Category: History - Other
MY DEAR HERSCHEL, IT is with no common pleasure that I take up my pen to dedicate these volumes to you. They are the result of trains of thought which have often been the subject of our conversation, and of which the origin goes back to the period of our early companionship at...
MY DEAR HERSCHEL, IT is with no common pleasure that I take up my pen to dedicate these volumes to you. They are the result of trains of thought which have often been the subjec...
3. BOOK I.4. CHAPTER I.--PRELUDE TO THE GREEK SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY.5. CHAPTER II.--THE GREEK SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY._Sect._ 1. The General Foundation of the Greek School Philosophy. 63 _Sect._ 2. The Aristotelian Physical Philosophy. 67 _Sect._ 3. Technical Forms of the Greek Schools. 73 1. T...
6. CHAPTER III.--FAILURE OF THE PHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEK7. BOOK II.8. CHAPTER I.--EARLIEST STAGES OF ASTRONOMY._Sect._ 1. Formation of the Notion of a Year. 112 _Sect._ 2. Fixation of the Civil Year. 113 _Sect._ 3. Correction of the Civil Year (Julian Calendar). 117 _Sect._ 4. Attempts a...
9. CHAPTER III.--INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF HIPPARCHUS._Sect._ 1. Establishment of the Theory of Epicycles and Eccentrics. 145 _Sect._ 2. Estimate of the Value of the Theory of Eccentrics and Epicycles. 151 _Sect._ 3. Discovery of t...
10. CHAPTER IV.--SEQUEL TO THE INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF HIPPARCHUS._Sect._ 1. Researches which verified the Theory. 157 _Sect._ 2. Researches which did not verify the Theory. 159 _Sect._ 3. Methods of Observation of the Greek Astronomers. 161 _...
11. BOOK IV.12. CHAPTER I.--ON THE INDISTINCTNESS OF IDEAS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.1. Collections of Opinions. 187 2. Indistinctness of Ideas in Mechanics. 188 3. " " shown in Architecture. 191 4. " " in Astronomy. 192 5. " " shown by Skeptics. 192 6. Neglect...
13. CHAPTER II.--THE COMMENTATORIAL SPIRIT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 2011. Natural Bias to Authority. 202 2. Character of Commentators. 204 3. Greek Commentators of Aristotle. 205 {16} 4. Greek Commentators of Plato and Others. 207 5. Arabian Commen...
14. CHAPTER III.--OF THE MYSTICISM OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 21115. CHAPTER IV.--OF THE DOGMATISM OF THE STATIONARY PERIOD.1. Origin of the Scholastic Philosophy. 228 2. Scholastic Dogmas. 230 3. Scholastic Physics. 235 4. Authority of Aristotle among the Schoolmen. 236 5. Subjects omitted. Civil La...
16. CHAPTER V.--PROGRESS OF THE ARTS IN THE MIDDLE AGES.1. Art and Science. 239 2. Arabian Science. 242 3. Experimental Philosophy of the Arabians. 243 4. Roger Bacon. 245 5. Architecture of the Middle Ages. 246 6. Treatises on Archi...
17. BOOK V.18. CHAPTER III--SEQUEL TO COPERNICUS. THE RECEPTION AND DEVELOPMENT_Sect._ 1. First Reception of the Copernican Theory. 269 _Sect._ 2. Diffusion of the Copernican Theory. 272 _Sect._ 3. The Heliocentric Theory confirmed by Facts. Galileo's Astr...
19. CHAPTER IV.--INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF KEPLER.20. CHAPTER V.--SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF KEPLER. RECEPTION, VERIFICATION,21. CHAPTER I.--PRELUDE TO THE EPOCH OF GALILEO._Sect._ 1. Prelude to the Science of Statics. 312 _Sect._ 2. Revival of the Scientific Idea of Pressure. --Stevinus.--Equilibrium of Oblique Forces. 316 _Sect._ 3. Prelude to th...
22. CHAPTER II.--INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF GALILEO.--DISCOVERY OF THE LAWS OF_Sect._ 1. Establishment of the First Law of Motion. 322 _Sect._ 2. Formation and Application of the Motion of Accelerating Force. Laws of Falling Bodies. 324 _Sect._ 3. Establi...
23. CHAPTER IV.--DISCOVERY OF THE MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES OF FLUIDS.24. CHAPTER V.--GENERALIZATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF MECHANICS.25. CHAPTER VI.--SEQUEL TO THE GENERALIZATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF1. Geometrical Mechanics.--Newton, &c. 363 2. Analytical Mechanics.--Euler. 363 3. Mechanical Problems. 364 4. D'Alembert's Principle. 365 5. Motion in Resisting Media.--Ballist...
26. CHAPTER II.--THE INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF NEWTON.--DISCOVERY OF THE1. Sun's Force on Different Planets. 399 2. Force in Different Points of an Orbit. 400 3. Moon's Gravity to the Earth. 402 4. Mutual Attraction of all the Celestial Bodies. 406...
27. CHAPTER III.--SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON.--RECEPTION OF THE28. CHAPTER IV.--SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON, CONTINUED. VERIFICATION_Sect._ 1. Division of the Subject. 433 _Sect._ 2. Application of the Newtonian Theory to the Moon. 434 _Sect._ 3. " " " " Planets, Satellites, and Earth. 438 _Sect._ 4. Applica...
29. CHAPTER V.--DISCOVERIES ADDED TO THE NEWTONIAN THEORY._Sect._ 1. Tables of Astronomical Refraction. 462 _Sect._ 2. Discovery of the Velocity of Light.--Römer. 463 {20} _Sect._ 3. Discovery of Aberration.--Bradley. 464 _Sect._ 4. Di...
30. CHAPTER VI.--THE INSTRUMENTS AND AIDS OF ASTRONOMY DURING THE31. BOOK I.--THE GREEK SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY.32. BOOK III.--THE GREEK ASTRONOMY.33. BOOK IV.--PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.34. BOOK V.--FORMAL ASTRONOMY.35. BOOK VI.--MECHANICS.36. BOOK VII.--PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY.Tables of the Moon and Planets. 550 The Discovery of Neptune. 554 The Minor Planets. 557 Anomalies in the Action of Gravitation. 560 The Earth's Density. 561 Tides. 562 Double S...
37. book xi. ch. 6._Stationary Periods_.--By the lines of such maps the real advance of science is depicted, and nothing else. But there are several occurrences of other kinds, too interesting and...
38. BOOK I.Whence came their voyage? them what peril held With adamantine rivets firmly bound? * * * * * * But soon as on the vessel's bow The anchor was hung up, Then took the Leader on t...
39. BOOK I.40. CHAPTER I.AT an early period of history there appeared in men a propensity to pursue speculative inquiries concerning the various parts and properties of the material world. What they saw...
41. CHAPTER II.THE physical philosophy of the Greek Schools was formed by looking at the material world through the medium of that common language which men employ to answer the common occasio...
42. CHAPTER III.THE methods and forms of philosophizing which we have described as employed by the Greek Schools, failed altogether in their application to physics. No discovery of general laws...
43. BOOK II.I brought to earth the spark of heavenly fire, Concealed at first, and small, but spreading soon Among the sons of men, and burning on, Teacher of art and use, and fount of power.
44. CHAPTER I.ASTRONOMY is a science so ancient that we can hardly ascend to a period when it did not exist; Mechanics, on the other hand, is a science which did not begin to be till after th...
45. CHAPTER II.THE progress made by the ancients in Optics was nearly proportional to that which they made in Statics. As they discovered the true grounds of the doctrine of Equilibrium, witho...
46. CHAPTER III.AMONG the ancients, the science of Music was an application of Arithmetic, as Optics and Mechanics were of Geometry. The story which is told concerning the origin of their arith...
47. BOOK III.Nor should any Greek have any misgiving of this kind; that it is not fitting for us to inquire narrowly into the operations of Superior Powers, such as those by which the motion...
48. CHAPTER I.THE notion of a _Day_ is early and obviously impressed upon man in almost any condition in which we can imagine him. The recurrence of light and darkness, of comparative warmth...
49. CHAPTER II.WITHOUT pretending that we have exhausted the consequences of the elementary discoveries which we have enumerated, we now proceed to consider the nature and circumstances of the...
50. CHAPTER III.ALTHOUGH, as we have already seen, at the time of Plato, the Idea of Epicycles had been suggested, and the problem of its general application proposed, and solutions of this pro...
51. CHAPTER IV.THE discovery of the leading Laws of the Solar and Lunar Motions, and the detection of the Precession, may be considered as the great positive steps in the Hipparchian astronomy...
52. BOOK IV.In vain, in vain! the all-composing hour Resistless falls . . . . . . . . . As one by one, at dread Medea's strain, The sickening stars fade off th' ethereal plain; As Argus' ey...
53. CHAPTER I.THAT firm and entire possession of certain clear and distinct general ideas which is necessary to sound science, was the character of the minds of those among the ancients who c...
54. did. Under their hands, the pediment was severed at its vertex, anddivided into separate halves, so that it was no longer a mechanical possibility. The entablature no longer lay straight from pillar to pillar, but, projecting over each {192} co...
55. CHAPTER II.WE have already noticed, that, after the first great achievements of the founders of sound speculation, in the different departments of human knowledge, had attracted the intere...
56. CHAPTER III.IT has been already several times hinted, that a new and peculiar element was introduced into the Greek philosophy which occupied the attention of the Alexandrian school; and th...
57. CHAPTER IV.IN speaking of the character of the age of commentators, we noticed principally the ingenious servility which it displays;--the acuteness with which it finds ground for speculat...
58. CHAPTER V.ART AND SCIENCE.--I shall, before I resume the history of science, say a few words on the subject described in the title of this chapter, both because I might otherwise be accus...
59. BOOK V.. . . Cyclopum educta caminis Mœnia conspicio, atque adverso fornice portas. . . . . . His demum exactis, perfecto munere Divæ, Devenere locos lætos et amœna vireta Fortunatorum...
60. CHAPTER I.THE Doctrine of Copernicus, that the Sun is the true centre of the celestial motions, depends primarily upon the consideration that such a supposition explains very simply and c...
61. CHAPTER II.IT will be recollected that the _formal_ are opposed to the _physical_ grounds of a theory; the former term indicating that it gives a satisfactory account of the relations of t...
62. CHAPTER III.THE theories of Copernicus made their way among astronomers, in the manner in which true astronomical theories always obtain the assent of competent judges. They led to the cons...
