Genre:

Short Fiction, Drollery

Subjects:

Exploration, Scientific Practitioners, Societies, Analogy, Natural History, Collecting, Publishing, Wonder, Gender

    The narrator describes having been shipwrecked with 'Lord K—' in an immense but unknown country. The inhabitants sent them to the capital, 'Polaslos', together with several chests of clothes and hats which had been on the ship, and for which the almost naked inhabitants could see no use. The 'men of science' of Polaslia were summoned to inspect the shipwrecked people and the chests of clothes. They conjectured, from the diversity of hats, that the heads and brains of Europeans were very diverse in form. The narrator observes: 'This was sufficient to convince me in what errors the method of analogy may sometimes lead us' (9). Similar conclusions about Europeans were drawn from the shoes, some of which were sent to the city museum as evidence. 'A thick volume soon appeared, describing this species of animal [the European], with all his varities; and another on the tails that grew at the ends of the feet. The last-mentioned work produced a powerful sensation; and to pacify the ladies of Polaslia, a public notice appeared, stating that among the strangers who had recently arrived, there was not a single foot with a tail' (10).

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Natural Philosophy, Heroism, Hospitals, Architecture, Mental Illness, Temperance, Patronage, Government, Epidemiology, Amateurism

    Relates that a statue of Benjamin Franklin Franklin, Benjamin (1706–90) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> stands in front of the public library Philadelphia. public library
Close   View the register entry >>, 'to whom it seems to be peculiarly dedicated', and observes: 'No person can be ignorant of the obligations which natural philosophy owes to him' (34). Gives an account of the hospital Philadelphia. hospital
Close   View the register entry >>, and particularly of the care of the mentally ill patients. Recounts that one of the physicians attributes the large number of the latter, in comparison with Europe, to 'the abuse of spiritous liquors'. Reports the repeated 'ravages' of yellow fever in Philadelphia, and the steps taken to prevent recurrence. (35) Reflects that, while no one in America 'is sufficiently free from employment to give himself wholly to letters or the sciences', Philadelphia is a city which 'contains, more than any other, persons who cultivate them, and whose society is extremely interesting, when these subjects are discussed' (36).

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Serial

Subjects:

Amusement, Botanical Gardens, Museums, Menageries, Government, Patronage

    As in every 'great city', the gardens of Paris constitute one of the main public recreations. The Jardin des Plantes Jardin des Plantes, Paris
Close   View the register entry >> 'is the National Botanical Nursery' of France, and is 'a complete epitome of the vegetable world'. 'In this Garden stands the National Museum of Natural History; Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Close   View the register entry >> also the Public Menagerie, containing a complete collection of wild beasts, and other curious living animals'. (39) The establishment is lavishly funded by the government and, 'like all other national extablishments, is freely open to the public' (40).

Genre:

Serial—Essay; Instructions

Subjects:

Botany, Horticulture, Education, Gender, Theory, Collecting, Observation

People mentioned:

Carl Linnaeus Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Observes that botany has long been neglected in Britain, but that it is now 'cultivated with considerable success', and that 'the management of the Flower-Garden, is thought necessary to complete the education of the fashionable female'. The essay is not intended 'to go into the more abstruse parts of the science, but to give some precepts easily retained, and highly useful to the lovers of Botany'.

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Gender, Education, Instruments, Reading

    'What saw he there? no silken robes, / But quadrants, telescopes, and globes, / In learn'd confusion pil'd, / And pickled toads, and ponderous books, / And pot-hooks, diagrams, and crooks— / The Elfin monarch smil'd'. The lady is found in a reverie studying Greek; Oberon charges her with having a bloodshot eye and inky lips as a result of her studies, but she is unrepentant. He concludes: 'Why shall the gloomy mists of pride / Extinguish beauty's beam? / Ah why, why cause the female mind, / For every native sweet design'd, / With pedant's weeds to teem!'.

Genre:

Reportage

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Physiognomy, Heroism

    Records the display of a marble bust of Johann K Lavater Lavater, Johann Kaspar (1741–1801) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> at the 'annual exhibition of the production of arts' at Zurich in May 1805. The bust was intended to be 'placed on the monument which his countrymen intend to erect to his honour'.

Genre:

Reportage

Subjects:

Electricity, Death, Physiology

Genre:

Reportage

Subjects:

Chemistry

People mentioned:

Martin H Klaproth Klaproth, Martin Heinrich (1743–1817) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Reportage

Subjects:

Vaccination, Imperialism

    A brief account of the progress of vaccination in India, which 'seems to equal the progresses it made in Europe'.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Education, Amusement, Imagination, Feeling, Reasoning, Superstition, Ancient Authorities, Supernaturalism

