Abstract
THIS encyclopædia is stated to cover the basic sciences of chemistry, physics, mineralogy, geology, botany, astronomy, and mathematics and the applied sciences of navigation, aeronautics and medicine and the three branches of engineering, civil, mechanical and electrical. To do this, oven when as many as 10,000 separate articles, each of between 100 and 1,000 words, are allowed, necessitates a good deal of selection, abbreviation and omission. The authors and publishers plead, in the preface, for indulgence for such omissions; they write: “The exercise of judgement in the selection of material was unavoidable and it was necessary to maintain a limit of difficulty beyond which it was impracticable to go in attempting to cover so broad a field within the physical confines of one useful volume.” To grant this indulgence seems but just.
Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia
Pp. v + 234. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1938.) 50s. net.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
L., H. Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia. Nature 142, 853–854 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142853a0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142853a0
- Springer Nature Limited