Abstract
THE legacy of Newton and his contemporaries of the seventeenth century has often been described. This was the century, too, that saw science organised through its societies on rational lines that at the same time made possible international relationship and collaboration on a scale hitherto impossible. The excellent volume before us deals with the handling of this legacy by the continental physicists of the eighteenth century. It is perhaps insufficiently realised that international relationship has affected the progress of science almost as often as it has the progress of peoples; and the historian of science who is concerned with the development of the broader aspects of his subject is confronted with continual illustrations of this. The French Descartes lived his scientific life in Holland; Huyghens was a Dutch philosopher who worked in France and visited England; 'S Gravesande, of Leyden, was a member of the delegation of 1715 sent to England to congratulate George I. on his accession. Desaguliers was a Dutch philosopher who was educated in England. Here are but a few of the ingredients of international relationships in science. The eighteenth century was notable for the rise of the Dutch experimental school of physicists, and the story of the development of the experimental method in Holland, and of its influence on the mathematical methods of the French school, is dealt with by Prof. Brunet with a sympathy, a penetration, and an understanding that has resulted in a volume of unique value to all students of the history of science.
Les physiciens hollandais et la méthode expérmentale en France au XVIIIe siècle.
Prof.
Pierre
Brunet
Par. Pp. ii + 153. (Paris: Albert Blanchard, 1926.) 14 francs.
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H., I. Les physiciens hollandais et la méthode expérmentale en France au XVIII e siècle . Nature 119, 812 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119812b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119812b0