The Seven Follies of Science: a Popular Account of the most famous Scientific Impossibilities and the Attempts which have been Made to Solve Them

Abstract

THESE “Follies” are the squaring of the circle, the duplication of the cube, the trisection of an angle, perpetual motion, the transmutation of metals, the fixation of mercury, and the elixir of life; we miss from this list the flattening of the earth. The author is an American; he writes for ordinary readers, and makes his subject interesting; he seems to make no mistakes. He dwells at much greater length upon the first and fourth of the follies than the rest. In addition to these seven classical ones he gives an account of four others: perpetual lamps, the alkahest or universal solvent, palingenesy (the revival of a plant or animal from its ashes), and the powder of sympathy. He adds a division on the fourth dimension of space and some paradoxes, micrography, illusions of the senses, and two tricks. The book finishes with an account of some arithmetical problems and the fulcrum of Archimedes which are probably “curious” to the ordinary reader. The Seven Follies of Science: a Popular Account of the most famous Scientific Impossibilities and the Attempts which have been Made to Solve Them. By John Phin. Pp. viii + 178. (London: Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 5s. net.