543
although its value relates purely to society. It is the scientific mode of approach to new knowledge and new avenues of progress--this, the result of a study of science underlying the discovery of cosmic rays. The scientific ideas that came into human thinking through the development of the telescope and the microscope undoubtedly had much to do with the shaking off of the shackles of both religious and political authoritarianism and the establishment of religious, intellectual and political freedom. This paper is one that can be read with profit by almost everyone of average intelligence, and it admirably brings the lofty so-called pure scientific knowledge right down to a practical basis in-so-far as a social value is concerned.
The other two papers on "Superpower Particles" and "The Earth's Magnetic Field and Cosmic-Ray Energies" relate in detail the stages by which the present position in knowledge has been reached, giving accounts of the experimental methods used, illustrated with many cloud chamber photographs as well as with diagrams, tables, and photographs of apparatus. To follow these of course requires a prerequisite of a general scientific training. Both of them take the form somewhat of a narrative which is exceptional in that not only facts and conditions are set forth during the various stages of progress but the direction of future work is indicated, by references to gaps in knowledge revealed, the need for proofs, etc.
The work is an outstanding account of the method employed in this great discovery.