An International Committee on the History of Sciences

Abstract

THERE was recently held in Paris the first meeting of the Comité International d'Histoire des Sciences, which owes its existence to the International Congress of Historians. At the meeting of that body last year at Oslo, the first steps were taken towards the formation of the new Comité. Most benevolent and practical interest in the Comité International has been evinced by the permanent office of the parent body, and especially by its distinguished secretary, M. l'Héritier. It is consonant with our experience of other intellectual movements that the stimulus towards studies on the history of science has come not from governments nor even from universities, but from voluntary associations of individual workers. As the heroic figure of the movement for the study of the history of science, we may cite Dr. George Sarton, a Belgian who is now domiciled in the United States. His self-sacrificing industry was interrupted but not deflected by the European upheaval. He has now the satisfaction of watching the growth of the History of Science Society, which has honoured itself by contributing some part of the cost of Sarton's remarkable journal Isis. The History of Science Society has its centre in Washington. It numbers many Europeans among its members, and welcomes all who take interest in the history of science.