The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Science, Volume 2(of 5), by
Henry Smith Williams

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: A History of Science, Volume 2(of 5)

Author: Henry Smith Williams

Release Date: April, 1999 [Etext #1706]
Posting Date: November 17, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF SCIENCE, V2 ***

Produced by Charles Keller

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE

BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D.

ASSISTED BY EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, M.D.

IN FIVE VOLUMES

VOLUME II.

CONTENTS

BOOK II

CHAPTER I. SCIENCE IN THE DARK AGE

CHAPTER II. MEDIAEVAL SCIENCE AMONG THE ARABIANS

CHAPTER III. MEDIAEVAL SCIENCE IN THE WEST

CHAPTER IV. THE NEW COSMOLOGY--COPERNICUS TO KEPLER AND GALILEO

CHAPTER V. GALILEO AND THE NEW PHYSICS

CHAPTER VI. TWO PSEUDO-SCIENCES--ALCHEMY AND ASTROLOGY

CHAPTER VII. FROM PARACELSUS TO HARVEY

CHAPTER VIII. MEDICINE IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES

CHAPTER IX. PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTISTS AND NEW INSTITUTIONS OF
LEARNING

CHAPTER X. THE SUCCESSORS OF GALILEO IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE

CHAPTER XI. NEWTON AND THE COMPOSITION OF LIGHT

CHAPTER XII. NEWTON AND THE LAW OF GRAVITATION

CHAPTER XIII. INSTRUMENTS OF PRECISION IN THE AGE OF NEWTON

CHAPTER XIV. PROGRESS IN ELECTRICITY FROM GILBERT AND VON
GUERICKE TO FRANKLIN

CHAPTER XV. NATURAL HISTORY TO THE TIME OF LINNAEUS

APPENDIX

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE

BOOK II. THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN SCIENCE

The studies of the present book cover the progress of science from the
close of the Roman period in the fifth century A.D. to about the middle
of the eighteenth century. In tracing the course of events through so
long a period, a difficulty becomes prominent which everywhere besets
the historian in less degree--a difficulty due to the conflict between
the strictly chronological and the topical method of treatment. We must
hold as closely as possible to the actual sequence of events, since,
as already pointed out, one discovery leads on to another. But, on the
other hand, progressive steps are taken contemporaneously in the various
fields of