63. CHAPTER IV.SEVERAL persons,[30\5] especially in recent times, who have taken a view of the discoveries of Kepler, appear to have been surprised and somewhat discontented that conjectures,...
64. CHAPTER V.THE extension of Kepler's discoveries concerning the orbit of Mars to the other planets, obviously offered itself as a strong probability, and was confirmed by trial. This was m...
65. BOOK VI.WE enter now upon a new region of the human mind. In passing from Astronomy to Mechanics we make a transition from the _formal_ to the _physical_ sciences;--from time and space...
66. CHAPTER I.SOME steps in the science of Motion, or rather in the science of Equilibrium, had been made by the ancients, as we have seen. Archimedes established satisfactorily the doctrine...
67. CHAPTER II.AFTER mathematicians had begun to doubt or reject the authority of Aristotle, they were still some time in coming to the conclusion, that the distinction of Natural and Violent...
68. CHAPTER III.THE evidence on which Galileo rested the truth of the Laws of Motion which he asserted, was, as we have seen, the simplicity of the laws themselves, and the agreement of their c...
69. CHAPTER IV.WE have already said, that the true laws of the equilibrium of fluids were discovered by Archimedes, and rediscovered by Galileo and Stevinus; the intermediate time having been...
70. CHAPTER V.THE Second Law of Motion being proved for constant Forces which act in parallel lines, and the Third Law for the Direct Action of bodies, it still required great mathematical ta...
71. CHAPTER VI.WE have now finished the history of the discovery of Mechanical Principles, strictly so called. The three Laws of Motion, generalized in the manner we have described, contain th...
72. BOOK VII.DESCEND from heaven, Urania, by that name If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing. The meanin...
73. CHAPTER I.WE have now to contemplate the last and most splendid period of the progress of Astronomy;--the grand completion of the history of the most ancient and prosperous province of hu...
74. CHAPTER II.IN order that we may the more clearly consider the bearing of this, the greatest scientific discovery ever made, we shall resolve it into the partial propositions of which it co...
75. CHAPTER III.THE doctrine of universal gravitation, like other great steps in science, required a certain time to make its way into men's minds; and had to be confirmed, illustrated, and com...
76. CHAPTER IV.THE verification of the Law of Universal Gravitation as the governing principle of all cosmical phenomena, led, as we have already stated, to a number of different lines of rese...
77. CHAPTER V.WE have travelled over an immense field of astronomical and mathematical labor in the last few pages, and have yet, at the end of every step, still found ourselves under the jur...
78. CHAPTER VI.SOME instruments or other were employed at all periods of astronomical observation. But it was only when observation had attained a considerable degree of delicacy, that the exa...
79. CHAPTER II.IN speaking of the Foundation of the Greek School Philosophy, I have referred to the dialogue entitled _Parmenides_, commonly ascribed to Plato. And the doctrines ascribed to Pa...
80. CHAPTER III.THOUGH we do not accept, as authority, even the judgments of Francis Bacon, and shall have to estimate the strong and the weak parts of his, no less than of other philosophies,...
81. BOOK II.ALTHOUGH a great portion of the physical speculations of the Greek philosophers was fanciful, and consisted of doctrines which were rejected in the subsequent progress of the In...
82. BOOK III.THE mathematical opinions of Plato respecting the philosophy of nature, and especially respecting what we commonly call "the heavenly bodies," the Sun, Moon, and Planets, were f...
83. CHAPTER I.THERE are parts of Plato's writings which have been adduced as bearing upon the subsequent progress of science; and especially upon the globular form of the earth, and the other...
84. BOOK IV.IN the twelfth Book of the _Philosophy_, in which I have given a Review of Opinions on the Nature of Knowledge and the method of seeking it, I have given some account of several...
85. CHAPTER V.AQUINAS wrote (besides the _Summa_ mentioned in the text) a Commentary on the Physics of Aristotle: _Commentaria in Aristotelis Libros Physicorum_, Venice, 1492. This work is of...
86. Part IV. On the Usefulness of Mathematics.(1.) The Necessity of Mathematics in Human Things (published separately as the _Specula Mathematica_). (2.) The Necessity of Mathematics in Divine Things.--1°. This study has oc...
87. Part V. On Perspective (published separately as _Perspectiva_).88. Part VI. On Experimental Science."One of the first points to be noticed for this purpose, is the resistance to authority; and at the stage of philosophical history with which we here have to do, this means resi...
89. CHAPTER I.I WILL quote the passage, in the writings of this author, which bears upon the subject in question. I translate it from the edition of his book _De Docta Ignorantia_, from his w...
90. CHAPTER II.I HAVE said, in page 264, that a confusion of mind produced by the double reference of motion to absolute space, and to a centre of revolution, often leads persons to dispute wh...
91. CHAPTER III.PROFESSOR DE MORGAN has made numerous and interesting contributions to the history of the progress and reception of the Copernican System. These are given mainly in the _Compani...
92. CHAPTER III.IN the text, page 372, I have stated that Lagrange, near the end of his life, expressed his sorrow that the methods of approximation employed in Physical Astronomy rested on arb...
93. CHAPTER I.EXPRESSIONS in ancient writers which may be interpreted as indicating a notion of gravitation in the Newtonian sense, no doubt occur. But such a notion, we may be sure, must hav...
94. CHAPTER III.LORD BROUGHAM has very recently (_Analytical View of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia_, 1855) shown a strong disposition still to maintain, what he says has frequently been alleged,...
