"Charles Singer and "A History of Technology

THIS ISSUE OF Technology and Culture is devoted wholly to critical analyses of the five-volume A History of Technology, edited by Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall, and Trevor I. Williams. Dr. Singer's introductory article to this review issue, telling how and why A History of Technology came into being, was the last article to issue from his pen. In mid-May we received a letter from Dr. Singer in which he explained that he had his introductory article half written, but that he had been delayed by illness and was starting work on it again. A month later word reached us of the death of Dr. Singer at his home in Cornwall, England in his eighty-fourth year; in the interval he had finished the manuscript which appears in this issue. Charles Singer's entire life was dedicated to scholarship, and he achieved outstanding recognition as a pioneer in three related fields: the history of medicine, the history of science, and the history of technology. Starting his career as a physician, his historical bent soon manifested itself, and there began that remarkable series of publications in the history of biology and of medicine which established Dr. Singer as a scholar of the first rank. The value of his contribution can be

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