Histories of the Sciences and Their Uses: A Review to 1913

See, for example, Yeo Richard , “Reading encyclopedias: Science and the organization of knowledge in British dictionaries of arts and sciences”, Isis, lxxxii (1991), 24–49.

For an annotated bibliography of these histories, see Laudan Rachel , An annotated bibliography of histories of science to 1913 (New York, forthcoming). The following have written brief overviews of the historiography of science prior to 1914: Sarton George , The study of the history of science and The study of the history of mathematics (1936; 2nd edn, 2 vols in 1, New York, 1957); Guerlac Henry , “The landmarks of the literature”, Times literary supplement , 26 April 1974, 449–50; Thackray Arnold , “History of science”, in Durbin Paul (ed.), A guide to the culture of science, technology and medicine (New York, 1980), 7–18; Knight David , Sources for the history of science 1660–1914 (Ithaca, New York, 1975), 41–66; Kragh Helge , An introduction to the historiography of science (Cambridge, 1987), ch. 1; and Christie John , “The development of the historiography of science”, in Olby R. C. (eds), Companion to the history of modern science (London, 1990), 5–22. Dietrich von Engelhardt includes discussion of history of science in his Historisches Bewusstsein in der Naturwissenschaften (Freiburg, 1979). A number of historiographical articles are collected together in Graham Loren Lepenies Wolf Weingart Peter (eds), Functions and uses of disciplinary histories (Sociology of the sciences year book 7; Boston and Dordrecht, 1974). Sarton's George Horus: A guide to the history of science (New York, 1952) offers a highly selective bibliography of the history of science that systematically under-represents significant late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century histories, particularly those that do not hew to a positivist line. Standard early twentieth-century bibliographies of specific disciplines are a much better bibliographic source: See, for example, Loria Gino , Guida alla studio della storia delle matematiche (Milan, 1916); Miller G. A. , Historical introduction to mathematical literature (New York, 1921); Houzeau J. C. Lancaster A. , Bibliographie générale de l'astronomie (2 vols, Brussels, 1880–82); Bolton Henry Carrington , A select bibliography of chemistry, 1492–1892 (Washington, D.C., 1893); Junk Wilhelm , Bibliographica botanica (Berlin, 1909).

The standard works on the idea of progress pay scant attention to progress in science in spite of the fact that many, if not most, of the prophets of progress saw science and technology as its main exemplar. See Bury J. B. , The idea of progress (New York, 1932); van Doren Charles , The idea of progress (New York, 1967); Pollard Sidney , The idea of progress: History and society (London, 1968); Nisbet Robert , History of the idea of progress (New York, 1980), and Lasch Christopher , The true and only heaven (New York, 1991). Zilsel Edgar , “The genesis of the idea of scientific progress”, Journal of the history of ideas, vi (1945), 325–49 argues that the idea of scientific progress began with Renaissance artisans. There may be something to this thesis (although Keller A. C. , “Zilsel, the artisans, and the idea of progress in the Renaissance”, Journal of the history of ideas, xi (1950), 235–40 argues that it also appeared in scholarly works). What is quite clear is that Renaissance artisans had no perceptible influence on the histories of science discussed in this paper. Bowler Peter , The invention of progress: The Victorians and the past (Oxford, 1989) traces ideas of progress in many different intellectual realms but does not discuss scientific progress per se.

The major histories of philosophy treat different topics from histories of science, emphasize different aspects of the same thinker's work, and are only rarely referred to by historians of science. For a survey of the rich historiography of philosophy and a chronology of over a hundred and fifty of the major histories of philosophy between the Renaissance and the early nineteenth century, see Braun Lucien , Histoire de l'histoire de la philosophie (Paris, 1973).

To the extent that histories of medicine overlap with histories of science it is in the fields of physiology and anatomy; see Artelt Walter , Einführung in die Medizinhistorik (Stuttgart, 1949). Histories of technology make contact in chronologies of ‘discoveries’ which often include both scientific and technical discoveries and in the histories of mechanics and to a lesser extent electricity. There is no good survey of early histories of technology.

For a more detailed treatment, see Laudan Rachel , Arguing the case for science: Histories of scientific progress 1750–1960 (Chicago, forthcoming).

Aristotle , Topics, Book 2.

In the first century A.D. Geminus included passing references to history in his lost work on mathematics. For an overview of the history of mathematics, see Struik Dirk J. , “The historiography of mathematics from Proclus to Cantor”, NTM Schriftenreihe für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, xvii (1980), 1–22.

al-Andalusi Sälid , trans. and ed. by Salem S. I. Kumar Alok , Science in the medieval world: Book of the categories of nations (Austin, 1991).

Scholarship was so active that Montucla could recommend to his readers a bibliography of the editions of Euclid, for example: Bose G. M. , Schediasma literarium quo contenta elementorum Euclidis enunciat simul de variis horum editionibus (Leipzig, 1734). For mathematics, there were chronologies by Gerard Vossius, in his De universae mathesios (Amsterdam, 1650) and by Heilbronner Johann , Historia matheseos (Leipzig, 1742) and for astronomy by Weidler Johann , Historia astronomiae (Wittenberg, 1741).

William Ashworth points out the historical dimensions of science in the seventeenth century in “The sense of the past in English scientific thought of the early seventeenth century: The impact of the historical revolution” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975). Joy Lynn , Gassendi the atomist: Advocate of history in an age of science (Cambridge, 1987) stresses the interpenetration of Gassendi's historical and scientific research.

Brief excerpts of 365 of these biographies were published in 1707 as Chronica de' mathematici. See Rose P. L. , The Italian Renaissance of mathematics: Studies on humanists and mathematicians from Petrarch to Galileo (Geneva, 1975) and Segre Michael , “Viviani's life of Galileo”, Isis, lxxx (1989), 207–31.

