Der Naturwissenschaften Research Articles

Concept of chemical reaction in chemistry textbooks

Abstract For more than 20 years the science teachers, the researchers in science education, the educationists and the other pedagogues have been acquainted with the model of educational reconstruction. In this model there are integrated three areas of this scientific interest: the recognition of pupils’ conceptions, the investigation of scientific conceptions with didactics branch approach and the creation of an educational content (Duit, R., Gropengießer, H., & Kattmann, U. (2005). Towards science education research that is relevant for improving practice: The model of educational reconstruction. In H. E. Fischer, (Ed.), The Developing standards in research on science education (pp. 1–9). London: Taylor & Francis; Duit, R., Gropengießer, H., Kattmann, U., Komorek, M., & Parchmann, I. (2012). The model of educational reconstruction – a framework for improving teaching and learning science. In D. Jorde & J. Dillon (Eds.), Science education research and practice in Europe. Cultural perpectives in science education, 5 (pp. 13–37). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers; Kattmann, U., Duit, R., Gropengießer, H., & Komorek, M. (1997). Das Modell der Didaktischen Rekonstruktion – Ein Rahmen für naturwissenschaftsdidaktische Forschung und Entwicklung.Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften, 3(3), 3–18). There is required to reconstruct the educational content for learning and teaching purposes. It leads to the educational structuring and to the clarification in scientific field. Therefore, in this contribution there is analysed a formation of the concept chemical reaction from the perspectives of the chemistry textbooks used in the 19th, the 20th and the 21st centuries in Slovakia. These findings could be useful in the process of comparison between scientific and pedagogical knowledge in this branch not only in neighbouring countries, even in the broaden European or worldwide content.

Analysis and Evaluation of Control System of Higher Education in Modern Conditions in Kazakhstan

Abstract-This research paper seeks to study the status of higher education in Kazakhstan, experiencing a process of reform of the system, which is caused by internal and external causes. Internal causes related to the adaptation to market conditions of operation and development, external - with integration into the world educational space. Kazakhstan's education is associated with the development of the profound changes of the intellectual, cultural and economic potential. Education System Management - one of the most pressing problems, having a direct relation to the quality and efficiency of the educational institutions. The forms and methods of education management is largely dependent on the characteristics of the country's economic and cultural traditions, the specifics of government and, above all, related to the market economy. Optimization of educational innovation management requires a scientific and methodical study. In the study, there is the need to implement the following types of resources: information, technological, legal, financial, human, social [1].
 However, the focus on foreign models of educational process management excessively performed in the higher education system of Kazakhstan, there is a weak focus innovation on solving urgent problems of higher education, the lack of an integrated approach to the creation of educational innovation, which would provide them with the necessary resources, formed the optimal internal and external innovation environment that does not allow to create a balanced mechanism in the process of reforming the higher education system. The results of innovative practices show that higher education everywhere manifest social insecurity innovation. This is reflected in the growing gap in the interests of the major participants in the innovation process - the initiators, organizers and perpetrators; weakened by motivational resource of educational innovations, in particular, because of the unjustifiable expectations of the changes taking place; It is also seen social and technological insecurity educational innovation. This actualizes the problem of optimization of social management innovation in higher education [2].
 
 Keywords: State obligatory standard of education, European Higher Education Area, National Testing Center, Higher Education, Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute, Akkreditierung für Studiengänge der Ingenieurwissenschaften, der Informatik, der Naturwissenschaften und der Mathematik, International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education

Essay Review: Piero's Flagellation of Christ Elucidated?

PIERO'S FLAGELLATION OF CHRIST ELUCIDATED? Astrolabes and Angels, Epigrams and Enigmas: From Regiomontanus' Acrostic for Cardinal Bessarion to Piero della Francesca' s of Christ. David King (Boethius: Texte und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften, Ivi; Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2007). Pp. xii + 348 + CD-ROM. euro78. ISBN 978-3-515-09061-2.Readers of this journal will recognize with respect name of David King, who has earned an international reputation in history of Islamic astronomy. King is arguably leading historian of astrolabe, for he probably has seen, catalogued, and studied more astrolabes than anyone else, and not only those of Islamic civilization. In main part of this book King returns to an instrument about which he and Gerard Turner published a fundamental article. It is famous astrolabe that Johannes Regiomontanus (1436-76) in 1462 gave to his patron, Greek emigre Cardinal Bessarion (1408-72), a leading intellectual and astronomical enthusiast.1 King's primary focus now is Regiomontanus's four-line dedication to Bessarion, which he believes to be an acrostic that not only identifies figures in of Christ by Piero della Francesca (d. 1492), but also explains structure of this famous, mysterious and controversial painting.King's title aptly warns us not to expect standard fare; indeed, book is unusual from beginning to end. Substituting for author's name on title page is phrase An essay by David A. King inspired by two remarkable discoveries by Berthold Holzschuh. Curious already. As a member of King's 2005 Frankfurt seminar, Holzschuh first proposed key ideas that King takes up. We soon learn that he disagrees with many of King's extensions of his own hypotheses in present book.2 In Notes to Reader, King acknowledges layout problems and missing footnotes that resulted from his rushing book into print. Next, he summarizes book, significance of which he links with extravagant claim (repeated) that his is the first hypothesis [about Piero 's Flagellation of Christ] to be based on a contemporaneous document (p. viii). By this, he means four-line dedication on Regiomontanus's astrolabe. The table of contents includes one prelude and one conclusion, two tributes to Holzschuh, and three interludes interspersed among four parts. Nine appendices (almost half book) discuss various aspects of history of astrolabe, including valuable - and controversial - material on sole surviving astrolabe with a Greek inscription (1062) and on several dozen fifteenthcentury astrolabes that King convincingly links to a Viennese workshop. After useful bibliographical and biographical material, King's acknowledgments broach candidly scepticism with which his critics, many of them sympathetic, from members of his 2005 seminar outward, have greeted his claims. Finally, after index, a CD-ROM inside back cover contains King's claims in form of a 238-slide show (the illustrations, both here and in book, are generally excellent).What is King arguing? This question is not always easy to answer. He took in such an impressive amount of history and art history in a short time that book is not fully digested. On expository grounds alone, it was published prematurely. Its pages offer a profusion of details and correlations - geometrical, numerical, alphabetical, symbolic, and biographical - that lead to sometimes competing claims. The reader is left to figure out when a specific point counts as a thesis, a suggestion, a probability, a coincidence, or a passing thought, and whether a new claim replaces, or should be added to, previous ones. Since King's Summary (pp. vii-viii) and Prelude (pp. 1-12) contain some concise declarative statements of core ideas, I will treat them as canonical, even though they are sometimes inconsistent with later ones:I maintain first that epigram on [1462] astrolabe provided ideas for composition and basic geometrical structure for painting, and second that each of eight images across painting represents at least two persons whose identities are deliberately partially concealed (p. …

