The Origin of Science

Will Durant

William James Durant (1885- 1981), the eminent historian, educator and philosopher was born in North Adams, Massachusetts. He took his masters degree from St. Peters College, New Jersey and doctorate from Columbia University. It was while teaching at the experimental Ferrer Modern School in New York that he met and fell in love with Ariel. Their marriage in 1913 resulted in an enriching companionship not just in the private sphere, but also in the academic realm. Together they wrote eight books including Will and Ariel Durant: A Dual Autobiography which celebrates their love for each other, passion for history and literature, and fascination for the myriad experiences of life. Durant, who was popularly known as the Gentle Philosopher, published his first book, The Story of Philosophy in 1926. The Durants magnum opus, The Story of Civilization a book in 11 volumes, fetched them the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction in 1968. The couple was also awarded the Presidential Medal for Freedom in 1977, the highest civilian honour in the U.S.A. Both Will and Ariel looked at history not as a monotonous chronological record of past wars and political victories and defeats, but as a biography of civilization that would delve deep into the culture, art, philosophy and religion which manifest the dreams and aspirations of all people. The Origin of Science is an extract from The Story of Civilization. In this essay, Durant attempts to trace the origin and development of science and examine the role that science has played in the evolution of human civilization.

In the opinion of Herbert Spencer, science, like letters, began with

priests, originated in astronomic observations, governing religious festivals, and was preserved in the temples and transmitted across the generations as part of the clerical heritage. We cannot say, for here again beginnings elude us, and we may only surmise. Perhaps science, like civilization in general,

began with agriculture; geometry, as its name indicates, was the measurement of the soil; and the calculation of crops and seasons, necessitating the observation of the stars and the construction of a calendar, may have generated astronomy. Navigation advanced astronomy, trade developed mathematics, and the industrial arts laid the base of physics and chemistry. Counting was probably one of the earliest forms of speech, and in many tribes it still presents a relieving simplicity. The Tasmanians counted up to two: Parmery, calabawa, cardia i.e., one, two, plenty; the Guaranis of Brazil adventured further and said: One, two, three, four, innumerable. The New Hollanders had no words for three or four, three they called two-one, four was two-two. Damara natives would not exchange two sheep for four sticks, but willingly exchanged, twice in succession, one sheep for two sticks. Counting was by the fingers; hence the decimal system. When apparently after some time the idea of twelve was reached, the number became a favorite because it was pleasantly divisible by five of the first six digits; and that duodecimal system was born, which obstinately survives in English measurements today: twelve dozen in a gross, twelve inches in a foot. Thirteen, on the other hand, refused to be divided, and became disreputable and unlucky forever. Toes added to fingers created the idea of twenty or a score; the use of this unit in reckoning fingers in the French quatre-vingts (four twenties) for eighty. Other parts of the body served as standards of measurement: a hand for a span, a thumb for an inch (in French the two words are the same), an elbow for a cubit, an arm for an ell, a foot for a foot. At an early date pebbles were added to fingers as an aid in counting; the survival of the abacus, and of the Little stone(calculus) concealed in the word calculate, reveal to us how small, again, is the gap between the simplest and the latest men. Thoreau longed for this primitive simplicity, and well expressed a universally recurrent mood: An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or, in extreme cases he may add his toes, and lump the rest. I say, let our affairs be as two or three, and not as a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. The measurement of time by the movements of the heavenly bodies was probably the beginning of astronomy; the very word measure, like the word month (and perhaps the word man the measurer), goes back apparently to a root denoting the moon. Men measured time by moons long before they counted it by years; the sun, like the father, was a comparatively late