Sprat Thomas , The history of the Royal Society of London (London, 1667). Wood Paul , “Methodology and apologetics: Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society”, The British journal for the history of science, iii (1980), 1–26 discusses the functions of Sprat's history. See also de Fontenelle Bernard Bovier , Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences i: Depuis son establissemenl en 1666, jusqu'à 1686 (Paris, 1733) and subsequent volumes.

Cassini J. , “De l'origine et du progrès de l'astronomie, et de son usage dans la géographie et dans la navigation”, Recueils d'observations faites en plusieurs voyages (Paris, 1693).

Blancanus J. , Aristoteles loca mathematica (Bologna, 1615).

Alan Debus has written extensively on chemical historiography; a useful bibliography of his work is included in his Science and history: A chemist's appraisal (Coimbra, Portugal, 1984). See also Weyer Jost , Chemiegeschichtsschreibung von Wiegleb (1790) bis Partington (1970): Eine Untersuchung über ihre Methoden, Prinzipien und Ziele (Arbor Seientiarum: Beitrage zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Reihe A: Abhandlungen, iii; Hildesheim, 1974) and Strube W. , Die Chemie und ihre Geschichte (Berlin, 1974). See also Beretta Marco , “Chimica e storia nel XVIII secolo”, in Atti del III Convegno Nazionale di Storia e Fondamenti dell Chimica (Cosenza, 1991), 73–82.

Duval Robert , De veritale et antiquitatae artis chemicae (Paris, 1561); Coming Hermann , De Hermetica Aegyptiorum vetere et Paracelsicorum nova mediana (Helmstedt, 1648); Borrichius Olaus , De ortu et progressu chemiae (Copenhagen, 1668).

Boerhaave Hermann , A new method of chemistry; Including the history, theory, and practice of the art (London, 1727); see Hannaway Owen , “The teaching of the history of chemistry in Scotland — Past lessons for the future”, in Kaufmann George B. (ed.), Teaching the history of chemistry (Budapest, 1971), 163–9.

Jardine Nicholas , The birth of history and philosophy of science: Kepler's ‘A Defence of Tycho against Ursus’ (Cambridge, 1984) indicates that he has identified 20 such prefaces.

de Fontenelle B. B. , Digression sur les anciens et les modernes (Paris, 1688). For a good summary of the debate, see Levine Joseph , “Ancients and moderns reconsidered”, Eighteenth-century studies, xv (1981), 72–89.

Paul Charles B. , Science and immortality: The éloges of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1699–1791) (Berkeley, 1980).

Turgot A.-R.-J. , Oeuvres (Paris, 1913–23), i, 219.

Preliminary discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot, transl. by Schwab Richard N. (Indianapolis, 1963), 96.

Encyclopédie, vii, 632. For further comments by d'Alembert, see vol. v, 169.

Montucla Jean-Étienne , Histoire des mathématiques (Paris, 1758). Second enlarged edition with the third and fourth volumes completed by Lalande, 1799–1802, with help from the historically-inclined mathematician, Silvestre Lacroix.

Montucla , Histoire des mathématiques (ref. 24), i, p. viii.

Turgot to Du Pont de Nemours, 12 October 1765, Oeuvres (ref. 21), ii, 440; Lagrange, quoted in Sarton George Beaujohn Guy , “Documents nouveaux concernant Lagrange'. Revue d'histoire des sciences, iii (1950), 110–32, p. 132.

When writing disciplinary histories, scientists increasingly used the narrative form that Montucla had pioneered for the history of science. Chronologies, although persisting through the nineteenth century, faded into second place as mere propadeutics to historical narratives. Striking exceptions were the histories of science in the ambitiously-conceived, but traditionally executed series Geschichte der Künste und Wissenschaften organized by a “society of learned men” at Göttingen which formed part of the programme for universal history headed by the historians, J. C. Gatterer and A. L. Schölzer. Both the histories of mathematics and chemistry by Kästner Abraham , Geschichte der Mathematik (4 vols, Göttingen, 1796–1800) and Gmelin J. F. , Geschichte der Chemie seit dem Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften bis an das Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts (3 vols, Göttingen, 1797–99), as well as the histories of physics and technology by Fischer Johann , Geschichte der Physik (8 vols, Göttingen, 1801–8) were little more than chronologies (though Johann Poppe's Geschichte der Technologie (3 vols, Göttingen, 1807) was rather more sophisticated). Another work in this genre was Wiegleb's J. C. Geschichte des Wachsthums und der Erfindungen in der Chemie in der neueren Zeit (2 vols, Berlin, 1790–91).

essay Adam Smith's , “The principles which lead and direct philosophical enquiries; Illustrated by the history of astronomy”, was published posthumously in his Essays on philosophical subjects (London, 1795).

Bossut Charles , Essai sur l'histoire générale des mathématiques (2 vols, Paris, 1802–10).

Chasles Michel , Aperçu historique sur l'origine et le developpement des methodes en géometrie (Brussels, 1837), and a later attempt to reconstruct lost books of Euclid in his Les trois livres des porismes d'Euclide (Paris, 1860).

Nesselmann G. H. , Die algebra der Griechen (Berlin, 1842) concentrated on Diophantus and is notable for its extensive annotated bibliography of earlier histories of mathematics. His countryman Johann Poppe wrote a Geschichte der Mathematik seit der ältesten bis auf die neueste Zeit (Tübingen, 1828).

Cossali Pietro , Origine, trasporto in Italia, primi progressi in essa dell'algebra (2 vols, Parma, 1797–99) and Libri Gillaume , Histoire des sciences mathématiques en Italie (4 vols, Paris, 1838–41).

