Studies in Intellectual HistoryReview by: I. Bernard CohenIsis, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Dec., 1953), pp. 404-405Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/227021 .

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404 Book Reviews

mobility which characterized the Middle West and West were the most important cultural and psychological factors influencing the production of scientists.

The usefulness of a survey of this sort for the historian of American science and the student of social and educational affairs is obvious. What is most necessary now that this study has ap- peared is an analysis of American scientific edu- cation in the period I846-i880, wherein many of the forces which shaped contemporary sci- entific training had their origins.

EDWARD LURIE Massachutsetts Institute of Technology

EDMUND 0. VON LIPPMANN: Beitrige zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaf ten und der Technik. Zweiter Band. Herausgegeben von Richard von Lippmann. xii + 357 pp. Bergheim/Bergstr.: Verlag Chemie, 1953.

This second volume of Beitrage by E. 0. von Lippmann appears thirteen years after his death, thirty years after a first volume with the same title. The new collection is dedicated to three men who died during the War years: Carl Wentzel, chairman of the Board of the Zuckerraffinerie Halle of which Lippmann had been director, his youngest son Ernst, and his eldest grandson Albert. It contains 72 essays published between I 923 and 1940 in various journals and Festschriften. The editor divided them into ten sections. Their range extends from the Papyrus Edwin Smith to Hermann Kopp (I8I7-I892). Section 8 consists of 12 contributions to the history of sugar.

Many of these essays originated in inquiries by friends, philosophers, physicists, historians; some of the others referred to books just pub- lished by Max Wellmann, R. Reitzenstein, J. Ruska. By drawing wider attention to impor- tant new discoveries, or by answering special questions, Lippmann advanced the interest of historical knowledge. His greatest strength was the judicious combination of a wide range of sources. Typical is the discussion on the "Galizenstein," which he proved to be identical with the "new white vitriol" (zinc vitriol); or the search for the origin of the name organic chemistry in which he discovers, among many other things, that Goethe used this expresssion when he talked with F. F. Runge on 3 October I8ig. Although some of the topics in this book are highly specialized, many others illuminate generally important subjects. Even when dis- cussing the origin of the mineral substances in the ashes of plants or the luminescence of crystallized sugar (saccharose), the author touches on matters of wider implication.

He is always factual, whether digging deeply into available sources or welcoming the dis- covery of new sources by his colleagues. His patient endeavour to fill gaps in our knowledge of history is based on an extremely conservative philosophy and a strong feeling for the beauty

of language and poetry. In the foreword to the first collection of his "Abhandlungen und Vortrage zur Geschichte der Naturwissen- schaften" (I9o6), he mentioned that he was attracted to history in his student days in Zurich. Later on this occupation became a much needed counterbalance to the weight of his industrial work. It is hoped that the reader of this book will enjoy its versatility as has the reviewer. Besides, the many indications of still open problems may stimulate further work and thought.

EDUARD FARBER Washington, D. C.

Studies in Intellectual History. 225 pp. Balti- more: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1953. $3.75

This volume consists of nine essays and two appendices, presented without any preface or other introduction. The dust jacket tells us that the "essays in the historiography of ideas which comprise this book are by members of the His- tory of Ideas Club of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity . . . ." One of the essays, by Dorothy Stimson, in fact relates the history of this fa- mous club, and the appendices are devoted, re- spectively, to a list of the club's officers and a list of the speakers and their subjects from the club's foundation in 1924 until 1952. A short essay by Philip Wiener, on "Lovejoy's role in American philosophy," describes the founding of the Journal of the History of Ideas, and the influence of Arthur 0. Lovejoy on its formation. The very phrase "history of ideas" immediately invokes the spirit of Lovejoy, and the volume of Lovejoy's own papers, Essays in the History of Ideas (rev. Isis 40, 85-87), celebrated the double occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the club and Lovejoy's seventy-fifth birth- day. These introductory remarks are intended to set the background for the reviewer's be- wilderment, one which he presumes many read- ers of the book will share. For one of the ques- tions that is often raised is: wherein does the difference lie between the "history of ideas" and "intellectual history"? And here we have a volume - dedicated to A. 0. Lovejoy and in some way associated with the History of Ideas Club which he founded - which is called Studies in Intellectual History. The volume bears no indication of an editor, and the reader must therefore wonder how the essays were chosen. Comparing their titles with the list of papers read at the club's meetings indicates that they are not a selection from the archives of the club. Were the authors invited to contribute to the volume simply because they are distinguished students of the history of ideas ? Or, are the essays intended to show characteristic varieties of experience in this new field?