    Observes: 'To disguise the asperity of instruction by the more enticing mask of amusement, is a mode of condescension which the world expects from those who wish either to disseminate knowledge or to purchase fame'. Notes that allegorical imagery has often been used to express natural phenomena, as with the 'qualities of air, of fire, of water, of earth, their combination and effects', and that 'moral and natural philosophy' were thus taught. Regrets the tendency to rest content with such 'fictions', to forget their morals, and to pass them from generation to generation and even make them into 'idols'. Traces heathenism to such idolatry, giving as an example reactions to the 'enormous edifices of Egypt, built probably for the purposes of science'. (69) Considers, therefore, that 'that mythology which is now thought trivial [...] had its commencement in the highest chambers of literature'. Notes that only when they are taken from classical literature are the ancient fables now found to provide acceptable materials for poetry, and observes: 'These illustrious authors have indeed become the common place book of the universe; and we have as just a right to make a liberal use of their contents, as to make transcriptions from that other great common place book, the volume of Nature'. Cites Erasmus Darwin's Darwin, Erasmus (1731–1802) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Botanic Garden Darwin, Erasmus 1789–91. The Botanic Garden: A Poem, in Two Parts. Part I. Containing The Economy of Vegetation. Part II. The Loves of the Plants. With Philosophical Notes, 2 vols, London: J. Johnson
Close   View the register entry >> as evidence that 'all the known supernatural machinery may with propriety and effect be used or alluded to in the same work', noting the presence in the work of 'the elementary beings of the Rosi-crucian Philosophy' and illustrations 'drawn promiscuously from ethics or from holy writ'. (70)

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Astrology, Astronomy, Mathematics, Publishing, Disease, Medical Practitioners, Heterodoxy, Meteorology

    Describes the 'Almanack of Liège, by Matthew Laensberg Laensbergh (or Laensberg, Lansbert), Mathieu (or Mathys) ('le Nostradamus Liègeois') (fl. 17th century) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>' as the continental equivalent of the 'celebrated Almanack Vox Stellarum (1701–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >> of Francis Moore Moore, Francis (1657–1714?) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, and suggests Moore might have 'borrowed the idea from the German Philosopher, whose publication is of a date considerably older' (71). Discusses whether Laensberg is a real or an assumed name, the latter being viewed as the more likely. (The pseudonym apparently draws on the astronomical authority of Phillip van Lansberge's Lansberge, Phillip van (1561–1632) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Tabulae Motuum Coelestium Perpetuæ Lansberge, Phillip van 1632. Tabulae motuum coelestium perpetuæ: Ex omnium temporum observationibus constructæ, temporumque omnium observationibus consentientes. Item novæ et genuinæ motuum coelestium theoricæ, & astronomicarum observationum thesaurus, Middleburgh: Zachariam Romanum
Close   View the register entry >>, which predated the earliest known edition of the almanac by only four years and was widely used by astrologers.) Reports that the physicians of Liège were jealous 'lest the prophet of Liège should extend his dominion over the healing art' and obtained an order suppressing medical astrology in 1679 (72).

See also:

Opsomer 2001 Opsomer, Carmélia 2001. 'L'almanach de Mathieu Laensbergh et les savoirs médiévaux', Bulletin de la Société des Bibliophiles Liégeois, 24, 113–41
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Extract

Publications extracted:

Stéphanie F D de St Aubin, comtesse de Genlis Genlis, Stéphanie Felicité Ducrest de St Aubin, comtesse de (1746–1830) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>

[9] Buffon Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Letter, Serial

Subjects:

Botany, Reading, Education, Imagination, Feeling, Aesthetics, Sex, Taxonomy, Observation

People mentioned:

René L Desfontaines Desfontaines, René Louiche (1750–1833) WBI
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Institutions mentioned:

Jardin des Plantes, Paris Jardin des Plantes, Paris
Close   View the register entry >>

    Familiar letters to Eugenia, who wishes to 'become a botanist', but, 'following Nature' in her books, is making slow progress. Observes that there can be no better introduction to botany than 'the pleasure excited by flowers'. (102) Introduces the taxonomic systems of Carl Linnaeus Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, Joseph P de Tournefort Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de (1656–1708) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, and Antoine-L de Jussieu Jussieu, Antoine-Laurent de (1748–1836) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>. Observes that, while Linnaeus's system 'may offer difficulties', the beginner 'derives from it the most satisfactory result' (103). Gives the Linnaean classification in some detail.

Genre:

Serial—Letter; Poetry

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Mathematics, Light, Amusement, Reasoning, Feeling, Imagination, Metaphysics, Truth, Natural Theology, Education, Gender, Popularization