Vincenz Priessnitz (1799–1851) und die Rezeption seiner Hydrotherapie bis 1918: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Naturheilbewegung (review)

Reviewed by: Vincenz Priessnitz (1799–1851) und die Rezeption seiner Hydrotherapie bis 1918: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Naturheilbewegung Robert Jütte Jürgen Helfricht . Vincenz Priessnitz (1799–1851) und die Rezeption seiner Hydrotherapie bis 1918: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Naturheilbewegung. Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, no. 105. Husum, Germany: Matthiesen Verlag, 2006. 380 pp. Ill. €54.00 (paperbound, 3-7868-4105-5). This is a germinal book. It is not only the first scholarly biography of the founder of the watercure in Germany, Vincenz Priessnitz (1799–1851), but also a history of the reception of his ideas till the end of World War I. While Uwe Heyll's recent monograph on the history of naturopathy in Germany hardly pays attention to Priessnitz and his tremendous influence on the watercure movement in Germany, Helfricht proves that Priessnitz was pivotal not only for the early stage of hydropathy but also for later pioneers in this field, for example, Dr. Heinrich Lahmann in Dresden. What makes this book so outstanding is its use of newly discovered archive material in Jesenik, the former Freienwalde. Helfricht came across a mine of information on the everyday life of the world-famous spa of Gräfenberg: family documents, reports by his assistants, more than three thousand letters by patients, the complete list of patients who stayed in the Priessnitz sanatorium in the years 1829–38, as well as about four hundred rare booklets on hydropathy, mostly from the nineteenth century. Helfricht starts with Priessnitz's vita, which is well known; yet he adds a few new details, such as the spelling of Priessnitz's Christian name; the exact date of his birth (5 October); and the Preissnitz family, including Priessnitz's children (who turned out to be less successful in life). We also learn new facts about the [End Page 457] beginnings of Priessnitz's medical practice. According to Helfricht, the first patients were treated in 1822. The author describes in detail Priessnitz's struggle with the local authorities who prosecuted him as a quack. Only from 1838 on did he become an established healer, protected from persecution by the good reputation he enjoyed in the highest echelons of the Habsburg Empire. For the first time, we also get figures about the wealth that Priessnitz acquired through his naturopathic healing practice. At the end of his life he had assets worth more than two hundred thousand florins. His wife Sophie seems to have been a very successful businesswoman, lending considerable sums of money to local peasants, shop owners, and artisans. Even more valuable is the information Helfricht provides on everyday life in the Gräfenberg sanatorium. Priessnitz treated more than 17,700 patients during his lifetime. The majority of his patients had musculoskeletal troubles. Ranked two and three on the list are psychiatric disorders and abdominal ailments. Unfortunately, in some cases Helfricht attempts a retrospective diagnosis, which a professional medical historian should avoid. The mortality rate at the sanatorium was astonishing low, only one in four hundred. The patients who flocked to Gräfenberg in the 1830s and 1840s came from all walks of life, but the nobility and the higher ranks of the military were heavily represented (25 percent). The chapters on the cure itself and on everyday life at Gräfenberg would, however, have profited had the author known about the diary of a merchant from Bremen who visited Priessnitz in 1839, describing in great detail his expectation, experience, and disappointments. The chapters pertaining to his visit to Gräfenberg were published in 2005. This untapped source also sheds light on the pivotal role of Priessnitz's wife in running the sanatorium. The final chapters of Helfricht's book deal with the fate of the sanatorium after Priessnitz's death in 1851 and with the posthumous fame of this pioneer of the watercure movement. It is a pity that Helfricht disregards earlier work, especially Anglo-American studies on hydropathy in which the Priessnitz cure and its various imitators in England and the United States figure prominently. Quoting from German contemporary sources—in particular, hydropathic journals—is risky if the information is not cross-checked. For example, what should an English...