95. CHAPTER IV.THE Newtonian discovery of Universal Gravitation, so remarkable in other respects, is also remarkable as exemplifying the immense extent to which the verification of a great tru...
96. CHAPTER VI.IN page 473, I have described the manner in which astronomers are able to observe the transit of a star, and other astronomical phenomena, to the exactness of a tenth of a secon...
97. VOLUME II.98. VOLUME II.99. BOOK IX.100. CHAPTER XI.--EPOCH OF YOUNG AND FRESNEL._Sect._ 1. Introduction. 92 _Sect._ 2. Explanation of the Periodical Colors of Thin Plates and Shadows by the Undulatory Theory. 93 _Sect._ 3. Explanation of Double Refraction b...
101. CHAPTER XIII.--CONFIRMATION AND EXTENSION OF THE UNDULATORY1. Double Refraction of Compressed Glass. 119 2. Circular Polarization. 119 3. Elliptical Polarization in Quartz. 122 4. Differential Equations of Elliptical Polarization. 122 5...
102. CHAPTER I.--THE DOCTRINES OF CONDUCTION AND RADIATION._Sect._ 1. Introduction of the Doctrine of Conduction. 139 _Sect._ 2. " " " Radiation. 142 _Sect._ 3. Verification of the Doctrines of Conduction and Radiation. 143 _Sect._ 4. T...
103. CHAPTER II.--THE LAWS OF CHANGES OCCASIONED BY HEAT.104. CHAPTER III.--THE RELATION OF VAPOR AND AIR._Sect._ 1. The Boylean Law of the Air's Elasticity. 163 _Sect._ 2. Prelude to Dalton's Doctrine of Evaporation. 165 _Sect._ 3. Dalton's Doctrine of Evaporation. 170 _Sect._ 4. D...
105. CHAPTER IV.--PHYSICAL THEORIES OF HEAT.106. CHAPTER II.--THE PROGRESS OF ELECTRICAL THEORY. 201107. CHAPTER II.--PROGRESS OF MAGNETIC THEORY.108. CHAPTER IV.--DOCTRINE OF ACIDIFICATION AND COMBUSTION.--PHLOGISTIC109. CHAPTER VI.--EPOCH OF THE THEORY OF OXYGEN.--LAVOISIER.110. CHAPTER VIII.--THEORY OF DEFINITE, RECIPROCAL, AND MULTIPLE111. CHAPTER IX.--EPOCH OF DAVY AND FARADAY._Sect._ 1. Promulgation of the Electro-chemical Theory by Davy. 291 _Sect._ 2. Establishment of the Electro-chemical Theory by Faraday. 296 _Sect._ 3. Consequences of Faraday's...
112. BOOK XV.113. CHAPTER II.--EPOCH OF ROMÉ DE LISLE AND HAÜY.--ESTABLISHMENT OF114. CHAPTER V.--RECEPTION AND CONFIRMATION OF THE DISTINCTION OF115. CHAPTER VIII.--ATTEMPTS AT THE CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS.116. CHAPTER IX.--ATTEMPTS AT THE REFORM OF MINERALOGICAL_Sect._ 1. Natural History System of Mohs. 344 _Sect._ 2. Chemical System of Berzelius and others. 347 _Sect._ 3. Failure of the Attempts at Systematic Reform. 349 _Sect._ 4. Re...
117. CHAPTER III.--FORMATION OF A SYSTEM OF ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS._Sect._ 1. Prelude to the Epoch of Cæsalpinus. 369 _Sect._ 2. Epoch of Cæsalpinus.--Formation of a System of Arrangement. 373 _Sect._ 3. Stationary Interval. 378 _Sect._ 4. Sequ...
118. CHAPTER IV.--THE REFORM OF LINNÆUS._Sect._ 1. Introduction of the Reform. 387 _Sect._ 2. Linnæan Reform of Botanical Terminology. 389 _Sect._ 3. " " " Nomenclature. 391 _Sect._ 4. Linnæus's Artificial System, 395...
119. CHAPTER VII.--THE PROGRESS OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 419Period of Unsystematic Knowledge. 420 Period of Erudition. 421 Period of Accumulation of Materials.--Exotic Collections. 422 Epoch of the Fixation of Characters.--Ray and Willou...
120. CHAPTER I.--DISCOVERY OF THE ORGANS OF VOLUNTARY MOTION.121. CHAPTER II.--DISCOVERY OF THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD._Sect._ 1. Prelude to the Discovery. 444 _Sect._ 2. The Discovery of the Circulation made by Harvey. 447 _Sect._ 3. Reception of the Discovery. 448 _Sect._ 4. Bearing of the Dis...
122. CHAPTER III.--DISCOVERY OF THE MOTION OF THE CHYLE, AND CONSEQUENT123. CHAPTER IV.--EXAMINATION OF THE PROCESS OF REPRODUCTION IN124. CHAPTER V.--EXAMINATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, AND CONSEQUENT125. CHAPTER VI.--INTRODUCTION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF DEVELOPED AND126. CHAPTER VII.--PROGRESS OF ANIMAL MORPHOLOGY._Sect._ 1. Rise of Comparative Anatomy. 475 _Sect._ 2. Distinction of the General Types of the Forms of Animals.--Cuvier. 478 _Sect._ 3. Attempts to establish the Identity of th...