    The narrator, 'an infirm old man', writes to his niece Matilda that he has obtained much pleasure from his many years investigating 'that part of truth in which alone it is permitted to man to arrive at any degree of certainty', namely 'mathematical science'. He considers this the proper exercise of human reason, and contrasts it with metaphysics and taste, objects to which reason cannot properly be applied. In geometry and its allied sciences he has found 'indubitable truth; it is by them that we want no other testimonies to convince us of the order and harmony of the universe, of the certainty of the Great First Cause, and even of the nature of infinity itself'. The 'attentive' education and love of truth that his niece has received, which 'elevates' her understanding 'above the feeble curiosity, so characteristic of the inconsiderate part' of her sex, warrants him 'in venturing to make some branch of the mathematics' the subject of his epistles. (105) He introduces a poem 'On Perspective' by a gentleman of his acquaintance (identified in a footnote as Thomas Noble Noble, Thomas (fl. 1801–17) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, author of a recent work on perspective (Noble 1805 Noble, Thomas 1805. Practical Perspective Exemplified in Landscapes, London: Edward Orme
Close   View the register entry >>)) which portrays perspective as the 'loveliest child', a daughter, of male geometry (106). He defines some of the terms used in discussing perspective. On the subject of optics he refers the reader to 'the works of Mrs. Bryan Bryan, Margaret (fl. 1795–1816) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> of Blackheath, who has condescended to open the gates of science to the most uninformed, and by elegance of diction, and all the ornaments of polished literature, has rendered irresistibly attractive, that entrance to knowledge, which was before so forbidden and uncouth' (107).

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Feeling, Disease, Death, Miracle

    The narrator relates how, at a Christmas house party in Languedoc, when the youthful company were telling each other stories of 'the marvellous, ghosts and apparitions', a young Italian lady called Valeria introduced her story by calling herself a ghost. She related how, having been refused permission to marry her lover Octavian, she was deceived into marrying a cousin. Discovering the deceit immediately after the wedding, she fainted and became delirious, 'the disease rapidly encreased, and after a paroxysm of sixty hours' she expired (131). She was placed in the family vault, but Octavian having obtained access to the vault and kissing her, felt her breathe. He warmed her in his embrace and took her to his house where a physician 'answered for [her] life' (132). Appearing to her parents and husband as a ghost, she caused the former to repent their actions, and the latter to relinquish his claim.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Health, Nutrition, Temperance, Physiology, Heat, Putrefaction, Epidemiology, Psychology, Feeling

    Observes that 'exercise, temperance, and cheerfulness are the three points on which we ought more particularly to insist as they are the regulators of health the most proper for that kind of sleep which is attended with the best dreams' (133–34). Proposes the need to consider 'the atmosphere of the place in which we sleep', noting that 'the air, which being received into the lungs is there digested as food is in the stomach, and being reduced to the minutest particles filtres [sic] through the pores to the blood, which it proceeds to vivify'. Draws an analogy between the temperature equilibrium of a heated vessel of boiling water in contact with open air and the health of a living body placed in an atmosphere in which 'the putrescent particles can be expelled from the domain of life'. (134) On the basis of the miasmatic theory of contagion advises sleeping in a well-ventilated room. Describes in humoral language the different states of the brains of different kinds of dreamers.

Genre:

Anecdote

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Mathematics, Morality

    Relates d'Alembert's illegitimacy, the immoral behaviour of his natural mother, and his dutifulness toward his adoptive mother.

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Health, Physiology, Gender, Class, Psychology

    'Exercise is necessary, but the constitution of women is adapted only to moderate exercise [...]. Excessive labour reduces and deforms the organs, destroying by repeated compressions that cellular substance which contributes to the beauty of their contours and their colours'. Observes that the best kind of exercise for 'women of a middling condition' is that found in 'useful and indispensable occupations'. Argues against walking on the grounds that it only involves the lower parts of the body, rendering the course of the humours 'irregular and their distribution unequal'. Considers the dangers of the thoughts that come to the mind during a walk, whether 'extravagant' or relating to the exercise itself. 'Baglivi Baglivi, Georgius (1668–1707) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> said, that by thinking too much about digestion, it is impossible to digest at all. The same observation may be applied to the other vital or animal functions; we disturb them by thinking incessantly of them'. The best exercise is 'actual labour', especially when it maintains 'a just equilibrium between the mental and physical powers'.

Genre:

Essay, Satire

Subjects:

Physiology, Physiognomy, Phrenology, Morality, Pharmaceuticals, Skill

    Observes, satirically, that the signs of tranquil satisfaction exhibited ('according to the elements of physiology') by the slanderer can only evince innocent intention. 'I appeal for the truth of this to the doctrine of Dr. Gall Gall, Franz Joseph (1758–1828) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>'. Claims that, were it otherwise, it would be betrayed in his face. (145) Compares the use of slander in the 'social body' to the use of 'specifics' in medicine, observing that they must be administered with a 'degree of skill' (146).

Genre:

Letter, Serial

Subjects:

Botany, Education, Observation, Taxonomy, Anatomy, Fieldwork, Design, Biogeography, Acclimatization

    Having given a general outline of the Linnaean system in the preceding letter, the writer now introduces some individual specimens and describes their structure and taxonomy. Suggests observing plants encountered on walks, noting: 'That kind of study is pleasant and easy, and if you sometimes deceive yourself, it is without danger and without remorse' (159). Moralizes on the perfection of divine design seen in all natural objects. Reflects that 'Nature has in the distribution of her boundless garden, appointed an end to the courses of her children', and gives some botanical examples (160).