Fechner und die Folgen außerhalb der Naturwissenschaften: Interdisziplinäres Kolloquium zum 200. Geburtstag Gustav Theodor Fechners ed. by Ulla Fix. Tübingen, From Cosmology to Ecology: The Monist World-View in Germany from 1770 to 1930 by Eric Paul Jacobsen

MLR, IOI.3, 2006 89I and stimulating account of an important tendency in nineteenth-century German letters. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY ROBERT C. HOLUB Fechner und die Folgen auJ3erhalb der Naturwissenschaften: Interdisziplindres Kollo quium zum 200. Geburtstag Gustav Theodor Fechners. Ed. by ULLA Fix. Tiibin gen: Niemeyer. 2003. E48. ISBN 3-484-7004I-6. From Cosmology toEcology: The Monist World-View inGermany from I770 to I930. By ERIC PAUL JACOBSEN. (German Life and Civilization, 43) Oxford, Bern, Brussels, Frankfurt a.M., New York, and Vienna: Peter Lang. 2005. 40I pp. ?42; SwF 93; E64.20. ISBN 3-039Io-306-7. In the current wave of interest in the connections between scientific thought and literary writing, Gustav Theodor Fechner (I80I-87) has come to be seen as a fas cinating link figure for the German-speaking world. For in his life and his writings he combined a commitment to precise empirical research (he is remembered by ex perimental psychologists for establishing an important principle of visual perception) with speculation on the world of nature in its entirety based on the notion that all matter is in some sense animate (panpsychism). These two dimensions of Fechner's work, which tend to appear in the perspective of later times asworlds apart, were not represented by separate phases of his career, but were pursued in conjunction and evidently viewed by him as integrally connected. While he was teaching physics at Leipzig from I834 to I839 he was also publishing on poetry and its role in achiev ing an integrated view of the world, and during the period when he published his most important speculative writings-Nanna oder Uber das Seelenleben der Pflanzen (i 848), Zend-Avesta oder Uber die Dinge desHimmels unddesJenseits: Vom Standpunkt der Naturbetrachtung (i 85 I)-he continued towrite essays on such specific scientific issues as electro-dynamics and the theory of atoms. The writings of his later years, which include Elemente der Psychophysik (i86o) and Vorschule der Asthetik (I876), show him drawing simultaneously on both parts of his intellectual enquiry. While the speculative side of Fechner's thought was always controversial among scientists and tended to be dismissed as outmoded by the end of the nineteenth century, his writings continued to be widely read in the early twentieth century. Wilhelm Bolsche, Paul Scheerbart, Alfred Doblin, Franz Rosenzweig, and Franz Kafka, as well as Bruno Taut and the architects of the 'Gliserne Kette', all showed a keen interest in Fechner's ideas. The contributions to Fechner und die Folgen auJ3erhalb der Naturwissenschaften, the proceedings of an interdisciplinary colloquium held at the University of Leipzig in 2001, point to several reasons for taking Fechner seriously as a representative of the condition of scientific thinking in his time, as well as in a broader cultural context. Michael Heidelberger demonstrates the empiricist foundations of Fechner's world-view-he held that all physical phenomena, including living organisms, could be accounted for by physical laws-while also explaining the precise senses inwhich Fechner distinguished his position from that of reductive materialism: he argued that additional laws were needed to explain the inherent tendencies of organic phenomena, avoided the attribution of psychic phenomena to physical causes, and proposed instead a functional relationship between the two (this is the basis of the psycho-physical parallelism often associated with his name). Itwas in response toFechner's position, as Heidelberger shows, that such later thinkers as Ernst Mach, Alois Riegl, and Charles Sanders Peirce were able to develop influential intellectual positions of their own. By comparing Fechner's arguments with those of a contemporary, the astrophysicist 892 Reviews and spiritist Karl Friedrich Z6llner, the mathematical expert Riidiger Thiele is able to show how sternly Fechner resisted occult thinking, and in particular the notion of a 'fourth dimension' where spirits might reside; and Dirk Evers explains how Fechner integrates the principles of physics, Romantic nature philosophy, and the Christian precept of divine benevolence into a conception of God as the supreme bond connecting all natural phenomena. In the opening essay of the volume, Gert Mattenklott surveys Fechner's writings as testimony to an integral personality and an integrated project, bringing out in particular the role of metaphor in expressing...

Biogas in agriculture — aged and yet brand new : Wagner, R. Praxis der Naturwissenschaften, Biologie in der Schule, 2002, 51, (2), 24–28. (In German)

Biogas in agriculture — aged and yet brand new : Wagner, R. Praxis der Naturwissenschaften, Biologie in der Schule, 2002, 51, (2), 24–28. (In German)

Biogas from the large kitchen : Frey, P. and Franik, R. Praxis der Naturwissenschaften, Chemie in der Schule, 2002, 51, (2), 12–13. (In German)

Biogas from the large kitchen : Frey, P. and Franik, R. Praxis der Naturwissenschaften, Chemie in der Schule, 2002, 51, (2), 12–13. (In German)

Gustav Magnus und sein Haus: Im Auftrag der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft (review)

