Biomathematics: Being the Principles of Mathematics for Students of Biological Science

Abstract

IN every particular Theory of Nature there can J. only be so much real Science as is vouched for by Mathematics.” Since Kant wrote these words it has become increasingly true that mathematics is an indispensable weapon in the development of any science, and Dr. Feldman's treatise constitutes an attempt to supply a weapon, sufficiently powerful, to enable students of biological science to understand and to express biological laws in mathematical form. “It aims in the first instance, at affording the reader sufficient mathematical knowledge to follow intelligently the records of the more modern researches in the various fields of biological science. In addition, it is hoped that a mastery of the book will enable the laboratory investigator to make use of the principles of Mathematics for the purpose of co-ordinating his experimental results.” In a brief but very interesting introduction, Sir William Bayliss insists that, when experimental results are expressed by a mathematical formula, empirical or otherwise, the experimenter should not be satisfied until he can attach some meaning to the constants involved. Until he does this, he cannot fully understand the processes which are going on.

Biomathematics: Being the Principles of Mathematics for Students of Biological Science.

By Dr. W. M. Feldman. Pp. xix + 398. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1923.) 21s. net.