discovery; even today Easter is reckoned according to the phase of the moon. The Polynesians had a calendar of thirteen months, regulated by the moon; when their lunar year diverged too flagrantly from the procession of the seasons they dropped a moon, and the balance was restored. But such sane use of the heavens were exceptional; astrology antedated and perhaps will survive astronomy; simple souls are more interested in telling futures than in telling time. A myriad of superstitions grew up about the influence of the stars upon human character and fate; and many of these superstitions flourish on our own day. Perhaps they are not superstitions, but only another kind of error than science. Natural man formulates no physics, but merely practices it; he cannot plot the path of a projectile, but he can aim an arrow well; he has no chemical symbols, but he knows at a glance which plants are poison and which are food, and uses subtle herbs to heal the ills of the flesh. Perhaps we should employ another gender here, for probably the first doctors were women; not only because they were the natural nurses of the men, nor merely because they made midwifery, rather than venality, the oldest profession, but because their closer connection with the soil gave them a superior knowledge of plants, and enabled them to develop the art of medicine as distinct from the magicmongering of the priests. From the earliest days to a time yet within our memory, it was the woman who healed. Only when the woman failed did the primitive sick resort to the medicine-man. It is astonishing how many cures primitive doctors effected despite their theories of disease. To these simple people disease seemed to be possession of the body by an alien power or spirit a conception not essentially different from the germ theory which pervades medicine today. The most popular method of cure was by some magic incantation that would propitiate the evil spirit or drive it away. How perennial this form of therapy is may be seen in the story of the Gadarene swine. Even now epilepsy is regarded by many as a possession; some contemporary religions prescribe forms of exorcism for banishing disease, and prayer is recognized by most living people as an aid to pills and drugs. Perhaps the primitive practice was based, as much as the most modern, on the healing power of suggestion. The tricks of these early doctors were more dramatic than those of their more civilized successors; they tried to scare off possessing demon by assuming terrifying masks, covering themselves with the skins of animals, shouting, raving, slapping their hands, shaking rattles, and sucking the demon out through a

hollow tube; as an old adage put it, Nature cures the disease while the remedy amuses the patient. The Brazilian Bororos carried the science to a higher stage by having the father take the medicine in order to cure the sick child; almost invariably the child got well. Along with medicative herbs we find the vast pharmacopoeia of primitive man an assortment of soporific drugs calculated to ease pain or to facilitate operations. Poisons like curare (used so frequently on the tips of arrows), and drugs like hemp, opium and eucalyptus are older than history; one of our most popular anesthetics goes back to the Peruvian use of coca for this purpose. Cartier tells how the Iroquois cured scurvy with the bark and leaves of the hemlock spruce. Primitive surgery knew a variety of operations and instruments. Childbirth was well managed; fractures and wounds were ably set and dressed. By means of obsidian knives, or sharpened flints, or fishes teeth, blood was let, abscesses were drained, and tissues were sacrificed. Trephining of the skull was practised by primitive medicine-men from the ancient Peruvian Indians to the modern Melanesians; the latter averaged nine successes out of every ten operations, while in 1786 the same operation was invariably fatal at the Hotel Dieu in Paris. We smile at primitive ignorance while we submit anxiously to the expensive therapeutics of our own day. As Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, after a lifetime of healing: There is nothing men will not do, there is nothing they have not done, to recover their health and save their lives. They have submitted to be halfdowned in water and half-choked with gases, to be buried up to their chins in earth, to be seared with hot irons like galley-slaves, to be crimped with knives like codfish, to have needles thrust into their flesh, and bonfires kindled on their skin, to swallow all sorts of abominations, and to pay for all this as if to be singed and scalded were a costly privilege, as if blisters were a blessing and leeches a luxury.

Explanatory Notes:
Herbert Spencer : (1820-1903) The English philosopher who gave up his career as a railway engineer to devote himself to philosophical studies and writing. The people of Tasmania, the smallest Australian state. : a South American Indian tribe who occupied an area now included in Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. It is interesting to note that though they are very small in number, their language still persists. New Holland was a historic name for the island continent of Australia, especially its western part. a native of Damaraland, a region in central southwest Africa a method of computing by twelves, instead of by tens. When The Story of Civilization was published, the English were following the duodecimal system. But later they switched over to the decimal system, though reluctantly. ancient measure of length, approximately the length of a forearm.

Tasmanians

Guaranis

New Hollanders

Damara

Duodecimal system

English measurements

Cubit

Ell

45 inches or 1.114 meters. It originally meant an arms length. This measurement is very rarely used these days. Henry David Thoreau (1817-62) American writer, transcendental philosopher and naturalist whose book Walden relates his experiences of living close to nature. He firmly believed that an intimate understanding of nature helped men lead wholesome lives. add together. Brown-skinned people of Malay stock, who occupy the islands in the Central and Southeast Pacific. Micronesia and Melanesia are the other two island groups in the Pacific.

Thoreau

Lump (lump together) The Polynesians

: :

Projectile

object to be fired, especially by rocket.

Midwifery Venality Incantation Propitiate Gadarene

: : : : : of

Training to assist at childbirth. bribery and corruption spell, charm. appease. Gadara, an ancient city in Palestine. The story of Gadarene swine appears in St. Matthew. V111, 28.

The reference is to how Jesus healed the two demon-possessed men of Gadara, by casting the demons out and then sending them into the herd of pigs. Rattles Adage Brazilian Bororos : : : short, sharp sounds. proverb. The tribes who live in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. the official book describing medicines, their combinations and doses. Soporific; sleep-inducing Curare : a common name for arrow poisons used by some tribes in South America. Hemp : herbaceous plant from which a narcotic drug is made. inhabitant of Peru, the third largest country in South America. Jacques Cartier (1491 1557), the French explorer, who undertook many successful voyages to Canada and North America. North American Indian tribe Disease resulting from deficiency of Vitamin C. the

Pharmacopoeia

Peruvian

Cartier

Iroquois Scurvy

: :

Hemlock spruce

the light softwood of hemlock tree

Obsidian Trephining

: :

a type of dark glass-like rock using a cylindrical saw for removing a piece of bone from the skull, to relieve pressure. People of Melanesia, a group of islands in the Pacific. the name of the oldest hospital in France and the top casualty centre to deal with emergencies. the branch of medicine concerned with cures and remedies. (1809-94): American physician, writer and humorist, who taught at Harvard University. His article on Puerperal fever is considered the first major contribution to medicine by an American. scorched press into small folds. detestable matters.

Melanesians

Hotel Dieu

Therapeutics

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Seared Crimp Abominations

: : :

Questions
A. Answer the questions given below, choosing the right option:

1. Which philosopher stated that science originated in astronomic observations? a. b. c. d. Edmund Spenser. Herbert Spencer. Stephen Spender. Jacques Cartier.

2. Which of the following words go back to a root denoting the moon? a. Measure. b. Man. c. Month. d. All of these. 3. Thoreau, the well-known American philosopher, was an advocate of
a. Modern medicines. b. Life in big cities. c. Modern science. d. Return to nature.

4. The belief of some tribes that diseases stemmed from the possession of the body by an alien power or spirit is closer to a. b. c. d. Black Magic. Superstitions. Germ Theory. All of these.

5. In which society was the father asked to take medicines in order to cure his sick child? a. b. c. d. Iroquois. Polynesians. Bororos. Melanesians.

B. Answer each of the following in a sentence or two. 1. 2. What surmise does Durant make about the beginning of astronomy? What are the points that Durant brings in to support his observation the first doctors were probably women? that

3.

Why does Durant say that natural man formulates no Physics, but merely practices it?

C. Answer each of the following in about 100 words.

1. 2. 3.

What does Durant say about the origin of astronomy? Give a brief account of the origin of mathematics. How did the primitive doctors approach disease

D. Answer each of the following in about 300 words.

1. 2.

What does Will Durant say about the origin of science? What are Durants observations on ancient medicine and surgery?