Genre:

Serial, Letter

Subjects:

Mathematics, Light, Amusement, Education, Nomenclature, Gender, Truth, Deduction, Supernaturalism, Theory, Practice

    The narrator is pleased that his niece approves the subject of his letters, and observes: 'if I can soften that seeming ruggidness, which its technical terms and the abstract references of its general principles have given it, and at the same time keep your mind alive to the beauty of those simple truths on which it is founded, I may indeed promise you the liveliest gratification in the pursuit'. The 'plain elementary truths of nature' are often disregarded, but by deduction they can explain astonishing or even apparently supernatural occurrences. The narrator relates that this observation is a response to his niece's comment 'that the beginning of Simson's Simson, Robert (1687–1768) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Euclid Simson, Robert 1756. The Elements of Euclid, viz. The First Six Books Together with the Eleventh and Twelfth. In this Edition, the Errors, by which Theon, or Others, have Long Ago Vitiated these Books, are Corrected, and some of Euclid's Demonstrations are Restored, Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis
Close   View the register entry >>, into which some time since, you casually turned, appeared to be learned trifling'. The letter provides an account of the theory of perspective, with the promise of the 'more pleasing practical part' in the next letter. (161)

Genre:

Introduction; Extract, Discourse, Drollery

Publications extracted:

Lorenzo Pignotti Pignotti, Lorenzo (1739–1812) WBI
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Subjects:

Anatomy, Dissection, Gender, Nomenclature, Instruments

    Having introduced the anatomical subject of the discourse, the narrator declares: 'I will not distress your eyes with the disgusting spectacle of an amphitheatre; I will not wound your ears with those hard technical words, which it was useless labour to go so far to seek, for the purpose of rendering them so difficult to the tongue and so disagreeable to the ear'. The narrator describes the public dissection of 'the heart of a young and beautiful woman' by a professor of anatomy. There is found no 'correspondence between the heart and tongue of the deceased'. (173) Other such anatomical peculiarities are described. The heart 'floated habitually in a limpid and cold liquid, containing a soft substance'. The professor collected some of this in a tube, and found it behaved like mercury in a thermometer, rising and falling as young fops or men of sense were brought near to it. A physician friend of the narrator assured him that 'all young women are so many thermometers, or rather frivolimeters of that kind'. (174)

Genre:

Essay / Afterword, Editorial Reply

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Medical Treatment, Nomenclature, Physiology

    Describes comic humour in quasi-medical terms. 'An enquiry into the nature of this powerful antidote against melancholy, will not perhaps be displeasing to those who, tormented by its black vapours, may stand in need of such assistance. A celebrated physician of the mind, who, by this remedy, has affected many miraculous cures, shall be my guide. The English call this antidote humour.' (177) Quotes from one of Ben Jonson's Jonson, Benjamin ('Ben Johnson') (1572–1637) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> comedies a passage on the theory of humours.

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Natural History, Nutrition

    The narrator observes: 'I felt, like the cameleon, capable of living upon air' (186).

Genre:

Letter, Extract

Publications extracted:

J G Schweighausen Schweighausen, J G (of Ormes, Department of Vienne (fl. 1806) BA1/1/4a/3
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Subjects:

Archaeology, Geology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology, Creation, Time

People mentioned:

Antoine C Quatremère de Quincy Quatremère de Quincy, Antoine Chrysostôme (1755–1849) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>

    Describes the cave dwellings of troglodytes near the Castle of Paulmy. The mineral veins in the rocks are divine 'hieroglyphics'. Discusses the origin of the rocks, fossils, and minerals; the origin of the flint veins 'is an enigma which the sagacity of geologists has in vain attempted to explain'. The rocks appear to be of recent marine formation, but the contrast with the nearby castle gives rise to the exclamation: 'What a long series of human events this single view compresses into a space so small for nature!'. (204)

Genre:

Letter, Serial

Subjects:

Botany, Education, Reading, Observation, Anatomy, Taxonomy, Nomenclature, Expertise, Entomology, Amusement, Fieldwork, Feeling

    The narrator recommends her friend to peruse 'the "Studies of Nature" Saint-Pierre, Jaques Henri Bernardin de Studies of Nature, trans. by Henry Hunter, 5 vols, London: C. Dilly
Close   View the register entry >> by S. Pierre Saint Pierre, Jacques Henri Bernardin de (1737–1814) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>' observing: 'It is from that work that I have derived the greatest part of my knowledge, and it will teach you how to make observations' (208). She describes the anatomy and taxonomy of further plants, remarking: 'The learned will laugh, perhaps, at my description; but tell me, my dear Eugenia, whether my explanations are plain, and I faithfully describe what my eyes consider and study'. Recommends the first three volumes of Noël A Pluche's Pluche, Noël-Antoine (1688–1761) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Spectacle de la Nature Pluche, Noël Antoine 1732–51. Le spectacle de la nature; ou, entretiens sur les particularités de l'histoire naturelle, qui ont paru les plus propres à rendre les jeunes-gens curieux, et à leur former l'esprit, 8 vols, Paris: La veuve Estienne, and Jean Desaint
Close   View the register entry >> as containing 'some simple practical elementary observations on the charms of natural history'. (209) She concludes: 'Yesterday part of the flowers I had gathered drooped while I held them. It was truly affecting, those poor little plants slumbered in the hand that had severed them from life' (211).

