Detective Rummage Investigates

It is very ego-warming to be recognized by quotation. Ever since this first happened to me, I always consult books of quotations to see if I appear there and, of course, I am always looking for opportunities to create epigrams that might appear in future collections. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to trace their source. I recently received an inquiry from an editor who wanted to use a quotation attributed to me in a publication and asked if I knew where it had first appeared. I thought I recalled being the author of the quotation--"Progress in science depends on new techniques, new discoveries, and new ideas, probably in that order"--but could not recollect where or when I had said it. However, I believed I knew how to track it down because I remembered it was quoted in Alan Mackay's collection A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations. This referred to Nature, May ...