Robert Recorde

Abstract

THE reference to the (probably) unique record of a great Welsh man of science in the Notes columns of NATURE (November 2) well illustrates the uncertainty of the data of (even scientific) fame, and the subtle comparison of the latter to the river which submerges merit and floats mediocrity to its destination. It may now be well affirmed that the writer of the Notes paragraph, or the correspondent of the Western Mail, or Mr. Arthur Mee in his luminous appreciation in the Nationalist of May, 1909, or even the myriad-minded Mr. Lloyd George himself, has done far less than full justice to the achievements of Robert Recorde. Nor has any of them duly underscored the fact that he was a member of our medical profession (M.D. Cantab.), in an age, too, in which the pioneers of the “advancement of science” were mostly disciples of Æsculapius. Accordingly, inquiring readers may well be reminded that Robert Recorde scored a unique series of “firsts” in the very generation in which England tore off the swaddling-clothes of “authority” and stepped boldly forward to grasp the banner of intellectual empire (1510–58), and which exactly preceded that of Francis Bacon, the so called “Father of Modern Philosophy,” of which he knew so much less than little, but regarding the probable value of which he preached with something resembling prophetic inspiration.