Genre:

Editorial Reply, Drollery

Subjects:

Gender, Mathematics, Education, Class, Public Health, Disease

    The editor replies to letters from correspondents complaining about the 'enormous length of our fashionable women's trains'. 'If we were to calculate the extent of the fashionable promenades by the space which one of our élégantes occupies in walking there, it would be absolutely necessary to call in the aid of a little practical geometry, and we are afraid, in consequence of this, some of our beaux would be compelled to return to their studies, and attend a course of lectures in that science. What an alteration would not this make in the beau-monde? The simpering fops would become geometricians, their minds bent on calculation'. Suggests that trains are 'hurtful to public salubrity', since they raise 'clouds of dust of an evening in St. James's and the Green Park', causing lung disease.

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Feeling, Mental Illness, Hospitals

    Two of the women seduced and deserted in a pregnant condition by the anti-hero become insane. One is admitted to a 'public receptacle for lunatics' (239), the other becomes a patient of the 'justly celebrated Dr. W——' (241).

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Naturalists, Zoology

    Describes how, after dinner, the intellect is only 'to be set going by the assistance of copious libations'. Likens diners at a party to sea creatures, observing: 'as naturalists tell us, certain sea-monsters that have been basking on the shore, are unable to extricate themselves from the mire in which they have been wallowing, till the tide comes up and floats them again'. (245)

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Gender, Disease

    Relates a conversation describing 'women of sense' as self-confident, in which an unamed Duke retorted: 'Oh! intolerable, madam: my dear madam, if you go on defining the animal, you positively will throw the gout into my stomach' (252).

Genre:

Letter, Rejoinder

Subjects:

Human Species, Psychology, Ethics, Metaphysics

    Written in response to a letter prompted by L C's earlier article, 'The Distinction between Principle and Sentiment'. States: 'Too often in the study of the mind we omit the study of man, and represent the object of our enquiry as a being superior to himself. Too often in delineating the character of man, his endowments and his capabilities, we represent him rather as what he ought to be than what he really is' (256). Later observes: 'To the mind nothing is naturally right or wrong until it obtains an accidental, a revealed, or acquired power of reasoning, comparing, and judging' (257). In conclusion, suggests that 'Principles are truths than which nothing can be more strong, nothing more useful, nothing more perfect, nothing more satisfactory. The emanations of science can neither add to, nor diminish ought [sic] of their intrinsic value' (258).

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Light, Exploration, Technology, Invention, Magic

    Observes that the art of printing has the consequence that 'not a ray of genius emanates from the human soul which may not be caught, as it were, in prismatic glass, and reflected at once in innumerable directions'. Continues: 'the source of this admirable invention [...] has, like the fountains of the Nile, for a sucession of ages, defied the endeavours of every adventurer who has attempted, by tracing its current, to ascend its primary stream'. (258) Asserts that printing 'first became known in Europe about the year 1440', and that, while 'it is true that in China the art of printing has certainly been known from the year 930', it 'is a totally different science from the European system' (259). Outlines several contested accounts of the invention of printing, involving Laurens Jansz Coster Coster, Laurens Jansz (c. 1370–1439) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> (referred to as 'Lawrence John Koster'), Johann Gutenberg Gutenberg, Johann (Johannes Gensfleisch) (1400–68) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> (referred to as 'John Guttenburg'), and Johann Fust Fust, Johann (c.1400–66) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> (referred to as 'John Fust', and as 'Faustus' or 'Dr. Faustus') (259–60). In mistakenly referring to Fust as Dr Faustus observes: 'We are told of his compacts with the devil, and his skill in magic'. Enquires: 'what is the cause of this popular belief in his necromancy? Why this: A number of copies were produced of Bibles printed by him [...] in a space of time in which they could not have been finished by the ordinary mode of manuscript' (261). Relates how printing came to England and outlines the career of William Caxton Caxton, William ([1415–22]–1492) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>.

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Serial

Subjects:

Ethnography, Race, Obstetrics

    Outlines the life of a middle-class Indian from cradle to marriage. Describes childbirth as an experience 'which Indian women bear far better than those of Europe, and which is rendered less painful by the climate' (265).

Genre:

Letter, Serial

Subjects:

Botany, Education, Observation, Taxonomy, Anatomy, Fieldwork, Design, Biogeography, Acclimatization

    Introduces further botanical specimens and describes their structure, taxonomy, and in some cases their habitat. Observes: 'Nature shortens distances; in the fields we gather the same flowers, we inhale the same perfumes, we listen to the same concert, and our souls, in the same atmosphere, can render homage to the great creator of the universe' (268).

