HENRY COPLEY GREEN’s scientific contributions

In an introduction L. J. Henderson reminds us that the discoverer of natural knowledge by the abstract character of his researches has his individuality obliterated and by the rational form of his conclusions his methods concealed, so that the young student has great obstacles which really keep him from gaining a true understanding of the art of research and of the inevitable conditions and limitations of scientific discovery. This book is therefore considered one of the most important of documents for the young worker, particularly of the biological sciences; for it makes it possible not only to see Claude Bernard at work, but even "to discover his purposes and his feelings." A short account of Claude Bernard's life by Paul Bert, dated Paris, February 12th, 1878, prefaces the main work. This is divided into three parts. The first is entitled Experimental Reasoning. The opening chapter is on Observation and Experiment, and concerns the distinction between sciences called "sciences of observation" and sciences called "experimental." Chapter 2 bears the heading The A Priori Idea and Doubt in Experimental Reasoning. Part II of the volume is on experimentation with living beings, while Part III deals with the applications of the experimental methods to the study of vital phenomena. The book is a mixture of profound logic, scientific methodology, and the psychology of observation, and thinking. For illustrative content it makes use of physiological and pathological material. "I believe in a word, that the true scientific method confines the mind without suffocating it, leaves it as far as possible face to face with itself, and guides it, while respecting the creative originality and the spontaneity which are its most precious qualities." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)