Reviewed by: Gustav Magnus und sein Haus: Im Auftrag der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft* Gabriel Finkelstein (bio) Gustav Magnus und sein Haus: Im Auftrag der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft. Edited by Dieter Hoffmann. Stuttgart: Verlag für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1995. Pp. 135. DM 50. Since World War II, experimental physics has entered public consciousness as a large, expensive, technical enterprise. Yet at some point between the cabinets of the eighteenth century and the industries of the twentieth, the laboratory of physics had its start. One place where that occurred was in Berlin, in 1842, at the address Kupfergraben 7, an elegant, two-story house with a slate mansard roof that overlooked an island in the Spree River and gardens beyond. The story of this rococo building and its owner is the subject of the collection of essays under review. In commissioning this volume on its 150th anniversary, the German Physical Society has made a deliberate nod to history. During the cold war, this scientific organization found itself split in two: one part stayed in the East, another moved to the West. That distinction vanished in the wake of German reunification, at least for the organization. With help from the Siemens Corporation, the German Physical Society returned to its roots. It repossessed and refurbished its original home, the Magnus House. Eager to be rid of what had become an eyesore after four decades of Communist neglect, the Berlin Senate supported the takeover. If this was not exactly a changing of the guard, one could call it a changing of the ghosts. But ghosts haunt even in a Festschrift. We discover that the Magnus House served as an institute of Nazi ideology and as an NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) detention center, that the popular ascription of the building’s design to Knobelsdorff is in error, and that Lagrange was thoroughly miserable as a tenant. Gustav Magnus does not come off much better. In the first sentence of the book, editor Dieter Hoffmann feels compelled to inform us that Magnus was a Jew, although this plight, or honor, apparently made no difference to either his science or his career. Magnus does seem to have been a horribly jealous person, though, refusing his colleagues access to his collection of instruments and only grudgingly recognizing his students as independent scientists. All this is told without the least irony. Magnus worked in a variety of scientific fields throughout his life, his best achievements being his investigation of specific heats, his measurement of dissolved blood gases, and his analysis of the aerodynamics of spinning bodies. He also contributed to the development of Prussian technology beyond his own work, serving as a judge at industrial exhibitions and as an adviser in the fields of agricultural chemistry, mining, weights and measures, and technical education. This aspect of his career is mentioned in passing. [End Page 568] More attention is devoted to Magnus’s role as teacher. Perhaps this focus is justified. Most historians remember him for having trained an entire generation of Berlin scientists in the art of physical experiment. The best pieces in the volume cover this part of his life, though they might have made more reference to relevant literature, for example, Wolfgang Schreier and Martin Franke’s history of the Physical Society (in yet another Festschrift commemorating the 150th anniversary of the organization). The essays draw attention to a figure often overlooked. Their quality, however, is uneven at best. Their failure to treat technology is especially regrettable, as it is the thread that runs through most of Magnus’s scientific research. Readers of this journal, therefore, will probably find the book disappointing and may want to refer to traditional accounts by August Wilhem von Hofmann and Hermann von Helmholtz. Gabriel Finkelstein Dr. Finkelstein, a lecturer at UCLA’s Center for Cultural Studies of Science, Technology, and Medicine, recently completed a dissertation on Emil du Bois-Reymond, a student of Magnus’s and the founder of the Berlin Physical Society. Footnotes * Permission to reprint a review published here may be obtained only from the reviewer. Copyright © 1998 Society for the History of Technology

Konzepte von Elektrizitätsversorgung und Elektrizitätswirtschaft: Die Entstehung eines neuen Fachgebietes der Technikwissenschaften zwischen 1880 und 1945 by Norbert Gilson

technology and culture Book Reviews 779 merits, Herrigel also uses interviews with some 166 individuals, but these are hidden in his endnotes. For whatever contingent historical reason, Herrigel knowingly chose his narrative strategy. For a sense of change depending not on the unfolding of different regional logics but rather on contingent choices resulting from conflict, one need only turn to his essay on machine-tool firms in two different industrial orders, in PeterJ. Katzenstein ’s edited volume, Industry and Politics in West Germany: Toward the Third Republic (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1989). Nev­ ertheless, his monograph demonstrates that Germany is best under­ stood in terms of two different kinds of industrial orders that devel­ oped in different regions. As a result, it provides a solid basis for understanding the history of technology and industrial policy in Ger­ many. It also suggests the need to conceive of the strength of the German state in terms of its decentralized structure, which provided a good deal of flexibility. Edmund N. Todd Dr. Todd teaches German history and the history of science and technology at the University of New Haven. Konzepte von Elektrizitatsversorgung und Elektrizitatswirtschaft: Die Entstehung eines neuen Fachgebietes der Technikwissenschaften zwischen 1880 und 1945. By Norbert Gilson. Stuttgart: Verlag fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1994. Pp. 475; maps, figures, tables, appendixes, notes, bibliography, index. DM120.00 (cloth). In this published dissertation, Norbert Gilson deals with the devel­ opment of concepts for the economic analysis of electricity supply in Germany. His exploration is situated in the context of the devel­ opment of specific structures of public electricity supply. The determination ofa utility’s operating cost ofelectrity is rather complicated. This cost varied, depending on the rate of capacity uti­ lization of the power station and of the network. Cost analysis be­ came even more complicated when different types of power stations (hydroelectric power, coal) were interconnected (Verbundbetrieb) in the 1920s and when the economic efficiency of the high-voltage transmission lines also had to be taken into consideration for large networks. Norbert Gilson describes in detail how business and eco­ nomic analyses were anchored in the instruction of electrical engi­ neers. At first, this was done within the framework of the subject ElektrischeAnlagen (Electrical Equipment). From 1925, the Elektrizitatswirtschaftslehre (course of study dealing with the business economics of electricity-producing plants) was established as an autonomous field at some technical universities. At the technical university in 780 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Darmstadt, the most outstanding representative, Ruppert Schnei­ der, set up a research program to find an exact method to determine the prime cost. According to him, a well-grounded system of rates would be possible only on this basis (p. 183). Gilson points out that the Elektrizitatswirtschaftslehrethat had developed since the 1920s was not able to evaluate those electricity supply systems that were practi­ cable from a technical point of view but which were not put into practice. The normative basis was made up of the centralized supply via superpower stations (Grofikraftversogung) and interconnected op­ eration (Verbundwirtschaft) (p. 242). Although Schneider criticized various aspects of this conception (p. 207), the ElektrizitatswirtschaftslekrecRA finally serve as scientific legitimation for the decisions made by the electricity-generating enterprises. The considerations of Georg Klingenberg, director of AEG, in­ spired several concepts in the years 1913 and 1916 for the organiza­ tion of electricity supply in Germany. According to him, generation of electricity should be concentrated in a few interconnected super­ power stations (Verbund). The argument in favor of centralized and large-scale solutions was the lower cost as, e.g., the construction of superpower stations was comparatively cheap and their rates of ca­ pacity utilization were more favorable because of the large supply districts. Gilson traces back with meticulous care how and on the basis of which arguments these concepts were realized. According to him, a powerful pressure group made up ofpolitical institutions, the large-scale electro-industry, and financial capital had advocated centralized supply via superpower stations (Grofihraftversorgung ) (p. 105). Opposition came mainly from the municipal authorities who, apart from preserving their influence on local en­ ergy politics, also wanted to secure their income from the municipal electric-power stations...

