Abstract
THE editor of these “Classics of Scientific Method” suggests that “a reader who takes up a volume of the series, dealing with a branch of science of which he is ignorant, will be able, without further aid, to trace the steps by which the human mind has passed from chaotic ignorance to ordered knowledge.” The first impression of the reviewer was that this purpose had been admirably fulfilled in Prof. Partington's monograph on “The Composi tion of Water”; but closer study shows that, in order to make full use of the available material, he has thought it necessary to discuss the phlogiston theory, and to tell the story of the ‘water controversy,’ in which the question at issue was one of priority between Cavendish, Lavoisier, and James Watt. This policy has reduced the value of the monograph as a guide to ‘the man in the street,’ who does not want to be dragged up every blind alley that has been entered, even by the most distinguished pioneers. On the other hand, the monograph is an ideal one for the serious student of historical chemistry, since the standard is as high as that of the Alembic Club reprints, but the material is presented in the more attractive form of a continuous illustrated narrative.
The Composition of Water.
Prof.
J. R.
Partington
By. (Classics of Scientific Method.) Pp. viii + 106. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1928.) 1s. 6d.
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The Composition of Water . Nature 121, 981 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/121981b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/121981b0