Bailly Jean , Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne (Paris, 1775), and Histoire de l'astronomie moderne (3 vols, Paris, 1779–82). Delambre J.-B. J. , Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne (2 vols, Paris, 1817), Histoire de l'astronomie du moyen age (Paris, 1819), Histoire de l'astronomie moderne (2 vols, Paris, 1821), and Histoire de l'astronomie au dix-huitième siècle (Paris, 1827).

Ideler L. , Historische Untersuchungen über die astronomischen Beobachtungen der Alten (Berlin, 1806). He also wrote the classic work on chronology, his Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie (2 vols, Berlin, 1825–26).

Laplace Pierre Simon , Exposition du système du monde, 5th edition, revised and augmented (Paris, 1824).

Jacobus Paulin's Dissertatio gradualis de primordiis chemia and Pehr Afzelius's Historia chemiae medium seu obscuram aevum, a media seculi VII ad medium seculi XVII were published, as was customary with dissertations, in Bergman's collected works ed. by Hebenstreit G. , Opuscula physica et chemica, iv (Leipzig 1787), 1–84 and 85–141. Wiegleb , Geschichte (ref. 27) translated both these, as a third volume (1792) with a slightly different title: Geschichte … in der Chemie in der ältesten und mittleren Zeit (Berlin, 1792). The latter described alchemy as a necessary stage in the progress of chemistry because of its contribution to the development of empirical methods, and Wiegleb built on it for his own history of chemistry.

Trommsdorf J. B. , Versuch zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte der Chemie (Erfurt, 1806).

Thomson Thomas , A system of chemistry (3rd edn, 3 vols, Edinburgh, 1807) and The history of chemistry (2 vols, London, 1830–31). A distinct Scottish school of history of chemistry developed. Thomson's successor in the Chair of Chemistry at Glasgow, James Ferguson, was a major bibliographer of the history of chemistry.

See Daubeny Charles , An introduction to the atomic theory comprising a sketch of the opinions entertained by the most distinguished ancient and modern philosophers with respect to the constitution of matter (Oxford, 1831).

The English version of his history, originally read before the Royal Society of Stockholm in 1810 was Berzelius Jacob , A view of the progress and present state of animal chemistry (London, 1813); Barclay John , An inquiry into the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organization (Edinburgh, 1822).

Dumas J.-B. , Leçons sur la philosophie chimique (Paris, 1837).

Libes Antoine , Histoire philosophique des progrès de la physique (4 vols, Paris, 1810–13). Sprengel Kurt , Geschichte der Botanik (2 vols, Altenberg, 1817–18); von Spix Johann Baptist , Geschichte und Beurtheilung aller Systeme in der Zoologie nach ihrer Entwicklungsfolge von Aristoteles bis auf die gegenwärtige Zeit (Nuremberg, 1811). For the historiography of optics, see Cantor Geoffrey , “The historiography of Georgian optics”, History of science, xvi (1978), 1–21.

Hoffmann Friedrich , Geschichte der Geognosie (Berlin, 1838); Lyell Charles , Principles of geology (3 vols, London, 1830–33), i, chs 2–4; see also Porter Roy , “Charles Lyell and the principles of the history of geology”, British journal for the history of science, ix (1976), 91–103, Ospovat Alexander , “The distortion of Werner in Lyell's Principles of Geology”, The British journal for the history of science, ix (1976), 190–8, and Rachel Laudan, “Redefinitions of a discipline: Histories of geology and geological history”, in Graham Lepenies Weingart (eds), Functions (ref. 2), 79–104. Lyell drew extensively on Giovanni Brocchi's historical introduction to his Conchologia fossile subapennina (Milan, 1814); see also McCartney Paul J. , “Charles Lyell and G. B. Brocchi: A study in comparative historiography”, The British journal for the history of science, ix (1976), 175–89.

Cuvier Georges , Histoire des sciences naturelles (5 vols, Paris, 1841–45). Cuvier gave the lectures at the Collège de France in the 1830s and they were published posthumously.

Of much less importance was Baden Powell's popular survey, An historical view of the progress of the physical and mathematical sciences (London, 1834), in the Cabinet cyclopedia series.

Priestley Joseph , The history and present state of electricity (London, 1767) and The history and present state of discoveries relating to vision, light, and colours (London, 1772). See McEvoy John , “Electricity, knowledge, and the nature of progress in Priestley's thought”, The British journal for the history of science, xii (1979), 1–30, who suggests, inter alla, that Priestley used his history to reinforce the point that all men are epistemologically equal, and Bazerman Charles , “How natural philosophers can cooperate: The literary technology of coordinated investigation in Joseph Priestley's History and present slate of electricity”, in Bazerman Charles Paradis James (eds), Textual dynamics of the professions: Historical and contemporary studies on writing in professional communities (Madison, Wisconsin, 1991), 13–44.

Cuvier Georges , Rapport historique sur les progrès des sciences naturelles depuis 1789 (Paris, 1810); Delambre J.-B. , Rapport historique sur les progrès des sciences mathématiques depuis 1789 (Paris, 1810). The newly-founded British Association for the Advancement of Science soon embarked on its own series of literature reviews: See Morrell J. Thackray A. , Gentlemen of science (Oxford, 1981), 474–9.

See Heilbron John , “Franklin, Haller and Franklinist history”, Isis, lxviii (1977), 539–49.

Hume David , “Of the rise and progress of the arts and sciences”, Essays, moral and political, ii (Edinburgh, 1741, frequently reprinted) was one of the many who tried to take the broad view of the preconditions for progress.

LeGentil G. , “Remarques et observations sur l'astronomie des Indiens et sur l'ancienneté de cette astronomie”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 1772, 469–501.

Bailly Jean-Sylvain , Traité de l'astronomie Indienne et Orientale (Paris, 1787); Lettres sur l'origine des sciences (Paris, 1775). For a general discussion of orientalism, see Schwab Raymond , The Oriental Renaissance: Europe's rediscovery of India and the East, 1680–1880 , translated by Patterson-Black Gene Reinking Victor from the 1950 French edition (New York, 1984). Schwab has much more to say about science than Said Edward , Orientalism (New York, 1979) even though the latter is indebted to him in many respects.

Montucla, for example added material on non-European science to his second edition.

Playfair John , “Remarks on the astronomy of the Brahmins”, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, ii (1790), 135–92.

Henry Colebrooke's most important work on the topic was Algebra, with arithmetic and mensuration, from the Sanscrit of Brahmagupta and Bháscara (London, 1817). Friedrich Buchner based his De algebra Indorum (Elbing, 1821) on Colebrooke's work. See also Bhascara Acharay, Lilavati, transl. by Taylor J. (Bombay, 1816).

Bentley John , A historical view of the Hindu astronomy (London, 1825).

For a brief discussion of this, see Laudan Rachel , “Georges Cuvier on the oriental origins of science”, Nineteenth-century French studies, xvii (1988), 19–29.

Jean-Baptiste Biot published key documents in the discussion of Chinese and Indian astronomy in his Études sur l'astronomie indienne et sur l'astronomie chinoise (Paris, 1862). Epping Joseph (with Strassmeier P. J. N. ), “Zur Entziffernung der astronomischen Tafeln der Chaldäer”, Stimmen aus Maria Laach, 1881, 419–608, reprinted as Astronomisches aus Babylon (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1889), and an update by Jensen P. , Die Kosmologie der Babylonier (Strassburg, 1890). Strassmeier's transcriptions passed to Franz Kugler who published his Die babylonische Mondrechnung (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1900). See also Hilprecht H. V. , Mathematical, metrological and chronological tablets from the Temple Library of Nippur (Philadelphia, 1906). For Egyptian science, the key document was the mathematical papyrus obtained in 1858 by the Scottish Egyptologist, Henry Rhind: Eisenlohr August , Ein mathematisches Handbuch der alten Ägypter (2 vols, Leipzig, 1877), Griffith F. L. , “The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus”, Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, xiii (1891), 328ff; xiv (1892), 26ff; xvi (1894), 164ff, 201ff, 230ff, and Hultsch Friedrich , Die Elemente der ägyptischen Theilungsrechnung (Leipzig, 1895). For Japanese mathematics, see Smith David Eugene Mikami Yoshio , A history of Japanese mathematics (Chicago, 1914).

Comte Auguste , Cours de philosophie positive (6 vols, Paris, 1830–42); I quote from Harriet Martineau's translation and condensation, The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte (Chicago, 1854), 25.

See Canguilhem Georges , “Histoire des religions et histoire des sciences dans la théorie du fétichisme chez Auguste Comte”, in his Études d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences, 5th edn (Paris, 1983), 81–98, pp. 89–90.

Martineau , Positive philosophy (ref. 58), 36.

Recently there has been a flurry of interest in Whewell. Menachem Fisch argues that Whewell embarked on his history to see whether in fact scientific knowledge results from conceptual innovations rather than the mere accumulation of facts: William Whewell: Philosopher of science (Oxford, 1991), 110. See also Cantor Geoffrey , “Between rationalism and romanticism: Whewell's historiography of the inductive sciences”, as well as the other papers in Fisch Menachem Schaffer Simon (eds), William Whewell: A composite portrait (Oxford, 1991).

Whewell William , History of the inductive sciences (3 vols, London, 1837; reprint of 3rd 1857 edn, London, 1967), 3–4; Philosophy of the inductive sciences (3 vols, London, 1840).

On 23 September 1822, Whewell wrote to his friend the economist, Jones Richard , “I still meditate doing something about the History of the Metaphysics of Mechanics, though as yet it is only intention. Something like Smith's History of Astronomy, but with more historical facts”. Todhunter Isaac (ed.), William Whewell, D.D. An account of his writings with selections from his literary and scientific correspondence (London, 1876).

Whewell , History (ref. 62), 6.

It was, for example, the chief source for Arabella Buckley, for many years secretary to Charles Lyell, when she wrote A short history of natural science and of the progress of discovery (London, 1875) to teach schoolchildren scientific concepts and to demonstrate the nobility of striving after truth.

For a more detailed discussion of this, see Laudan Rachel , From mineralogy to geology: The foundations of a science, 1650–1830 (Chicago, 1987), 104–7.

George Lewes, for example, wrote on Aristotle: A chapter from the history of science, including analyses of Aristotle's scientific writing (London, 1864).

Following Cousin's lead, Francisque Bouillier, for example, published his Histoire et critique de la révolution Cartésienne (Lyon, 1842) in which he praised Descartes's scientific method and expounded his physics.

Buckle Henry , while basing his History of civilization in England (London, 1857–61) with its lengthy sections on history of science on Comte's dictum that the historical method would be appropriate for the social sciences, was nonetheless coy about the extent of his debt to Comte.

In preparation for a full-length history of this kind, Ludwig Darmstädter and René Du Bois-Reymond put together a chronological list of inventions and discoveries, 4000 Jahre Pionier-Arbeit in den exakten Wissenschaften (Berlin, 1904).

Spencer Herbert , “The genesis of science”, Essays: Scientific, political and speculative (3 vols, London, 1868–75), i, 116–93.

Galton Francis , English men of science: Their nature and nurture (London, 1874). See Merton Robert , The sociology of science: An episodic memoir (Carbondale, Ill., 1977), 27–36.

Rebière Alfonse , Les femmes dans la science (Paris, 1894). Later Father Zahm of Notre Dame argued a similar case under the pen name of Mozans H. J. , Women in science (New York, 1913).

For a bibliography of writings on the Galileo case, see Carli A. Favaro A. , Bibliografia galileiana 1568–1895 (Rome, 1896).

Draper John , History of the conflict between religion and science (New York, 1875); Draper's call was picked up by the positivist Littré Emil , “Science et religion”, La philosophie positive, xix (1877–8), 334–5; xx, 40–56, and by John Tyndall in his presidential address to the British Association. Otto Zöckler, professor of theology at Greifswald, responded on behalf of the Church Catholic , Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft (2 vols, Gütersloh, 1877–79).

White Andrew Dickson , A history of the warfare of science with theology in Christendom (2 vols, New York, 1896). James Walsh responded stressing the positive role of the Catholic Church in mediaeval medicine, The popes and science: The history of Papal relations to science during the Middle Ages and down to our own time (New York, 1908).

For an analysis of this school, see Nye Mary Jo , “The moral freedom of man and the determinism of nature: The Catholic synthesis of science and history in the Revue des questions scientifiques”, The British journal for the history of science, ix (1976), 274–92. Mansion Paul , “Notes sur le caractère géométrique de l'ancienne astronomie”, Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik, ix (1899), 275–92; Thirion Julien , L'évolution de l'astronomie chez les Grecs (Brussels, 1900) stressed the achievements of Eudoxus, Aristotle, and Ptolemy.

Duhem Pierre , : Essai sur le notion de théorie physique de Platon à Galilée (Paris, 1908). See also Martin Niall , “The genesis of a mediaeval historian”, Annals of science, xxxiii (1976), 119–29 who suggests that while Duhem did not turn to history of science to support his Catholicism, he found that there was no conflict. Tannery Paul , Pour l'histoire de la science hellène (Paris, 1887); La géométrie grecque (Paris, 1887); Recherches sur l'histoire de l'astronomie ancienne (Paris, 1893). Most of Tannery's works first appeared as articles and these were collected in his Mémoires scientifiques (17 vols, Paris, 1912–50).

These became commoner as the century progressed. Collective literature reviews also persisted. In 1867, for example, the French Minister of Education in the Third Republic commissioned a series: Delaunay C. , Rapport sur les progrès de l'astronomie en France (Paris, 1867); Bertin M. , Rapport sur le progrès de la thermodynamique en France (Paris, 1867); Bernard Claude , Rapport sur les progrès et la marche de la physiologie générale en France (Paris, 1867); Milne-Edwards Henri , Rapport sur les progrès récents des sciences zoologiques en France (Paris, 1867).

Some used it to elicit the methods used by scientists; more often they used it to demonstrate the moral probity of the scientific community. As an example of the first, see Marie Maximilian , Histoire des sciences mathématiques et physiques (12 vols, Paris, 1883–88) which consists almost entirely of brief biographies of scientists; a nice example of the second is Matthew Pattison Muir's Heroes of science, chemists (London, 1883) which was published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Examples of works that attempted to keep up with new developments are Albert Ladenburg, Vorträge über die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Chemie in den letzten hundert Jahren (Brunswick, 1869); Schorlemmer Carl , The rise and development of organic chemistry (London, 1879); Freund Ida , The study of chemical composition (Cambridge, 1904).

This is most explicit in the introduction to Berthelot's Histoire des sciences. La chimie au Moyen Age (3 vols, Paris, 1893). See also his Collection des anciens alchimistes Grecs (3 vols, Paris, 1887–88); Introduction à l'étude de la chimie des anciens et du Moyen Âge (Paris, 1889). Berthelot claimed priority, only reluctantly acknowledging the pioneering work of Kopp and Hoefer.

Berthelot P. E. Marcellin , La revolution chimique — Lavoisier: Ouvrage suivi de notices et extraits des registres inédits de laboratoire de Lavoisier (Paris, 1890). See also Bensaude-Vincent Bernadette , “Un mythologie révolutionnaire dans la chimie française”, Annals of science, xxxx (1983), 189–96.

Adolphe Wurtz had already declared chemistry a French science in the historical introduction to his Dictionnaire de chimie pure et appliquée (3 vols in 5, Paris, 1868–78) for which he was attacked by many Germans, e.g., Rau Albrecht , Die Theorien der modernen Chemie (3 parts, Brunswick, 1877–84). Jagnaux Later Raoul Jagnaux Later Raoul , Histoire de la chimie (2 vols, Paris, 1891), reiterated Wurtz's assertion. Nineteenth-century nationalism threw into new prominence the question of the relation between scientific progress and national character, which had been lurking since the seventeenth century and John Wallis's Treatise of algebra, both historical and practical (Oxford, 1685) with its strident claims for the priority of the Englishman John Hariot over the Continental mathematician, Viète. Even so good a historian as Michel Chasles allowed national pride to swamp his critical abilities when a canny forger gulled him with manuscripts that purportedly showed that Pascal, not Newton had discovered the principle of gravitation, and the Académie Royale became embroiled in the subsequent debates. See Farrar J. A. , Literary forgeries (London, 1907), ch. 12. The Franco-Prussian War and the First World War only exacerbated nationalism in science.

The most important were Kopp Hermann , Geschichte der Chemie (4 vols, Brunswick, 1843–47), Beiträge zur Geschichte der Chemie (Brunswick, 1869–75), Die Alchemie in alterer und neuerer Zeit (2 vols, Heidelberg, 1886) and Die Entwicklung der Chemie in der neueren Zeit (Munich, 1873). The latter was one of the series Geschichte der Wissenschaften in Deutschland, one of the editorial projects generated by the famous historian Leopold von Ranke. Rocke Alan , “‘Between two stools:’ Kopp, Kolbe, and the history of chemistry”, Bulletin of the history of chemistry, xii (1990), 19–24 makes a good case for the influence of Ranke's historiography on Kopp. See also Ruska J. , “Hermann Kopp, historian of chemistry”, Journal of chemical education, xiv (1937), 3–12. However the twenty-volume series, which included all the subjects denominated by the German term “Wissenschaft” appeared over too many years and was authored by too many individuals to have a clear historiographic stamp.

Hoefer Jean , Histoire de la chemie depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à notre époque (Paris, 1842–43). Hoefer, who had studied with Ampère and Thenard, hoped to write a general history of science as Whewell had done. He went on to write a series of histories of science for the series Histoire universelle, though none of the quality of his first work: Histoire de la physique et de la chimie (Paris, 1872); Histoire de la botanique, de la minéralogie et de la géologie (Paris, 1872); Histoire de l'astronomie (Paris, 1873); Histoire des mathématiques (Paris, 1874), and Histoire de la zoologie (Paris, 1870).

For example, Ernst von Meyer, the organic chemist, wrote a Geschichte der Chemie von den ältesten Zeiten bis zur Gegenwart (Leipzig, 1889), and Picton Harold , The story of chemistry (London, 1889); Edward Thorpe, Director of the British Government Laboratories, wrote a History of chemistry (2 vols, London, 1909–10); William Tilden based his A short history of the progress of scientific chemistry in our own lime (London, 1899) on his “Lectures to Working Men” given at the Royal College of Science; Francis Armitage based his history on Kopp, Hoefer and Meyer, and aimed to teach the scientific method, A history of chemistry (London, 1906).

The outstanding work here is Kurd Lasswitz's Geschichte der Atomistik vom Mittelalter bis Newton (2 vols, Hamburg, 1890) which was based on a series of articles that Lasswitz had been publishing since the 1870s, though there were numerous articles and theses by other authors of which Hugo Liepmann's Die Mechanik der Leucipp-Democritischen Atome (Berlin, 1886) and Goldbeck's Ernst “Galileo's Atomistick und ihre Quellen”, Bibliotheca Mathemalica, iii (1902), 84–112 are but samples.

notably Most Roscoe Henry Harden A. , A new view of the origin of Dalton's atomic theory (London, 1896).

Adolphe Wurtz defended atomism against Berthelot's criticisms in La Theorie atomique (Paris, 1879). Leopold Mabilleau, professor of philosophy at Caen, gave an extended argument for atomism in his Histoire de la philosophie atomistique (Paris, 1895). Hermann Kolbe described how he had developed his own ideas and attacked Kekulé's theories in his Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der theoretischen Chemie (Leipzig, 1881). Wilhelm Ostwald criticized atomism in his Electrochemie: Ihre Geschichte und Lehre (Leipzig, 1896). Interestingly Mach claimed to have learnt how important ideas were in science from Whewell.

Ostwald W. , Leitlinien der Chemie: Sieben gemeinverständliche Vorträge aus der Geschichte der Chemie (Leipzig, 1906); Grosse Männer: Studien zur Biologie des Genius (Leipzig, 1909); Auguste Comte: Der Mann und sein Werke (Leipzig, 1914); and Klassiker der Wissenschaften (Leipzig, 1889–).

Helm Georg , Die Energetik nach ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung (Leipzig, 1898).

Mathematical journals, such as the Archiv der Mathematik und Physik and the Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, had taken historical articles since mid-century, and from 1871 they also appeared in the Jahrbuch für die Fortschritte der Mathematik. Increasingly however, historians of the mathematical sciences published in specialist journals such as the Bulletino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche (1868–87), financed and edited by the independently wealthy mathematician, Baldassarre Boncompagni, the Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik (1877–), edited by Cantor Moritz , and the Bibliotheca Mathematica (1884–1915), edited by the Swedish librarian and historian of mathematics, Gustav Eneström.

The sorry state of English scholarship in the history of mathematics was lamented by the classicist, James Gow in his Short history of Greek mathematics (Cambridge, 1884) who pointed out how ironic this was in the only country that still used Euclid as a text.

Loria Gino , Le scienze esatte nell'antica Grecia , 2nd edn (Milan, 1914); and II periodo aureo della geomelria greca (Turin, 1890) which included studies of Euclid, Archimedes, Eratosthenes and others; and a series of works by the Danish mathematician Hieronymus Zeuthen, most notably the Forelaesning over mathematikens historié (Copenhagen, 1893) translated as Geschichte der Mathematik im Altertum und im Mittelalter (Copenhagen, 1896).

Bretschneider C. A. chided earlier historians for uncritically following Montucla and gave extensive parallel Greek/German extracts of texts in his Die Geometrie und die Geometer vor Euklides (Leibzig, 1870); the Danish philologist, Heiberg J. L. , concentrated on editing texts, particularly of Archimedes, in works such as “Neue Studien zu Archimedes”, Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik, v (1890), 3–84 and Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik in klassichen Altertum (Leipzig, 1912).

Curtze Maximilian , Der Algorismus Proportionum des Nicolaus Oresme (Berlin, 1868); Petri Philomeni de Dada (Copenhagen, 1897); and “Urkunden zur Geschichte der Mathematik im Mittelalter und der Renaissance”, Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften, xii (1902), 1–627.

Arab mathematics was pursued most seriously by the orientalists Jean-Jacques and Louis P. E. A. Sédillot. See, for instance, Sédillot L. , Matériaux pour servir à l'histoire comparée des sciences mathématiques chez les Grecques et les Orientaux (2 vols, Paris, 1845–49). See also Franz Woepcke's editions of the algebras of Omar Khayyam (Paris, 1851) and Muhammad al-Karazi (Paris, 1853). For Jewish mathematics, see the leading Jewish bibliographer, Steinschneider Moritz , Die hebräischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher (2 vols, Berlin, 1893).

Hankel Hermann , Zur Geschichte der Mathematik in Alterthum und Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1874).

Baltzer H. R. , Theorie und Anwendung der Determinanten (Leipzig, 1857). For Augustus de Morgan, see Richards Joan , “Augustus de Morgan, the history of mathematics, and the foundations of algebra”, Isis, lxxviii (1987), 7–30.

See, for example, Cajori Florian , The teaching and history of mathematics in the United States (Washington, D.C., 1890); Branford Benchara , A study of mathematical education, including the teaching of arithmetic (Oxford, 1908); Gebhardt Martin , Die Geschichte der Mathematik in mathematischen Unterrichte der höheren Schulen Deutschlands (Leipzig, 1912); and a whole series of essays on the history of mathematical education that appeared in the series Abhandlungen den mathematischen Unterricht in Deutschland, edited by the mathematician and educational reformer, Felix Klein.

Suter Heinrich , Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften (2 vols, Zurich, 1873–5); Hoefer Jean , Histoire des mathématiques (Paris, 1874); Gerhardt Karl , Geschichte der Mathematik (Munich, 1877); Ball W. Rouse , Short account of the history of mathematics (London, 1888); La Cour Poul , Historisk mathematik (Copenhagen, 1888); Fink Karl , Geschichte der Elementar-Mathematik (Tübingen, 1890); Cajori Florian , A history of mathematics (New York, 1894); and Smith David Eugene , History of modern mathematics (New York, 1900); and several works by Siegmund Günther, Studien zur Geschichte der mathematischen und physikalischen Geographie (6 vols, Halle, 1877–79); (with the well-known neo-Kantian philosopher, Windelband W. ), Geschichte der antiken Naturwissenschaft und Philosophie (Nordlingen, 1888); Geschichte der anorganischen Naturwissenschaften im neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1901); Geschichte der Erdkunde (Leipzig, 1904); and (with Wieleitner H. ), Geschichte der Mathematik (Leipzig, 1908–11).

For Belgium see Quetelet L. A. J. , Histoire des sciences mathématiques et physiques chez les Belges (Brussels, 1864); for Portugal, see Guimaraes Rodolphe , Les mathématiques en Portugal au XIX siècle (Coimbra, 1900).

Cantor Moritz , Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik (4 vols, Leipzig, 1880–1908).

Arneth Arthur , Geschichte der reinen Mathematik in ihrer Beziehung zur Geschichte der Entwickelung des menschlichen Geistes (Stuttgart, 1852).

Das Erkenntnisproblem in der Philosophie und Wissenschaft der neueren Zeit (2 vols, Berlin, 1906–7).

Cournot Antoine , Traité de l'enchainement des idées fondamentales dans les sciences et dans l'histoire (Paris, 1861); Considérations sur la marche des idées et des événements dans les temps modernes (Paris, 1872). Like so many of historians of science, Cournot was much involved in educational reform.

Brunschvicg Léon , Les étapes de la philosophie mathématique (Paris, 1912).

Milhaud Gaston , Leçons sur les origines de la science Greque (Paris, 1893); Les philosophes géomètres de la Grèce (Paris, 1900); Le positivisme et le progrès de l'esprit, études critiques sur Auguste Comte (Paris, 1902), and Études sur la pensée scientifique chez les Grecs et chez les modernes (Paris, 1906).

Apelt Ernst , Johann Keppler's astronomische Weltansicht (Leipzig, 1849) and Die Reformation der Sternkunde: Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Culturgeschichte (Jena, 1852), and his series of articles in the short-lived journal, Abhandlungen der Fries'schen Schule.

For the prolific Thomas-Henri Martin see his Galilée: Les droits de la science et la méthode des sciences physiques (Paris, 1868) and his “Mémoires sur l'histoire des hypothèses astronomiques chez les Grecs et chez les Romains”, Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, xxx (1881), 1–302.

Giovanni Schiaparelli's works were posthumously collected as Scritti sulla storia delta astronomia antica (3 vols, Bologna, 1925–27).

Rudolf Wolf, professor of astronomy in Zurich, Geschichte der Astronomie (Munich, 1877); he also compiled a Handbuch der Astronomie, ihrer Geschichte und Literatur (2 vols, Zurich, 1890–93) full of useful information. See also Dreyer's J. L. E. History of the planetary systems from Thales to Kepler (Cambridge, 1906).

Repsold Johann , Zur Geschichte der astronomischen Messwerkzeuge von Purbach bis Reichenbach (Leipzig, 1907).

A particularly successful author here was Agnes Clerke who wrote a number of such histories, including A popular history of astronomy during the nineteenth century (Edinburgh, 1885) and Modern cosmogonies (London, 1905).

