The World's Greatest Books — Volume 15 — Science

This volume captures science at a pivotal moment, just years before Darwin would revolutionize our understanding of life. Published in 1851, it gathers the foundational works of figures who defined Victorian-era scientific thought: Darwin's early explorations of the natural world, Cuvier's pioneering paleontology, Harvey's revolutionary discovery of blood circulation, and others who mapped the boundaries of known reality. The book opens with an extensive examination of hypnotism by John Milne Bramwell, tracing its evolution from Franz Anton Mesmer's controversial theories through John Elliotson and James Braid's more rigorous investigations. Here you will find the era's most ambitious attempts to understand the mind, the body, and the deep history of the earth itself. These pages reveal a scientific community in transition, still wrestling with older ideas while racing toward new discoveries. For readers curious about where modern science came from, this anthology offers a vivid snapshot of knowledge on the verge of transformation.