Fabulous Science: Fact and Fiction in the History of Scientific Discovery

320 Pages·2002·2.58 MB·english

by  Waller

Fabulous science

Fabulous science
Fact and fiction in the history of scientific discovery
John Waller
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX26DP
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
and an associated company in Berlin
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© John Waller 2002
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 0‒19‒280404‒9
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by Footnote Graphics, Warminster, Wilts
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
T.J. International Limited
Padstow, Cornwall
To my parents, with all my love

Contents
List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: What is history for? 1
Part 1: Right for the wrong reasons 10
1 The pasteurization of spontaneous generation 14
2 ‘The battle over the electron’ 22
3 The eclipse of Isaac Newton: Arthur Eddington’s
‘proof’ of general relativity 48
4 Very unscientific management 64
5 The Hawthorne studies: finding what you are
looking for 78
Conclusion to Part 1: Sins against science? 99
Part 2: Telling science as it was 108
6 Myth in the time of cholera 114
7 ‘The Priest who held the key’: Gregor Mendel
and the ratios of fact and fiction 132
8 Was Joseph Lister Mr Clean? 160
9 The Origin of Speciesby means of use-inheritance 176
10 ‘A is for ape, B is for Bible’: science, religion, and
melodrama 204
11 Painting yourself into a corner: Charles Best and
the discovery of insulin 222
12 Alexander Fleming’s dirty dishes 246
13 ‘A decoy of Satan’ 268
Conclusion to Part 2: Sins against history? 284
Notes on sources 296
Index 302
vii
illustrations
The ‘dauntless three’ guard the bridge over the Tiber. (Engraving by George
Scharf Jr, from Thomas Babington Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome, London,
1867.) xii
Louis Pasteur (1822–95) in his laboratory. (Engraving after Paul Edelfelt’s 1885
painting, courtesy of the Wellcome History of Medicine Library.) 14
Pasteur’s famous swan-necked flasks. (From Oeuvres de Pasteur, Vol. 2, Paris,
1922.) 21
Robert A. Millikan (1868–1953). (The Archives, California Institute of
Technology.) 32
Millikan’s oil-drop experimental apparatus. (The Archives, California Institute
of Technology.) 38
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944). (Royal Astronomical Society.) 48
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915). (Photograph courtesy of the F. W.
Taylor Collections, S. C. Williams Library, Stevens Institute of Technology.)
64
Fritz J. Roethlisberger (1898–1974). (Photograph courtesy of the Historical
Collections Department, Baker Library, Harvard Business School.) 78
John Snow (1813–58). (Photograph courtesy of The Wellcome Trust Library.)
114
Detail of John Snow’s spot map of the Broad Street Pump area. (From a map in
Snow’s On the Mode and Communication of Cholera, London, 1855.) 118
Gregor Mendel (1823–84). (Photogravure courtesy of The Wellcome Trust
Library.) 132
A typical Punnet Square. 139
Joseph Lister, first Baron Lister of Lyme Regis (1827–1912). (By Barraud’s Ltd,
courtesy of The Wellcome Trust Library.) 160
An operation using Lister’s carbolic-acid spray. (Engraving from William Watson
Cheyne’s Antiseptic Surgery: Its Principles, Practice, History, and Results, London,
1882.) 170
Charles Darwin (1809–82). (Photograph by his son Leonard Darwin, courtesy of
The Wellcome Trust Library.) 176
William Thomson, first Baron Kelvin of Largs (1824–1907). (Lithograph by
T. H. Maguire, 1849, courtesy of The Wellcome Trust Library.) 199
viii
list of illustrations
Thomas H. Huxley (1825–95) lecturing on the gorilla. (Photograph by Cundall,
Downes & Co. of London, courtesy of The Wellcome Trust Library.) Samuel
Wilberforce (1805–73), Bishop of Oxford. (Photograph by Julia Margaret
Cameron, courtesy of The Wellcome Trust Library.) 204
Charles Herbert Best (1899–1978). (Photograph courtesy of The Wellcome Trust
Library.) 222
Frederick Banting (1891–1941) in his laboratory. (Photograph courtesy of The
Wellcome Trust Library.) 227
Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) examining a Petri dish. (Alexander Fleming
Laboratory Museum, St Mary’s NHS Trust.) 246
Sir James Young Simpson (1811–70). (Wood engraving, courtesy of The
Wellcome Trust Library.) 268
ix