127. CHAPTER VIII.--THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL CAUSES IN PHYSIOLOGY._Sect._ 1. Assertion of the Principle of Unity of Plan. 482 _Sect._ 2. Estimate of the Doctrine of Unity of Plan. 487 _Sect._ 3. Establishment and Application of the Principle o...
128. CHAPTER I.--PRELUDE TO SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY.129. CHAPTER II.--FORMATION OF SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY._Sect._ 1. Discovery of the Order and Stratification of the Materials of the Earth. 511 _Sect._ 2. Systematic Form given to Descriptive Geology.--Werner. 513 _Sect._ 3. Applicat...
130. CHAPTER III.--SEQUEL TO THE FORMATION OF SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE_Sect._ 1. Reception and Diffusion of Systematic Geology. 523 _Sect._ 2. Application of Systematic Geology.--Geological Surveys and Maps. 526 _Sect._ 3. Geological Nomenclature....
131. CHAPTER IV.--ATTEMPTS TO DISCOVER GENERAL LAWS IN GEOLOGY.132. CHAPTER V.--INORGANIC GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS._Sect._ 1. Necessity and Object of a Science of Geological Dynamics. 542 _Sect._ 2. Aqueous Causes of Change. 545 _Sect._ 3. Igneous Causes of Change.--Motions of the Earth's Su...
133. CHAPTER VI.--PROGRESS OF THE GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZED_Sect._ 1. Objects of this Science. 561 _Sect._ 2. Geography of Plants and Animals. 562 _Sect._ 3. Questions of the Transmutation of Species. 563 _Sect._ 4. Hypothesis of Progre...
134. CHAPTER VII.--PROGRESS OF PHYSICAL GEOLOGY.135. CHAPTER VIII.--THE TWO ANTAGONIST DOCTRINES OF GEOLOGY.136. BOOK IX.--OPTICS.137. BOOK X.--THERMOTICS.--ATMOLOGY.138. BOOK XI.--ELECTRICITY.139. BOOK XII.--MAGNETISM.140. BOOK XIII.--VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY.141. BOOK XV.--MINERALOGY.142. BOOK VIII.. . . . . . Go, demand Of mighty Nature, if 'twas ever meant That we should pry far off and be unraised, That we should pore, and dwindle as we pore, Viewing all objects unremit...
143. BOOK VIII.IN the sciences of Mechanics and Physical Astronomy, Motion and Force are the direct and primary objects of our attention. But there is another class of sciences in which we end...
144. CHAPTER I.IN some measure the true theory of sound was guessed by very early speculators on the subject; though undoubtedly conceived in a very vague and wavering manner. That sound is ca...
145. CHAPTER II.THAT the continuation of sound depends on a continued minute and rapid motion, a shaking or trembling, of the parts of the sounding body, was soon seen. Thus Bacon says,[5\8] "T...
146. CHAPTER III.WE have seen that the ancient philosophers, for the most part, held that sound was transmitted, as well as produced, by some motion of the air, without defining what kind of mot...
147. CHAPTER IV.IT had been observed at an early period of acoustical knowledge, that one string might give several sounds. Mersenne and others {37} had noticed[21\8] that when a string vibrate...
148. CHAPTER V.IT was taken for granted by those who reasoned on sounds, that the sounds of flutes, organ-pipes, and wind-instruments in general, {39} consisted in vibrations of some kind; but...
149. CHAPTER VI.NOT only the objects of which we have spoken hitherto, strings and pipes, but almost all bodies are capable of vibration. Bells, gongs, tuning-forks, are examples of solid bodie...
150. BOOK IX.O thou who fillest the palaces of Jove; Who flowest round moon, and sun, and stars above; Pervading, bright, life-giving element, Supernal ETHER, fair and excellent; Fountain of...
151. CHAPTER I.IN speaking of the Ancient History of Physics, we have already noticed that the optical philosophers of antiquity had satisfied themselves that vision is performed in straight l...
152. CHAPTER II.WE have seen in the former part of this history that the Greeks had formed a tolerably clear conception of the refraction as well as the reflection of the rays of light; and tha...
153. CHAPTER III.EARLY attempts were made to account for the colors of the rainbow, and various other phenomena in which colors are seen to arise from transient and unsubstantial combinations of...
154. CHAPTER IV.THE discovery that the laws of refractive dispersion of different substances were such as to allow of combinations which neutralised the dispersion without neutralizing the refr...
155. CHAPTER V.THE laws of refraction which we have hitherto described, were simple and uniform, and had a symmetrical reference to the surface of the refracting medium. It appeared strange to...
156. CHAPTER VI.IF the Extraordinary Refraction of Iceland spar had appeared strange, another phenomenon was soon noticed in the same {73} substance, which appeared stranger still, and which in...
157. CHAPTER VII.THE facts which we have now to consider are remarkable, inasmuch as the colours are produced merely by the smallness of dimensions of the bodies employed. The light is not analy...
158. CHAPTER VIII.THE phenomena which result from optical combinations, even of a comparatively simple nature, are extremely complex. The theory which is now known accounts for these results with...
159. CHAPTER IX.BESIDES the above-mentioned perplexing cases of colors produced by common light, cases of _periodical colors produced by polarized light_ began to be discovered, and soon became...
