in clear thinking and in the intense application of the mental powers may give them.

Besides, science is really the most interesting thing in the world--outside of men and women--and they would be less interesting, even to themselves, if science had not transformed their lives as well as their surroundings. If one of Voltaire's favorite messengers from some other, wiser world had visited our earth a few hundred years ago, or even only one hundred, and should now repeat his call, he would be amazed, and no doubt delighted, by the changes in every feature of life and society which he would find that science had brought about, as if by magic, during the interval between his visits. He would be likely to exclaim: "Some great teacher and trainer from a more enlightened part of the universe must have been here since I saw this world before. What a marvelous new spirit he has imparted to these creatures. Through him they have become more masterful and more like sons of God."

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