Von der semiotischen zur diagnostischen Medizin: Die Entstehung der klinischen Methode zwischen 1750 und 1850 (review)

Reviewed by: Von der semiotischen zur diagnostischen Medizin: Die Entstehung der klinischen Methode zwischen 1750 und 1850 Guenter B. Risse Volker Hess. Von der semiotischen zur diagnostischen Medizin: Die Entstehung der klinischen Methode zwischen 1750 und 1850. Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, no. 66. Husum, Germany: Matthiesen Verlag, 1993. 346 pp. DM 98.00 (paperbound). Diagnosis is a process whereby all sufferers and, especially, those who are designated as healers use their knowledge and past experience to make a series of judgments regarding the nature of the ailment in question. As the author of this most interesting but also narrowly conceived book acknowledges, diagnosis has moved to the center of modern medical action, mediating between patient history, clinical and laboratory information, bedside observation, and therapeutic decision-making. But how did such a complex practice develop? Hess’s thesis is that a critical shift in medical theory and practice occurred in Germany around 1800, transforming the traditional “prediagnostic” semeiology into our modern diagnostic thinking. In his view, the transition was not simply evolutionary, but implied a complete and radical reorientation in medical thought and behavior, including changes in nosology. To “prove” his hypothesis, the author concentrates on developments in Germany—considered an intellectual entity—between 1750 and 1850. He has selected for analysis the writings of a handful of medical authors who published didactic texts or “Lehrbücher.” While somewhat informative, this approach bases its entire conclusions on an old-fashioned history of medical ideas—who said what when—without ever mentioning the cultural and professional contexts that may have been responsible for these constructions. More distressing, perhaps, is the author’s evident lack of interest in comparing and contrasting the postulated German conceptualizations with those occurring simultaneously in Paris, then the center of European medicine. The notion that German physicians rejected the superficiality of the French sensualist approach and focused on the drawbacks of Parisian hospital practice seems somewhat overdrawn. Space allows only a brief sketch of Hess’s main arguments, which begin with an examination of Sydenham’s ideas, including his call for an empirically derived natural history of separate clinical entities. As a reflection of Baconian empiricism, the intention of the English Hippocrates was eminently practical: to improve the description of and distinction among various contemporary disease constructions. Moreover, Sydenham sought to link the most frequent clinical sequences to prevailing epidemic constitutions shaped by environmental factors. The search for pathognomonic signs—distinctive characteristics defining the character of a particular disease—is said to have been adapted from the procedures of seventeenth-century botany. To accomplish such an aim at the clinical [End Page 715] level, practitioners employed a traditional semeiology, embedded in humoralism. This approach focused on patient symptoms and signs, and was primarily designed to provide qualitative information about the ongoing individual dyscrasia and its prognostic implications. From this rather fluid and individualized empirical approach, eighteenth-century physicians sought to obtain greater bedside certainty by redoubling their observational and classificatory efforts, but without any theoretical foundations or guidelines on how to proceed. More clinical observations only provided more data for more complex nosologies (Sauvages and Linné), thus contributing to the confusion. Hess acknowledges the role of prerevolutionary French sensualism in finally providing an ideology designed to frame subsequent clinical observations, but he makes the point that Pinel’s and Cabanis’s nominal nosologies were not designed to shape bedside judgments. In the view of contemporary German authors, nature could not be observed without frameworks derived from some general laws that could channel such perceptions. Efforts linked to the introduction of Brunonianism into Germany before 1800 generated hope that medical knowledge could be brought together in some systematic fashion. 1 The notion of a science of medicine endowed with Kant’s a priori qualities found widespread favor among the medical supporters of Schelling’s Naturphilosophie, including Andreas Röschlaub. 2 A new concept of disease as a well-defined, evolutionary process, with its own particular causal chain responsible for all pathological manifestations, challenged practitioners to construct such entities and identify them through particular diagnoses. Hess argues that thenceforth disease ceased to be just a purely descriptive rendering of signs and symptoms, to become instead an...

