Mémoires scientifiques publiés par J. L. Heiberg &H. G. Zeuthen. XIV, Correspondance by PaulTannery; A. DièsReview by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jul., 1938), pp. 157-158Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/225959 .

Accessed: 09/05/2014 19:29

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Isis.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.41 on Fri, 9 May 2014 19:29:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

REVIEWS I57

adequate as a basis for the conceptual structure of science. In effect it is equivalent to the proposition that what is possible at all is possible again. Now the question comes to mind whether this is anything more than a statement in special form of the difference between a concept and the perceptual instances of a concept. For a concept is precisely such a thing as can be exemplified again and again, each case being recognized by some sort of human act. Is the non-rational character of this intuition of the indefinite repeatability of human acts really different from that of the relation between the general and the particular which permeates all rationality? If not, why emphasize the non-rational element in such a special form? An answer to this question is in ordel because of the particular doubts which the argument of the book throws upon the adequacy of reason to provide knowledge of nature.

(Williams College). RICHARD HOCKING.

Paul Tannery (I843-I904). - M6moires scientifiques publids par J. L. HEIBERG & H. G. ZEUTHEN. XIV, Correspondance. Editee par A. DiEs. xiv + 664 p., 5 pl. Paris, GAUTHIER-VILLARS, 1937.

Almost every other volume of Isis, beginning with the first, has con- tained a review of one of Mme TANNERY'S publications, seventeen volumes in all, that is, fourteen of the Mdmoires, the new edition of Pour l'histoire de la science hellene (1930; Isis 15, 179-80), and two volumes of MERSENNE.

Volume XIII of the Mimoires was the first to be devoted to the letters, which are published in the alphabetical order of the correspondents; it contained the letters of 33 scholars (letters from them to TANNERY,

and from TANNERY to them), and covered the beginning of the alphabet, A to C. In volume XIV, the same painstaking editor Canon A. Diis of the Catholic university of Angers, deals with the letters D to G. To show their great interest to the historians of science, it will suffice to give the names of the 30 correspondents, some of them so famous or so well known, that they need no definition. However, for each of them I have indicated the years of birth and death, and the number of letters. The editor has added a biography and bibliography of each correspondent.

DAST DE BoISVILLE (Bordeaux, I868-99) . . . . . . . . . 2 letters. CHARLES DEJOB (Paris I847-I9I6) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 JULES DELAMARRE (Provins I867-1909) . . . . . . . . . . 2 JOSEPH DELBcEUF (Liege I813-I896) . . . . . . . . . . . 33

DELBOEUF'S is the largest collection (p. 17-134), revealing his pene- trating mind and generous heart. DELBOEUF was not only a psychologist

and philosopher but an original mathematician and logician.

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.41 on Fri, 9 May 2014 19:29:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

I58 Isis, xxix, 1

LtOPOLD DELISLE (Valogne, Manche I826-I9IO) . . . . . . I letter. ETIENNE DELSOL (Villeneuve-sur-Lot I854-1930) . . . . . 2 * A. M. DESROUSSEUX (Lille i86i-). alias BRAcKE . . . . . . 2 HuRMANN DIELS (Biebrich a. Rhein 1848-I922) ... . . . I6 A. DUBLANGE (I876- ). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 PiERRE DUHEM (Paris 186I-I9I6) . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 JEAN Dupuis (Paris I8I8; died in St. GerTnain- en Laye) . . 23

FELIX DtRRBACH (near Strassburg I859-1931) . . . . . . . 4 VICTOR EGGER (Paris I848-I909) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 *

GUSTAV ENESTR6M (Nora I852-1923) .. .. ..... . 70 *

The ENESTROM correspondence contains the largest number of letters, 70 (P. 3I7-420), extending over twenty years, I884-I904.

AuLRED ESPINAS (St. Florentin, Yonne, I844-I922) . . . 5 letters. FRANroIs EVELLrN (Nantes I835-1910) .... . . . . . . 3 ANTONIO FAVARO (Padua I847-1922) . . . . . . . . . . . 39 HERvf FAYE (St. Benoit-sur-Indre I814-1902) . . . . . . I *

FRANz M. FELDHAUS (Neuss a. Rhein I874- ) . . 3 * *

CLAUDE Foucou (lawyer, in Marseille, d. I893) . . . . . . 4 *

ALFRD FOUILLtB (La Poufze, Maine-et-Loire I838-1912) . . 2 EMILE FOURREY (I869- ). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 *

Mgr. FOURIER-BONNARD (Mattaincourt, Vosges, I872- ) 2 ABBA GEORGES FRAMONT (Poitiers, I852-1912) .... . 4 *

WILHELM FR6HNER (Karlsruhe I 834-1925) . . . . . . . . . 2 *

MODESTrNO DEL GAIZO (Avellino I 854-1921) . . . . . . . 4 HENRI GIRARD (St. Josse-ten-Noode I841- )... 2 *

PIERRE GLOTIN (Lorient I 829- ) . . . . . . . . . . . 2 EDMOND GOBLOT (Mamers I858-I935) .... . . ... 4 *

SIEGMUND GONTHER (Nuremberg x848-I923) ... . ...19 *

This list illustrates the great variety of TANNERY'S interests philo- sophical, scientific and religious. Many of the letters reproduced are worth reading and a well made index will facilitate reference to them. The editor has also added a chronological list of the letters, ranging from I877 to I928 (the letters posterior to I904 being naturally addressed to Mme TANNiERY). I would have preferred that the letters themselves be published in chronological order, for only thus is it possible to follow TANNERY'S thought as it developed under the pressure of circumstances and of his own genius. However, it would be ungracious to insist on this, instead of which I prefer to express once more my deep gratitude to Mme TANNERY. I may be permitted to recall that volume IV of Osiris, being dedicated to her husband's memory and to herself, contains biographies and bibliographies of PAUL and MARIE TAmiy.

GEORGE SARTON.

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.41 on Fri, 9 May 2014 19:29:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions