Early Science in Cambridge by R. T. GuntherReview by: M. F. Ashley-MontaguIsis, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Feb., 1938), p. 134Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/225824 .

Accessed: 09/05/2014 01:25

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Isis.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Fri, 9 May 2014 01:25:38 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

134 ISIS, XXVIII, I

chronologically, as far as possible, and their sources are listed in a special descriptive index to the illustrations. From the points of view of subject matter, geographical distribution, and style, they cover a wide range-from Irish MSS of the IXth century to livres d'heures and to German woodcuts in incunabula. The binding is flimsy, but it is well designed; the elaborate initial, A, of the black-and-red title, on the white binding, is reproduced from a VIth-century codex from southern Italy which is preserved in the Public Library in Leningrad. A. P.

R. T. Gunther.-Early Science in Cambridge. xii + SI3 pp. Prin- ted For The Author at The University Press, Oxford, I937 (42/-).

Dr. GUNTHER'S book, appropriately bound in light blue, is properly to be regarded as a miscellany, rather than as an historical account or analytic examination of Cambridge science, - it is nonetheless valuable for all that. The author's ten volumes on Early Science in Oxford (1920

ff.; Isis 6, 449-53, passim) it will be recalled, are individually and together extremely useful and generally provide as pleasant and interesting reading as it is possible to find in any work(s) of a similar kind. The present volume on early Cambridge Science, though it partakes to a considerable extent of the nature of a catalogue, is very readable.

The volume, for the most part, deals with the scientific instruments which Cambridge men either invented or developed, and these are de- scribed and in a large number of cases shown in exceRlent photographic or line reproduction; the figures add greatly to the value of the volume. Biographical accounts, assisted by contemporary anecdote and judgment, are given in connection with the greater number of scientists who figure within its pages, and the provenance of the instruments and their serial number is provided in every case. The fields covered in separate chap- ters are: Mensuration-Mathematics-Mechanics and Physics-As- tronomy-Geography and Cosmography-Meteorology-Chemistry- Medicine-Anatomy-Physiology-Pathology, Apothecaries and Mate- ria Medica-Zoology-Botany-Husbandry and Horticulture-Geology -Mineralogy. Appendices.

The proof-reading for this volume must have been very exhausting, and the author is to be congratulated on the fewness of the errors which remain, these are so obvious that no one is likely to be in any way misled. The author is not always accurately informed, but since no one is likely to appeal to the present volume as a final authority on the lives and achie- vements of Cambridge scientists, the few cases in which the author has erred or committed a solecism are of no matter. Dr. GUNTHER has again put us in his debt with a very attractive volume.

New York Universitv. M. F. ASHLEY-MONTAGU.

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Fri, 9 May 2014 01:25:38 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions