s on other worlds
besides our own, p. 21 x--The question of the "spontaneous generation"
of living protoplasm, p. 222--The question of the evolution from
non-vital to vital matter, p. 223--The possibility of producing organic
matter from inorganic in the laboratory, p. 224--Questions as to
the structure of the cell, p. 225--Van Beneden's discovery of the
centrosome, p. 226--Some problems of anthropology, p. 227.

CHAPTER IX--RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

The scientific attitude of mind, p. 2 30--Natural versus supernatural,
p. 233--Inductive versus deductive reasoning, p. 235--Logical induction
versus hasty generalization, p. 239--The future of Darwinism, p. 241.

APPENDIX

A LIST OF SOURCES

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE--BOOK V

ASPECTS OF RECENT SCIENCE

STUDENTS of the classics will recall that the old Roman historians were
accustomed to detail the events of the remote past in what they were
pleased to call annals, and to elaborate contemporary events into
so-called histories. Actuated perhaps by the same motives, though with
no conscious thought of imitation, I have been led to conclude this
history of the development of natural science with a few chapters
somewhat different in scope and in manner from the ones that have gone
before.

These chapters have to do largely with recent conditions. Now and again,
to be sure, they hark back into the past, as when they tell of the
origin of such institutions as the British Museum, the Royal Society,
and the Royal Institution; or when the visitor in modern Jena imagines
himself transplanted into the Jena of the sixteenth century. But these
reminiscent moods are exceptional. Our chief concern is with strictly
contemporary events--with the deeds and personalities of scientific
investigators who are still in the full exercise of their varied powers.
I had thought that such outlines of the methods of contemporary workers,
such glimpses of the personalities of living celebrities, might form a
fitting conclusion to this record of progress. There is a stimulus in
contact with great men at first hand that is scarcely to be gained in
like degree in any other way. So I have thought that those who have not
been privileged to visit the great teachers in person might like to
meet some of them at second hand. I can only hope that something of
the enthusiasm which I have gained from contact with these men may make
itself felt in the succeeding pages.

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