CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE THERE is no grander nor more intellectually elevating spectacle than that of the utterances of the fundamental investigators in their gigantic power. Possessed as yet of no methods--for these were first created by their labors and are only rendered comprehensible to us by their performances--they grapple with and subjugate the object of their inquiry and imprint upon it the forms of conceptual thought. --ERNST MACH CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE (COPERNICUS TO PASTEUR) EDITED BY WILLIAM S. KNICKERBOCKER, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH · EDITOR, THE SEWANEE REVIEW ALFRED · A · KNOPF · NEW YORK MCMXXVII COPYRIGHT 1927, BY ALFRED · A · KNOPF, INC. SET UP, ELECTROTYPED, PRINTED AND BOUND BY THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS, BINGHAMTON, N. Y. PAPER FURNISHED BY W. F. ETHERINGTON & CO., NEW YORK MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO MY FORMER ASSOCIATES OF THE FACULTY, AND THE STUDENTS OF THE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY. PREFACE “The history of science,” wrote Du Bois-Reymond, “is the real history of mankind.” Gradually we are coming to realize the significance of that statement, and the sooner we realize it on a grand scale the more shall we hasten the happiness of man.