Industrieller Maschinenbau im 19. Jahrhundert: Werkstattpraxis und Entwicklung spanabhebender Werkzeugmaschinen im deutschen Maschinenbau, 1870–1914 by Volker Benad-Wagenhoff, and: Maschinen für die Massenfertigung: Die Entwicklung der Drehautomaten bis zum Ende des Ersten Weltkrieges by Jürgen Ruby

848 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE been discussed before. Consequendy, there is no conclusion to this interesting but disorganized and disconnected body of material. Lindy Biggs Dr. Biggs is associate professor of history at Auburn University and author of The Rational Factory: Architecture, Technology, and Work in the Age ofMass Production (Balti­ more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). Industrieller Maschinenbau im 19. Jahrhundert: Werkstattpraxis und Ent­ wicklung spanabhebender Werkzeugmaschinen im deutschen Maschinen­ bau, 1870-1914. By Volker Benad-Wagenhoff. Stuttgart: Verlag fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1993. Pp. xiv+438; illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. DM58.00 (cloth). Maschinen fur die Massenfertigung: Die Entwicklung der Drehautomaten bis zumEnde des Ersten Weltkrieges. ByJurgen Ruby. Stuttgart: Verlag fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1995. Pp. 218; illustrations, figures, notes, bibliography, index. DM60.00 (cloth). Both of these books concentrate on precision machine tools, the heart and soul of mass production. In a brief preface toJurgen Ru­ by’s work, Ulrich Wengenroth rightly points out that American and German scholars alike have concentrated on the evolution of the assembly line while paying only scant attention to the automation of machine tools that made possible the substitution of technology for manual labor. Ruby and Volker Benad-Wagenhoff set out to ad­ dress the development of these hidden machines. Both succeed to some extent. Benad-Wagenhoff sets out the more ambitious project. He ad­ dresses the entire German machine-tool industry from roughly 1870 to 1914, a period of continual change and growth. He criticizes past historians for concentrating too much on great machines and their great inventors. And he is equally critical of social science ap­ proaches that ignore machine functions and production in the his­ tory of technology. Most likely he aims this criticism at the “social construction of technology” school, recently under attack by histori­ ans such as David Hounshell for explaining “everything and noth­ ing” and philosophers of technology such as Langdon Winner for being “conservative.” Benad-Wagenhoff promises a timely and am­ bitious program to reconstruct what he calls “technological human interaction” (p. 2), the assertion and arbitration of human volition in the medium of the factory hall. His use of secondary literature here is poor. As examples of “socio­ logical approaches” the book cites two histories of the machine-tool TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 849 industry from the 1960s. In fact, the author seldom consults litera­ ture more recent than the early 1980s, often no more recent than the 1920s and 1930s (e.g., the work of Conrad MatschoG), and he ignores international scholarship completely. His detailed descrip­ tions bog down in the very format the introduction warns against: one machine follows the next in a parade of invention, spiced only with particular detail about how workers operated their tools. “When the work was finished,” Benad-Wagenhofftells us ofthe drill press, “he [the machinist] turned offthe machine, cleaned the work piece of lubrication and cooling agents and shavings; he loosed the press elements and took the piece from the machine” (p. 155). Is this, then, all that the middle way between the social construction of technological systems and internalist history of invention has to offer? Benad-Wagenhoff’s most interesting conclusions do not stem from his theoretical program but from the book’s analysis of massproduction technique. Benad-Wagenhoffdates a major transition in the metalworking trades beginning around 1895 with the advent of high-speed, precision machine tools. He emphasizes the precision rather than the speed. Contrary to popular conceptions of mass pro­ duction, steam-powered, belt-driven tools could already turn out parts quickly in great numbers, but factories still had to rely upon lengthy and complicated fitting stages in production. New machines around 1895 drove “the human hand from fitting work” (p. 361). The book also notes that machine tools tended toward greater complexity, flexibility, and universality, not toward the single-pur­ pose tools most often associated with the heyday of classic modern production. Only industries with huge markets for uniform products could profit from the higher throughput that specialized machine tools offered. “The application of special machines, then, . . . says something about the conditions of [product] demand but nothing about the modernization of...

Industrialisierung—Begriffe and Prozesse: Festschrift Akos Paulinyi zum 65. Geburtstag ed. by Volker Benad-Wagenhoff