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Institutions, Mathematics, Astromony, Invention, Navigation,

     Introduces the two Sicilies as 'the seat of tremendous volcanos' which 'have been agitated in all ages by political convulsions still more dangerous than those of nature'. Describes Emperor Frederick II Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194–1250) CBD CBE
Close   View the register entry >> as 'the founder of the school of Salerno, who patronised the sciences and successfully cultivated them himself'. (286) Lists the later monarchs of the two Sicilies and relates that King Robert Robert of Anjou, King of Naples ('the wise') (1278–43) CBE
Close   View the register entry >> of Naples as encouraging 'the study of sound philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, caused Aristotle Aristotle (384–322 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> to be translated into Latin, and collected the most valuable works in his library'. Asserts that 'about this period Flavio Gioia Gioia, Flavio (b. c.1300) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, a native of Amalfi, reflected honour on the Neapolitan nation by his invention, or rather improvement, of the mariner's compass, that guide which paved the way to the discovery of a new world' (287).

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Anatomy, Comparitive Anatomy, Embryology, Naturalists

    In a fictional account of the history of the kings of Sheshian the narrator comments on the 'standard which M. Daubenton Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1716–1800) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> has taken the laudable pains to lay down in his description of the Royal Cabinet of Natural History at Paris Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Close   View the register entry >>' (294).

Genre:

Serial, Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Light, Gender

    Reflects that, when a man ceases to love a woman, 'The prism of the imagination is broken, and the ray of beauty, which once shone with such lovely colours, being no longer refracted by this magic crystal, now presents to the disenchanted eye nothing but a lurid and monotonous light' (298). Attempts to define the nature of beauty through the medium of colour, form, and proportion.

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Extact

Publications extracted:

François R, vicomte de Chateaubriand Chateaubriand, François René, vicomte de (1768–1848) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Gender, Unbelief, Astronomy

    Asks: 'How is it possible that a female can be an Atheist? [...] The feeblest creature in nature, even on the verge of death, or the loss of her charms, who shall sustain this being who smiles and expires, if her hopes extend not beyond an ephemeral existence?' (300). Pictures the miserable end of the 'infidel wife'—chiefly the loss of her husband and of the affection of her children. Concludes by stating: 'When the Atheist, at the term of his career, discovers the delusions of a false philosophy, when annihilation, like an appalling meteor, begins to appear above the horizon, he would fain return to God' (301).

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Health

    Extols the virtues of early rising, stating that it is absolutely necessary 'to those who follow the paths of business, or the toilsome tracts of science'. Later reports that '[e]arly rising is generally allowed by medical men to invigorate the faculties, and to remove the dullness which too often attends even fashionable life'. (313)

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Health, Mapping, Navigation, Military Technology

    The correspondent confesses to being one of 'the rich, the idle, and the gay' who migrate to the coast in the summer months 'in order to enjoy the fancied advantages of sea-bathing' (318). Gives an account of Cromer and environs. Reports that parts of the now submerged 'Ancient Cromer' or 'Shipden' can still be observed. Continues: 'it is certain [...] that those who have made experiments at soundings in this spot, have had every reason to conclude that the bottom of the sea, for the circumference of half a mile or more, was one perfect stratum of stone or brick [...]. It is these scattered ruins of the old town, in the sea, which are said to make the coast of Cromer so extremely dangerous for shipping'. (319)

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Serial

Subjects:

Ethnography, Libraries, Reading, Health, Nutrition

    Reports that the 'library of the Indian rajahs [...] would require a hundred camels to remove'. Continues: 'A rajah, a friend of learning, requested a scientific man to select the substance of every book, and to compile a more portable library: he accordingly made extracts, forming not more than ten camels' loads. Another King thinking it still too voluminous, commissioned a Bramin to make further abridgements, and he reduced the whole library to four maxims'. Lists the four maxims, the third of which is: 'The only means of preserving health, that most precious blessing, is to eat when the appetite requires, and to give over before it is completely satisfied'. (327)

Genre:

Travelogue, Extract

Publications extracted:

M Creuze Delessert Delessert, M. Creuze (fl. 1806) BA1/1/7a/1
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Travel, Vulcanology, Archaeology

    Gives detailed account of recent travels to Pompeii Pompeii
Close   View the register entry >> and Herculaneum Herculaneum
Close   View the register entry >> and laments the the poor state of the excavations that have previously been undertaken to reveal both sites.

Genre:

Review

Subjects:

Botany, Breeding

    Describes the poet Thomas ('Anacreon') Moore Moore, Thomas (1779–1852) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> as having 'introduced among us a species of poetry peculiarly his own.' Continues: 'He is the father of the English amatory ode; if he has not actually given birth to it, he has given it a beauty and order which it before wanted. It perhaps existed before him, but it existed as a wild flower scattered in the waste of miscellaneous literature, and in want of cultivation, with half its natural beauty and fragrance; Mr. Moore has transplanted it into his garden, and under his nurturing hands we behold its natural luxuriance.' (344)

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Romanticism, Entomology, Animal Behaviour, Biogeography

    Observes: 'Buffon Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, whose penetration and philosophy few things escaped, and whose chief delight was to discover something agreeable and romantic in every part of creation, has dwelt very lightly upon the history of Grasshoppers'. Asserts that, contrary to received opinion, the grasshopper is a 'reptile' that is as 'full of venom and malignity as of noise and vivacity; its ravages though not so frequent, have been more extensive and pernicious than those of the caterpillar or locust'. (351) Describes at length the habitat, anatomy, behaviour, and migration of the grasshoppers of Cyprus.

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Psychology, Language, Philosophy, Gender

    Discusses developments in understanding the links between logic and grammar in Germany. Asserts: 'it is impossible to analyse thought without analysing the signs by which it is represented'. Observes that German scholars 'reckon Moritz Moritz, Karl Philipp (1756–93) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, professor at Berlin, among their best grammarians, who, in his grammar for the ladies, and his works of psychology, analyses, with as much taste as precision, the signs of thought'.

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Gender, Education, Supernaturalism, Feeling, Disease, Mental Illness, Death, Miracle

    Warns that uneducated women are adversely affected by the publication of anecdotes on supernatural appearances even though, '[i]n this enlightened age, when the high rank many of the sex hold in the walks of literature, proclaims the extent of their mental powers, and clearly demonstrates the fallacy of that prejudice which once considered the female understanding incapable of attaining the heights of science' (361). Argues that 'from the prognostications of the physician we sometimes recover, but a dream, the vision of a heated, or diseased imagination, unmans every faculty of the soul, and death feels his power anticipated' (362). Describes how a practical joke involving the reappearance of a supposedly dead acquaintance resulted in the victim suffering a 'severe illness which immediately attacked him, and the melancholy depression of spirits which ensued [...] continued until his death.—If it did not hasten that event, it embittered some portion of his existence; and life, with the blessings of health and good spirits, are too valuable to be trifled with' (363).

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Ancient Authorities, Geology, Chemistry, Transport, Technology

    Observes that 'it has been represented as a wonder, that Hannibal had (to use the expression of some authors) dissovled the Alps with vinegar'. Suggests that this 'wonder' can be 'reduced to a very simple process'. Relates that, after an avalanche, 'Hannibal had a great fire kindled around the rock; and that when it was heated he had a great quantity of vinegar poured upon it, which insinuating itself into the veins of the rock (opened by the heat and calcined), softened it, and faciliated the means of breaking it easily'. Reports that the road leading from Foix to Devernajon was more recently built by the same process.

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Feeling, Medical Treatment, Death

    Describes a woman who attempted to resist her secret affectionate feelings for a man; however, 'so violent were her struggles that her health became seriously affected by them'. After being seen by several physicians she was then sent away to 'try whether change of air would not be of service to her'. (364) On receiving the gentleman's hand in marriage the shock was so great that she 'instantly expired' (365).

Genre:

Anecdote, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Politics

    Relates an amusing anecdote concerning Wiliam Pitt's Pitt, William (1759–1806) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> gout.

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Serial

Subjects:

Libraries, Institutions, Archaeology, Ethnography, Race, Religion, Education, Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners

    Reports: 'The most copious library in Indostan is that if the university of Benares'. Relates that, while the contents of these libraries have in the past been a closely guarded secret, having only been accessed by the Bramins, the latter 'are now a days more communicative; and the scientific society of Calcutta Asiatic Society [of Bengal], Calcutta
Close   View the register entry >> which has consulted the monuments of India, both sacred and profane, has at length drawn aside the veil that concealed the superstition and manners of the Hindoos'. (372) Describes the apparent lack of educational literature in a middle-class Indian family. Comments: 'Most of the disorders of Europe are known in India; but medicine is a profession abandoned to those who have no other resource [...] greater confidence being placed in the goodness of the Gods than in the skill of men' (373).

Genre:

Letter, Serial

Subjects:

Botany, Education, Observation, Taxonomy, Anatomy, Fieldwork, Design, Biogeography, Acclimatization

    Introduces various flowering botanical specimens and describes their structure, taxonomy, and in some cases their habitat.

Genre:

Letter; Essay

Subjects:

Geology, Stratigraphy, Cosmology, Mineralogy, Chemistry, Physics, Climatology, Theology of Nature, Vulcanology, Natural History, Metallurgy

Publications cited:

Link 1794 Link, Heinrich Friedrich 1794. Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte, Rostock and Leipzig: K.C. Stiller
Close   View the register entry >>