160. CHAPTER X.BY _Physical_ Optics we mean, as has already been stated, the theories which explain optical phenomena on mechanical principles. No such explanation could be given till true mec...
161. CHAPTER XI.THE man whose name must occupy the most distinguished place in the history of Physical Optics, in consequence of what he did in reviving and establishing the undulatory theory o...
162. CHAPTER XII.WHEN Young, in 1800, published his assertion of the Principle of Interferences, as the true theory of optical phenomena, the condition of England was not very favorable to a fai...
163. CHAPTER XIII.AFTER the undulatory theory had been developed in all its main features, by its great authors, Young and Fresnel, although it bore marks of truth that could hardly be fallacious...
164. BOOK X.Et primum faciunt ignem se vortere in auras Aëris; hinc imbrem gigni terramque creari Ex imbri; retroque a terrâ cuncta revorti, Humorem primum, post aëra deinde calorem; Nec ce...
165. CHAPTER I.BY _conduction_ is meant the propagation of heat from one part to another of a continuous body; or from one body to another in contact with it; as when one end of a poker stuck...
166. CHAPTER II.ALMOST all bodies expand by heat; solids, as metals, in a small degree; fluids, as water, oil, alcohol, mercury, in a greater degree. This was one of the facts first examined by...
167. Chapter I have given an account of the successive attempts whichhave been made to obtain measures of heat. I have there also spoken of the results which were obtained by comparing the rate at which the expansion of different substances went...
168. CHAPTER III.IN the Sixth Book (Chap. iv. Sect. 1.) we have already seen how the conception on the laws of fluid equilibrium was, by Pascal and others, extended to air, as well as water. But...
169. part xiv., and _Ann. de Chimie_.Prof. Magnus measured his temperatures by an air-thermometer; a process which, I stated in the first edition, seemed to afford the best promise of simplifying the law of expansi...
170. CHAPTER IV.WHEN we look at the condition of that branch of knowledge which, according to the phraseology already employed, we must call _Physical Thermotics_, in opposition to Formal Therm...
171. BOOK XI.A timid breath at first, a transient touch, How soon it swells from little into much! Runs o'er the ground, and springs into the air, And fills the tempest's gloom, the lightnin...
172. CHAPTER 1.WE have already seen what was the state of this branch of knowledge at the beginning of the seventeenth century; and the advances made by Gilbert. We must now notice the additio...
173. CHAPTER II.THE cause of electrical phenomena, and the mode of its operation, were naturally at first spoken of in an indistinct and wavering manner. It was called the electric _fire_, the...
174. BOOK XII.EFFICE, ut interea fera munera militiaï Per maria ac terras omneis sopita quiescant. Nam tu sola potes tranquilla pace juvare Mortales; quoniam belli fera munera Mavors Armipote...
175. CHAPTER I.THE history of Magnetism is in a great degree similar to that of Electricity, and many of the same persons were employed in the two trains of research. The general fact, that th...
176. CHAPTER II.THEORY OF MAGNETIC ACTION.--The assumption of a fluid, as a mode of explaining the phenomena, was far less obvious in magnetic than in electric cases, yet it was soon arrived at...
177. BOOK XIII.Percusssæ gelido trepidant sub pectore fibræ, Et nova desuetis subrepens vita medullis Miscetur morti: tunc omnis palpitat artus Tenduntur nervi; nec se tellure cadaver Paullati...
178. CHAPTER I.WE have given the name of _mechanico-chemical_ to the class of sciences now under our consideration; for these sciences are concerned with cases in which mechanical effects, tha...
179. CHAPTER II.GALVANI'S experiments excited a great interest all over Europe, in consequence partly of a circumstance which, as we have seen, was unessential, the muscular contractions and va...
180. CHAPTER III.IN order to show the place of voltaic electricity among the mechanico-chemical sciences, we must speak of its mechanical laws as separate from the laws of electro-magnetic actio...
181. CHAPTER IV.THE impulse which the discovery of galvanism, in 1791, and that of the voltaic pile, in 1800, had given to the study of electricity as a mechanical science, had nearly died away...
182. CHAPTER V.ON attempting to analyse the electro-magnetic phenomena observed by Oersted and others into their simplest forms, they appeared, at least at first sight, to be different from an...
183. CHAPTER VI.AMPÈRE'S THEORY.--Nothing can show in a more striking manner the advanced condition of physical speculation in 1820, than the reduction of the strange and complex phenomena of e...
184. CHAPTER VII.IT is not necessary to state the various applications which were soon made of the electro-magnetic discoveries. But we may notice one {251} of the most important,--the _Galvanom...
185. CHAPTER VIII.IT was clearly established by Ampère, as we have seen, that magnetic action is a peculiar form of electromotive actions, and that, in {254} this kind of agency, action and react...
186. CHAPTER IX.THE preceding train of generalization may justly appear extensive, and of itself well worthy of admiration. Yet we are to consider all that has there been established as only on...
187. BOOK XIV.. . . . . . . Soon had his crew Opened into the hill a spacious wound, And digged out ribs of gold . . . . Anon out of the earth a fabric huge Rose like an exhalation, with the...
188. CHAPTER I.THE doctrine of "the four elements" is one of the oldest monuments of man's speculative nature; goes back, perhaps, to times anterior to Greek philosophy; and as the doctrine of...