technology and culture Book Reviews 349 of physical problems created difficulties even for Newton when he ventured into fluid mechanics. Maffioli refers briefly to Leonardo da Vinci, and this seems appro­ priate. However, some interesting conclusions could perhaps be achieved by examining fully Leonardo’s manuscripts (avoiding the published anthologies, including Arconati’s, and resorting instead to the originals). It seems unlikely that his notes about the kinemat­ ics and dynamics of air, water, and the “aridi” were exclusively his own creation and did not reflect his intellectual surroundings. Ideas that seem to spring forth for the first time in subsequent centuries probably existed already in a nonmathematized form. For instance, did Leonardo formulate out of nothing the kinematics of incom­ pressible continua in geometrized form, or were there already re­ lated notions floating around him? Was conservation of volume in water flow already understood, in empirical calculations and estima­ tions, much more than it appears to most historians of hydraulics, such as Fasso and Garbrecht? Maffioli shows that hydraulics in Italy remained active and strongly related to physics and technology during a period that seems not well known. During this time, the patronage of its study shifted from one seat of power and intrigue to another, a situation that fostered gradual rather than abrupt advance of hydraulics and its applica­ tions. The author has made good use not only of books and other publications, but also ofan impressive volume of letters and archival documents left by scientists and engineers. The most important role of this book may very well be to demon­ strate that dedication and tenacity, years ofstudy ofall the disciplines involved, and knowledge of the necessary languages and cultures can open the door to the seemingly impossible feat of successfully blending internal and external historical scholarship. Enzo Macagno Dr. Macagno is professor honoris causa of hydraulics at the University of SanJuan, Argentina, and professor emeritus of fluid mechanics at the University of Iowa. Industrialisierung—Begriffe and Prozesse:FestschriftAkos Paulinyi zum 65. Geburtstag. Edited by Volker Benad-Wagenhoff. Stuttgart: Verlag fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1994. Pp. 264; illustrations, tables, notes. DM 35.00. In 1976, Akos Paulinyi was called to the chair for economic history and history of technology at the Technical University of Darmstadt. This Festschrift is dedicated to his efforts to develop concepts for analyzing the process ofindustrialization during the Industrial Revo­ lution. The essays provide approaches ranging from those that merely relate a set of facts to those that set up an abstract analytical 350 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE system with little or no reference to facts. The authors either see the “concepts and processes” referred to in the title as timeless or they attempt to construct them as timelessly true. In this sense, with one or two exceptions these essays form a set. Several authors supply a wealth of detail about various facets of Western industrialization. Walter Endrei investigates the develop­ ment of the punched card (Lochkart) from Joseph Jacquard to Charles Babbage. Hans Jorg Kostler recounts the development of ironworks during the first half of the 19th century in the Karnten section ofAustria. And Michael Mende describes the transfer ofBrit­ ish conceptions of hanging bridges to the Continent during the same time period. A number of other authors go beyond facts but without arguing explicitly that something more is needed. In his discussion of engi­ neering education, Ervin Sziics suggests that scientific thinking de­ scribes and classifies. Since knowledge would then consist of learn­ ing the characteristics of the categories, science is necessarily abstract. Sziics describes an integrated approach to engineering edu­ cation involving the history oftechnology, which would develop cate­ gories that are timelessly true. Several of the authors apply or seek to develop such categories or concepts. Thus Mikulas Teich investi­ gates the process in which the theory of attenuation (Attenuationslehre ) made beer brewing scientific (Verwissenschaftlichung). This is part of his larger study of beer brewing in 19th-century Germany and promotes the idea that engineering moves from a craft stage to a scientific stage of development. Volker Benad-Wagenhoff corrects and expands on Franz Reuleaux’s ideas to develop a universal con­ cept of the machine...

Computer‐Assisted Science Instruction–An Experience in Developing Communities within the South African Context

SUMMARY With regard to the problems related to inadequately qualified black teachers of physical science in South Africa, the Research Institute for Education Planning has started to develop computer software in physical science which may be used by teachers during in‐service training courses. Simulations have been used especially to demonstrate the usage of apparatus. The software can be effectively employed for the purpose of revision exercises, demonstrations and the conducting of experiments. The computer software can be of great benefit in the school as an aid to the teacher, for individualized instruction of pupils, and for the in‐service training of teachers. Auf Grund der Probleme, die sich bei schwarzen Lehrern der Naturwissenschaften in Sudafrika wegen ihrer ungenugenden Ausbildung ergeben, hat das Forschungsinstitut fur Bildungsplanung (Research Institute for Education Planning) damit angefangen, Computer Software fur weiterlaufendes Training von im Dienst stehenden Lehrern zu entwickeln. Dabei...

Training authors to develop educational software through the adaption of foreign software

Until recently, educational software in the F.R.G. was not sufficient, nor of adequate quality to meet the needs of German schools. To overcome this problem, in 1988 an international collaboration was set up between the Institut für die Pädagogik der Naturwissenschaften and the Educational Computing Unit at King's College London to provide training for German authoring teams to evaluate and produce educational software. This collaboration, which has been supported by several of the Lände, the British Council, and the publishers CoMet-Verlag, has resulted in the training of 25 people working in 6 groups, and the production of 10 educational software packages in the first phase and a similar number of software groups and packages with new teams in the second phase. The primary objective is the qualification of educational software authors, the secondary objective is the development of courseware for German-speaking schools. This paper discusses some of the issues and problems identified in the collaboration, and compares the successes of this method of training and software production with methods recommended by other international organisations.

Foreign Physics Education

In an attempt to provide our readers with information on trends in physics teaching outside of the United States, we intend to publish translations of appropriate material. We are indebted to the editors of Fizika v shkole, Praxis der Naturwissenschaften, and Physikalische Blätter for granting their permission to reprint these materials, and to Professors V. G. Drozin and Ira Freeman for the translations. We urge readers who have access to such materials to bring them to our attention.

CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE

As a discipline, the history of science is comparatively young. Although Baden‐Powell's Historical view of the progress of the physical and mathematical sciences from the earliest ages to the present time and Whewell's History of the inductive sciences from the earliest to the present times, both pioneer works in the field, were published in 1834 and 1837 respectively, the history of science as a subject in its own right may be said to have only come into existence in this century. Interest in the history of individual sciences, particularly mathematics and medicine, began much earlier and quite a few periodicals devoted to them were inaugurated during the last century. On the other hand, most of the periodicals dealing with the history of science as a whole were begun during the last two decades and only a few go back to the beginning of this century. The first volume of Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften was published in Leipzig in 1902; Archiv für die Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik followed in 1909, and Rivista di Storia (critica) delle Scienze mediche e naturali in 1910. Isis, originally subtitled Revue consacrée à l'histoire de la science (now An international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences), was founded in 1912 by George Sarton, the first number appearing in March 1913. It began its life in Belgium, but after the invasion of that country moved with its first editor to the United States. Volume 2, begun in June 1914, was completed in September 1919. From the beginning an international review, it changed its ‘editorial language’, as it were, from French to English in 1920, but it continued to publish articles and papers in the main European languages. From the first issue, one of its principal features was a bibliography of the literature of the history of science.