Two of the essays in this volume deal direct- ly with the history of science; they immediately raise a further question -how is the history of science related to the history of ideas, or, per-

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Book Reviews 405 haps, to intellectual history? These two essays, each excellent in its own way, do not answer this question; they could perfectly well have been published in Isis, or a scientific or medical journal; one is derived from an address delivered before a scientific society. In "An historical analysis of the concept of infection," Owsei Tem- kin presents another of those brilliant studies to which we have become accustomed, in which a single concept is studied historically as a means of giving a cross-section of a larger aspect of sci- entific thought. A particularly illuminating dis- cussion centers on the ideas of contagious dis- eases in relation to filth (or, health in relation to cleanliness) in the days before Pasteur, Koch and Lister. Bentley Glass, in "The long neglect of a scientific discovery: Mendel's laws of in- heritance," traces the actual steps by which Mendel's work entered the scientific literature and became part of biological knowledge: the two are different because, as Glass indicates, those who cited Mendel's work in their bibliog- raphies did not necessarily read it, and even those who read it did not necessarily understand it or see its significance. Glass concludes, on the basis of considerable evidence, that "failure to comprehend, and not inaccessibility of the work, was the reason for the neglect of Mendel's dis- covery."

Gilbert Chinard's essay on "Progress and per- fectability in Samuel Miller's intellectual his- tory" focuses attention on Miller's Brief retro- spect of the eighteenth century, published in 1804 (though dated I803). This interesting book by an American Presbyterian clergyman is not fully appreciated by scholars; it is a mine of information on many aspects of eighteenth- century thought, including a considerable dis- cussion of science, which is valuable because the evaluations were made so near in time to the actual work. Chinard refers only briefly to Mil- ler's account of science because he is more con- cerned with the general problem of the terms "progress" and "perfectability," deploring the uninformed practice of using "either term in- differently or list[ing] them together."

Dorothy Stimson's history of the club is an exemplary presentation, within a short space, of the organization and aims of this unique institu- tion. Of particular interest is the long quotation (five pages) of the minutes of a meeting at which Dr William H. Welch "talked informally on the part which erroneous hypothesis has played in the advancement of knowledge, with particular reference to the history of medicine." All readers, I am sure, will wish that they had been present to hear Dr Welch, and especially to join in the discussion which followed his talk. Glancing at the list of topics of the other papers read at the club, readers will wish that they lived nearer to Baltimore and that they too might, on occasion, have sat at the feet of the Master of the History of Ideas.

I. BERNARD COHEN

Harvard University

C. E. PAZ-SOLDAN: Salud y Libertad: Ora- ciones de un Creyente. xvi + 35I pp. Lima: Biblioteca de Cultura Sanitaria, 953.

Dr Paz-Soldan, the distinguished hygienist and medical historian of the University of San Marcos, and Secretary of the National Academy of Medicine of Lima, has assembled an inspir- ing group of bibliographical studies and gen- eral essays indicating the significance of general health in relation to practical freedom. The volume is part of a series on the cultural sig- nificance of sanitation and health, published by the Institute of Social Medicine of the University of San Marcos in Lima.

In this volume the biographical essays deal with Jose Hipolito Uninue (I755-i833) and Ramon Castilla y Marquezado (I799-I867). There is also a less satisfactory documented series of short addresses and popular notes on Simon Rodriguez. The balance of the volume consists of essays, addresses, and popular writ- ings on the general current health problem, the political aspects of health affairs, social and economic considerations relating to health, ethical influences in relation to health, and the more general relation of health to freedom.

The short essay and popular newspaper char- acter of these collected essays makes it difficult for a coherent systematic organization of the material to be developed. Nevertheless, a con- tinual strong band of unity runs through them all. This emphasizes the importance of health promotion in general on the various aspects of political freedom with which the American re- publics have been concerned. Wide reference is given to world leaders in the cause of freedom and health, but unfortunately no documentation has been possible. The high ethical idealism de- veloped by Dr Paz-Soldan is particularly well demonstrated in the series of articles relating to problems of ethics in regard to health. These range from birth control to war and medicine.

This volume illustrates well the enthusiastic support of the concept of freedom among Latin- American medical leaders. The biographical ma- terial deserves more systematic and documented development for English speaking readers. Simi- larly the general thesis of the disconnected essays relating freedom, health, and welfare, merit coherent and systematic formulation with docu- mentation and illustrative case material. The present volume of disconnected lay essays is chiefly inspirational, and can serve as a strong stimulus to the socially minded historian of science who might be compelled to investigate more thoroughly the various interesting subjects commented upon. The volume lacks an index.

CHAUNCEY D. LEAKE University of Texas

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