189. CHAPTER II.AMONG the results of mixture observed by chemists, were many instances in which two ingredients, each in itself pungent or destructive, being put together, became mild and inope...
190. CHAPTER III.THOUGH the chemical combinations of bodies had already been referred to attraction, in a vague and general manner, it was impossible to explain the changes that take place, with...
191. CHAPTER IV.PUBLICATION _of the Theory by Beccher and Stahl._--It will be recollected that we are tracing the history of the _progress_ only of Chemistry, not of its errors;--that we are co...
192. CHAPTER V.THE study of the properties of aëriform substances, or Pneumatic Chemistry, as it was called, occupied the chemists of the eighteenth century, and was the main occasion of the g...
193. CHAPTER VI.WE arrive now at a great epoch in the history of Chemistry. Few revolutions in science have immediately excited so much general notice as the introduction of the theory of oxyge...
194. CHAPTER VII.SINCE a chemical theory, as far as it is true, must enable us to obtain a true view of the intimate composition of all bodies whatever, it will readily be supposed that the new...
195. CHAPTER VIII.THE general laws of chemical combination announced by Mr. Dalton are truths of the highest importance in the science, and are now nowhere contested; but the view of matter as co...
196. CHAPTER IX.THE reader will recollect that the History of Chemistry, though highly important and instructive in itself, has been an interruption of the History of Electro-dynamic Research:-...
197. CHAPTER X.IT is the object and the boast of chemistry to acquire a knowledge of bodies which is more exact and constant than any knowledge borrowed from their sensible qualities can be; s...
198. BOOK XV.Now, if the bold but pious thought be thine, To reach our spacious temple's inner shrine, Take in thy reverent hands the crystal stone, Where heavenly light in earthy shroud is...
199. CHAPTER I.OF all the physical properties of bodies, there is none so fixed, and in every way so remarkable, as this;--that the same chemical compound always assumes, with the utmost preci...
200. CHAPTER II.WE have already seen that, before 1780, several mineralogists had recognized the constancy of the angles of crystals, and had seen (as Démeste and Werner,) that the forms were s...
201. CHAPTER III.I HAVE not hitherto noticed the imperfections of the crystallographic views and methods of Haüy, because my business in the last section {325} was to mark the permanent addition...
202. CHAPTER IV.IN Haüy's views, as generally happens in new systems, however true, there was involved something that was arbitrary, something that was false or doubtful, something that was unn...
203. CHAPTER V.DIFFUSION OF THE DISTINCTION OF SYSTEMS.--The distinction of systems of crystallization was so far founded on obviously true views, that it was speedily adopted by most mineralo...
204. CHAPTER VI.DISCOVERY OF ISOMORPHISM. MITSCHERLICH.--The discovery of which we now have to speak may appear at first sight too large to be included in the history of crystallography, and ma...
205. CHAPTER VII.THE reflections from which it appeared, (at the end of the last Book,) that in order to obtain general knowledge respecting bodies, we must give scientific fixity to our appreci...
206. CHAPTER VIII.THE fixity of the crystalline and other physical properties of minerals is turned to account by being made the means of classifying such objects. To use the language of Aristotl...
207. CHAPTER IX.THE chemical principle of classification, if pursued at random, as in the cases just spoken of leads to results at which a philosophical spirit revolts; it separates widely subs...
208. BOOK XVI.. . . . . Vatem aspicies quæ rupe sub altâ Fata canit, foliisque notas et nomina mandat. Quæcunque in foliis descripsit carmina virgo Digerit in numerum atque antro seclusa reli...
209. CHAPTER I.THE apprehension of such differences and resemblances as those by which we group together and discriminate the various kinds of plants and animals, and the appropriation of word...
210. CHAPTER II.A STEP was made towards the formation of the Science of Plants, although undoubtedly a slight one, as soon as men began to collect information concerning them and their properti...
211. CHAPTER III.THE arrangement of plants in the earliest works was either arbitrary, or according to their use, or some other extraneous circumstance, as in Pliny. This and the division of veg...
212. CHAPTER IV.ALTHOUGH, perhaps, no man of science ever exercised a greater sway than Linnæus, or had more enthusiastic admirers, the most intelligent botanists always speak of him, not as a...
213. CHAPTER V.WE have already said, that the formation of a Natural System of classification must result from a comparison of _all_ the resemblances and differences of the things classed; but...
214. ii. He states that the leading idea which has been kept in view inthe compilation of his work is this maxim of Fries: "Singula sphæra (sectio) _ideam quandam_ exponit, indeque ejus character notione simplici optime exprimitur;" and he is hence...
215. CHAPTER VI.THE history of Systematic Botany, as we have presented it, may be considered as a sufficient type of the general order of progression in the sciences of classification. It has a...
216. Book I., chap. v.--"Some animals are viviparous, some oviparous,some vermiparous. The viviparous are such as man, and the horse, and all those animals which have hair; and of aquatic animals, the whale kind, as the dolphin and cartilaginous...
217. Book II., chap. vii.--"Of quadrupeds which have blood and areviviparous, some are (as to their extremities,) many-cloven, as the hands and feet of man. For some are many-toed, as the lion, the dog, the panther; some are bifid, and have ho...
218. CHAPTER VII.IF it had been already observed and admitted that sciences of the same kind follow, and must follow, the same course in the order of their development, it would be unnecessary t...