Osiris

VOL. 4, part 2 of Osiris, edited by Dr. G. Sarton, published in 1938, is a monograph on “Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England’, by Robert K. Merton, and its content is defined by the author as “an empirical examination of the genesis and development of some of the cultural values which underly the large-scale pursuit of science”. The “Dictionary of National Biography” has been selected as the source of information of an occupational census and the data subjected to a tabulation process. On the basis of this information a further survey of discoveries based on Darmstaedter's “Handbuch zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und Technik” was compiled. This indicated the particular interests which arose in different times in the period studied. The influence of religious movements such as Puritanism is considered. The influence of external factors is carefully examined. The whole study is very interesting and suggestive in many fields but suffers from the lack of a detailed table of contents, so that the intention of the work is not easy to grasp, and the author's conclusions are not easy to find in the mass of detail. Vol. 5 of Osiris, which now rejoices in a Latin title as Commentationes de scientiarum el eruditionis historia rationeque volumen quintum lulio Ruska oblatum, is dated 1938, and is edited by Dr. Sarton assisted by Dr. Pogo. It contains some interesting and valuable papers on scientific incunabula (to which a recent volume of Osiris was devoted), on Arabic algebra (incidentally, the history of mathematics has occupied a prominent place in the journal so far), on Kopp, the historian of chemistry, on astronomy, on Michael Scot (a subject which has now been about worked to death), on animals in the Bible, and on other subjects. There is a biographical and bibliographical notice of Ruska and a portrait. These two volumes of Osiris maintain the high standard of scholarship of the publication, and are indispensable to students of the history of science.

Das Giftbuch des anq: eine Literaturgeschichtliche Untersuchung

THIS book contains the Arabic text, with an annotated German translation, of the “Book of Poisons” of S £n £q, that is, C £nakya (Chanakya), the minister of King Chandragupta (fourth century B.C.). The Arabic version is not a direct translation of an Indian original, but is rather a compilation from both Indian and Greek sources. It was apparently based on a Persian translation of an Indian “Poison-book of Chanakya” made by an Indian physician, Mankah, of the celebrated hospital at Jundi-Shapur. Mankah also translated other Indian medical books, such as a treatise on the names of drugs, and a medical compendium of Susruta. The Arabic version of the “Poison-book” was made from the Persian by one Ab ¼ H £tim of Balkh, about whom we have no information. It was later re-edited by Al-Abbas ibn Sa’ ed al-Jauhar, who was probably responsible for the introduction of the Greek material. Das Giftbuch des anq: eine Literaturgeschichtliche Untersuchung Von Bettina Strauss. (Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin, Fortsetzung des Archivs für Geschichte der Mathematik, der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, Herausgegeben vom Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, Band 4, Heft 2.) Pp. 64 + 66. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1934.) 15 gold marks.

An Encyclopædia of Natural Science

THE attempt to compress into an encyclopædia of ten volumes our present knowledge of the main facts and theories of the natural sciences is an undertaking ambitious enough to daunt even the most courageous of authors and publishers. The volumes here before us, however, cannot but be received with unstinted praise. They owe their origin to the enterprise of the founder and original proprietor of the publishing house of Gustav Fischer, Jena, who felt that increasing specialisation in the sciences during the last decades had made it difficult for all except those directly connected with university institutions to keep in touch with subjects not involved in their ordinary activities. Moreover, there was the danger that science was tending to be regarded as a heterogeneous sum of unconnected spheres of knowledge and not as a harmonious whole, the gestaltetes Wissen which is so aptly expressed in the German word Wissenschafl. Our interest in the individual leaf must not extinguish our desire to see the whole tree. Handwörterbuch der Naturwissenschaften. Zweite Auflage. Herausgegeben von R. Dittler, G. Joos, E. Korschelt, G. Linck, F. Oltmanns, K. Schaum. Band 1: Abbau—Blut. Pp. x + 1078. 56 gold marks. Band 2: Blütenpflanzen—Dutrochet. Pp. viii + 1172. 61 gold marks. Band 3: Echinoderida—Fette. Pp. vii + 1230. 67 gold marks. Band 4: Fische—Geuther. Pp. viii + 1270. 67 gold marks. Band 5: Gewebe—Kützing. Pp. viii + 1286. 67 gold marks. Band 6:Lacaze-Duthiers—Morison, Robert. Pp. viii + 1134. 61 gold marks. Band 7: Morphologie der Pflanzen—Poisson. Pp. viii + 1140. 61 gold marks. Band 8: Polar-licht—Siemens. Pp. viii + 1248. 67 gold marks. Band 9:Silikate—Transformatoren. Pp. viii + 1158. 61 gold marks. Band 10: Transplantation bei Tieren—Zwillinge und Zwillingsforschung. Pp. viii + 1090. Dazu Sachregister und System-atische Inhaltsübersicht. Pp. 242 + 16. 73 gold marks. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1931–1935.)

Objektive Spektralphotometrie

THIS addition to the well-known “Sammlung Vieweg” monographs is published at a time when considerable attention is being given by spectro-scopists to measurements of spectral intensity. It is for this reason, in the first instance, very welcome. The prestige of its authors in this particular field of work gives it at once considerable value. The many workers who are unable, for various reasons, to acquire first-hand experience of the technique of the school founded by Prof. Ornstein at Utrecht cannot do better than study this book. We are here given precisely the kind of information which anyone desirous of undertaking research in this field would wish to possess. Objektive Spektralphotometrie. Von Dr. L. S. Ornstein Dr. W. J. H. Moll Dr. H. C. Burger. (Sammlung Vieweg: Tagesfragen aus den Gebieten der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, Heft 108–109.) Pp. vi + 146. (Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg und Sohn A.-G., 1932.) 10.80 gold marks.