The leading classical scholar, August Boeckh, explicated Plato's cosmology, Untersuchungen über das kosmische System des Platon (Berlin, 1852), putting himself in the middle of a debate about whether Plato had espoused a theory of the Earth's daily rotation as suggested by Otto Gruppe in his Die kosmischen Systeme der Griechen (Berlin, 1851) and supported by Grote George , Plato's doctrine respecting the rotation of the Earth (London, 1860). Franz Boll wrote extensively on ancient astronomy, particularly his “Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus”, Neue Jahrbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik, xxi (1872), 49–243 and a work on the zodiac, Sphaera (Leipzig, 1903). Friedrich Hultsch wrote a series of shorter articles on Greek astronomy. Thomas Heath included a history of Greek astronomy to Aristarchus in his Aristarchus of Samos (Oxford, 1913).

de Blainville Henri , Histoire des sciences de l'organisation et de leurs progrès comme base de la philosophie (3 vols, ed. by Maupied F. L. M. ; Paris, 1858); Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Histoire naturelle général des règnes organiques (3 vols in 5, Paris, 1854–62), i, 1–164. See also Carus Julius , Geschichte der Zoologie bis auf Johann Muller und Charles Darwin (Munich, 1872) and Schmidt E. Oscar , Die Entwicklung der vergleichenden Anatomie: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Wissenschaften (Jena, 1855) in which he complained that there was no good history of comparative anatomy to compare with Kopp's history of chemistry.

Lange F. , Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart (Iserlohn, 1866).

Rádl Emanuel , Geschichte der biologischen Theorien (2 vols, Leipzig, 1905–09). Radi was conversant with the works of Comte, Buckle and Whewell.

Rosenberger Ferdinand , Die Geschichte der Physik (3 vols in 2, Brunswick, 1882–90). This was just the most important of Rosenberger's extensive output on history of physics.

Hoefer Jean , Histoire de la physique et de la chimie (Paris, 1872); Poggendorff Johann , Geschichte der Physik (Leipzig, 1879); Poggendorff also edited the Anmalen der Physik und Chemie and is best known to contemporary historians of science for the instigation of the massive bibliographic project, the Literarisch-biographische Handwörterbuch für Mathematik, Physik, Chemie und verwandte Wissenschaftsgeschichte.

For mechanics see Dühring E. K. , Kritische Geschichte der allgemeinen Principien der Mechanik (Berlin, 1873); Mach Ernst , Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwicklung historisch-kritisch dargestellt (Leipzig, 1883); Duhem Pierre , Les origines de la statique (2 vols, Paris, 1905–6); for strength of materials, see Isaac Todhunter (edited and completed by Karl Pearson), History of the theory of elasticity and of the strength of materials (2 vols in 3, Cambridge, 1886–93); for geodesy, see Todhunter Isaac , History of mathematical theories of attraction and the figure of the Earth from the time of Newton to that of Laplace (2 vols, London, 1873). Surprisingly for an admirer of Whewell, Todhunter's histories are little more than annotated chronologies.

Caverni Raffaello , Storia del metodo sperimentale in Italia (6 vols, Florence, 1891–1900); Gerland Ernst Traumüller F. , Geschichte der physikalischen Experimentierkunst (Leipzig, 1899); Cajori Florian , A history of physics in its elementary branches, including the evolution of physical laboratories (New York, 1899).

von Kobell Franz , Geschichte der Mineralogie von 1650–1850 (Munich, 1863); von Zittel Karl , Geschichte der Geologie und Palaeontologie bis Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1899). Archibald Geikie reinforced Lyell's interpretation of geology in his Founders of geology (London, 1901). In France, Adolphe d'Archiac introduced his geological texts with histories, most notably in his Géologie et paléontologie (Paris, 1866) and Stanislas Meunier interpreted the development of geology in a positivist framework in his L'évolution des théories géologiques (Paris, 1911).

Sachs Julius , Geschichte der Botanik vom 16. Jahrhundert bis 1860 (Munich, 1875), a strongly pro-Darwin work, relied to some extent on Sprengel and on Ernst H. Meyer's scholarly discussion of botany through the Renaissance, Geschichte der Botanik (4 vols, Königsberg, 1854). The major survey prior to Sachs's was Jessen's Karl F. W. Botanik der Gegenwart und Vorzeil in culturhistorischer Entwickelung (Leipzig, 1864). The Histoire de la botanique (Paris, 1864) by the eighteenth-century natural historian Michel Adanson was published posthumously, ed. by Adanson A. Payer J. B. ,.

Dannemann F. , Die Naturwissenschaften in ihrer Entwicklung und Zusammenhang (4 vols, Leipzig, 1900–13).

In a Statement that would have confounded d'Alembert and Montucla, Merz claimed that his history of mathematics was “the first attempt to give to this abstract region of thought a place in intellectual progress”, History of European thought in the nineteenth century (Edinburgh and London, 1896–1914), 2, vi.

For an overview of history of science between the wars see Corsi Pietro , “History of science, history of philosophy and history of theology”, in Corsi Pietro Weindling Paul , Information sources in the history of science and medicine (London, 1983), 3–26. For Italy, see Abbri Ferdinando Rossi Paolo , “History of science in Italy”, Isis, lxxvii (1986), 213–18; and for Sweden, Frängsmyr Tore , “History of science in Sweden”, Isis, lxxiv (1983), 465–68 and Frängsmyr Tore (ed.), History of science in Sweden (Uppsala, 1984).

See Graham Loren , “The socio-political roots of Boris Hessen: Soviet Marxism and the history of science”, Social studies of science, xv (1985), 705–22.

See Thackray Arnold , “On discipline-building: The paradoxes of George Sarton”, Isis, lxiii (1972), 473–95; “The History of Science Society: Five phases of pre-history”, Isis, lxvi (1975), 445–53; and “The pre-history of an academic discipline: The study of the history of science in the United States, 1891–1941”, Minerva, xviii (1980), 448–73, as well as Nathan Reingold's response, “History of science today, 1. Uniformity as hidden diversity: History of science in the United States, 1920–1940”, The British journal for the history of science, xix (1986), 243–62.