219. BOOK XVII.Fearful and wondrous is the skill which moulds Our body's vital plan, And from the first dim hidden germ unfolds The perfect limbs of man. Who, who can pierce the secret? tell u...
220. CHAPTER I.IN the earliest conceptions which men entertained of their power of moving their own members, they probably had no thought of any mechanism or organization by which this was eff...
221. CHAPTER II.THE blood-vessels, the veins and arteries, are as evident and peculiar in their appearance as the muscles; but their function is by no means so obvious. Hippocrates[20\17] did n...
222. CHAPTER III.IT may have been observed in the previous course of this History of the Sciences, that the discoveries in each science have a peculiar physiognomy: something of a common type ma...
223. CHAPTER IV.IT would not, perhaps, be necessary to give any more examples of what has hitherto been the general process of investigations on each branch of physiology; or to illustrate furt...
224. CHAPTER V.IT is hardly necessary to illustrate by further examples the manner in which anatomical observation has produced conjectural and hypothetical attempts to connect structure and a...
225. CHAPTER VI.BEFORE we proceed to consider the progress of principles which belong to animal and human life, such as have just been pointed at, we must look round for such doctrines, if any...
226. CHAPTER VII.THE most general and constant relations of the form of the organs, both in plants and animals, are the most natural grounds of classification. Hence the first scientific classif...
227. CHAPTER VIII.WE have repeatedly seen, in the course of our historical view of Physiology, that those who have studied the structure of animals and plants, have had a conviction forced upon t...
228. BOOK XVIII.Di quibus imperium est animarum, Umbræque silentes, Et Chaos, et Phlegethon, loca nocte silentia late, Sit mihi fas audita loqui; sit, numine vestro Pandere res alta terrâ et ca...
229. CHAPTER I.THE recent history of Geology, as to its most important points, is bound up with what is doing at present from day to day; and that portion of the history of the science which b...
230. CHAPTER II.THAT the substances of which the earth is framed are not scattered and mixed at random, but possess identity and continuity to a considerable extent, Lister was aware, when he p...
231. CHAPTER III.IF our nearness to the time of the discoveries to which we have just referred, embarrasses us in speaking of their authors, it makes it still more difficult to narrate the recep...
232. CHAPTER IV.BESIDES thus noticing such features in the rocks of each country as were necessary to the identification of the strata, geologists have had many other phenomena of the earth's s...
233. CHAPTER V.WHEN the structure and arrangement which men observed in the materials of the earth instigated them to speculate concerning the past changes and revolutions by which such result...
234. CHAPTER VI.PERHAPS in extending the term _Geological Dynamics_ to the causes of changes in organized beings, I shall be thought to be employing a forced and inconvenient phraseology. But i...
235. CHAPTER VII.BEING, in consequence of the steps which we have attempted to describe, in possession of two sciences, one of which traces the laws of action of known causes, and the other desc...
236. CHAPTER VIII.THAT great changes, of a kind and intensity quite different from the common course of events, and which may therefore properly be called _catastrophes_, have taken place upon th...
237. CHAPTER III.THE Science of which the history is narrated in this Book has for its objects, the minute Vibrations of the parts of bodies such as those by which Sounds are produced, and the p...
238. BOOK IX.I HAVE, at the end of Chapter xi., stated that the theory of which I have endeavored to sketch the history professes to explain only the phenomena of radiant visible light; and...
239. CHAPTER XIII.IN the conclusion of Chapter xiii. I have stated that there is a point in the undulatory theory which was regarded as left undecided by Young and Fresnel, and on which the two d...
240. CHAPTER III.THE experiments on the elastic force of steam made by the French Academy are fitted in an especial manner to decide the question between rival formulæ, in consequence of the gre...
241. CHAPTER IV.THAT the transmission of _radiant_ Heat takes place by means of the vibrations of a medium, as the transmission of Sound certainly does, and the transmission of Light most proba...
242. BOOK XI.ELECTRICITY in the form in which it was originally studied--Franklinic, frictional, or statical electricity--has been so completely identified with electricity in its more compr...
243. BOOK XII.IN Chapter II., I have noticed the history of Terrestrial Magnetism; Hansteen's map published in 1819; the discovery of "magnetic storms" about 1825; the chain of associated mag...
244. CHAPTER VII.FARADAY'S discovery that, in combinations like those in which a voltaic current was known to produce motion, motion would produce a voltaic current, naturally excited great atte...
245. CHAPTER IX.AMONG the consequences of the Electro-chemical Theory, must be ranged the various improvements which have been made in the voltaic battery. Daniel introduced between the two met...
246. BOOK XV.BY the kindness of W. H. Miller, Esq., Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cambridge, I am able to add to this part the following notices of books and memoirs.
247. BOOK XVI.FOR the purpose of giving to my reader some indication of the present tendency of Botanical Science, I conceive that I cannot do better than direct his attention to the reflecti...
248. BOOK XVII.I HAVE stated that Linnæus had some views on this subject. Dr. Hooker conceives these views to be more complete and correct than is generally allowed, though unhappily clothed i...
249. CHAPTER VII.THE subject of Animal Morphology has recently been expanded into a form strikingly comprehensive and systematic by Mr. Owen; and supplied by him with a copious and carefully-cho...
250. BOOK XVIII.WITH regard to Geology, as a Palætiological Science, I do not know that any new light of an important kind has been thrown upon the general doctrines of the science. Surveys and...