    The subtitle reads: 'Thoughts on the Figure and Formation of the Earth, Subterraneous Fires and its Effects, the Deluge, and Origin of Mountains, Continents, &c.; from Whiehurst's Whitehurst, John (1713–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> [sic] Enquiry into the Original State of the Earth Whitehurst, John 1792. An Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth, 3d ed., London: W. Bent
Close   View the register entry >>, Macquer Macquer, Pierre (Pierre Joseph) (1718–84) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, the celebrated Chymist, and the late Mr. Lavoisier Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent (1743–94) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, whose untimely fate will be ever deplored by the Literati'. Describes the formation of the earth from a 'fluid mass' to its present 'oblate spheroidical form' (375). Suggests that the 'sameness of quality which prevails in strata of different denominations' may also be ascribed to the laws of attraction that originally consolidated the matter of the earth into the atmosphere and oceans. Argues that 'the Mosaic account of the sun being created, or becoming visible on the fourth day of the creation' might be confirmed by the inference that the formation of the atmosphere led to the increasing intensity of heat and light from the sun. Gives an account of 'primitive islands' being raised from the sea. (376) Advances a theory that the convulsive action of the vast amount of steam produced when 'subterraneous fires' came into contact with the sea, was responsible for 'the deluge' and the formation of 'the Alps, the Andes, the Pyranean mountains &c.' (377). As a result of this action the primitive islands 'in all probability' became 'the bottom of the andiluvian sea; and the bottom of the andiluvian sea being more elevated, was converted into the post-deluvian mountains, continents, &c. This conjecture is remarkably confirmed by the vast numbers of fossile [sic] shells, and other marine exuvid, found embedded near the tops of mountains, and the interior parts of continents'. Comments that not only should these phenomena not be ascribed to a universal flood but that 'the mountains and continents were not primary productions; but of a very distant period of time from the creation of the world'. (378) Gives evidence to support these assertions by detailing the production of steam accompanying various volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, including Vesuvius in 1631, Ætna in 1755, and the Lisbon earthquake in 1755. Points out that the 'powerful and extensive effects of steam' are well known to metallurgists, citing Johann A Cramer's Cramer, Johann Andreas (1710–77) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Elements of the Art of Assaying Metals Cramer, Johann Andreas 1741. Elements of the Art of Assaying Metals, in Two Parts, the First Containing the Theory, the Second the Practice of the Said Art: The Whole Deduced from the True Properties and Nature of Fossils, Confirmed by the Most Accurate and Unquestionable Experiments, Explained in a Natural Order, and with the Utmost Clearnes, London: T. Woodward and C. Davis
Close   View the register entry >> (379).

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment

    'Care's an obtrusive craz'd physician / Who visits folks of high condition, / And doses them with bitters; / Claps causticks on the tend'rest sores, / And won't be turn'd from great men's doors / By footmen or beef-eaters'.

Genre:

Poetry, Extract

Publications extracted:

William Cowper Cowper, William (1731–1800) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Technology, Industry

    'When a Bar of pure silver, or ingot of gold / Is sent to be flatten'd or wrought into length, / It is pass'd into cylinders often, and roll'd / In an engine of utmost mechanical strength'.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Short Fiction, Letter

Subjects:

Magnetism

    Matilda encourages Caroline to seek out a suitable man, commenting 'and then if (as is sometimes the case) an attractive external will lead such to investigate and acknowledge those amiable qualities which are (with all her vanities) the property of my friend, I shall be happy in contributing my part, to render that external not only the magnet that attracts, but the loadstone which points out the sphere of merit' (389).

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Chemistry, Botany, Horticulture, Botanical Gardens, Ancient Authorities, Travel, Zoology, Biogeography, Naturalists

People mentioned:

Pliny, Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus) (c. 23–79) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>James Bruce, Bruce, James (1730–94) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>William Jones, Jones, Sir William (1746–94) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>Juan Loureiro Loureiro, Juan (1715–96) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>

    Describes the history, ingredients, and process of production of perfumes. Includes descriptions of the cultivation and habitat of various species of plant. When describing the 'Balsam of Mecca', explains that 'A flask of this balsam is preserved in the "Garden of Plants" [Jardin des Plantes Jardin des Plantes, Paris
Close   View the register entry >>] in Paris, as a rarity of unattainable price' (404). Reports that 'Musk is produced from an animal which is very common in Tibet [...]. This animal is of the species of hedgehog, but it has two tusks like a boar, and is covered in quills like a porcupine'. Continues: 'Naturalists and Travelers are not agreed to the existence of the civet in Asia; this animal which resembles a large cat, is common in Sengal [...] and on the coast of Africa'. (406)

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Ethnography, Human Species

    Introduces a short love story by describing Africa as abounding with evil, stating that '[n]o country produces so many poisonous plants, wild beasts, and venomous reptiles'. Continues: 'In the midst of these disgusting horrors, amongst those sanguinary monsters, of whom some sell their children, and others eat their captives, there is sometimes a natural justice found, real virtue, constancy in torments, and a generous contempt of death. Such examples, however rare, are sufficient to interest us for those degraded beings, to remind us that they are men'. (417)

Genre:

Introduction; Extract

Publications extracted:

Chateaubriand 1806 Chateaubriand, François René, vicomte de 1806. Demonstration of the Existence of God from the Wonderful Works of Nature, trans. by Frederic Shoberl, London: Richard Phillips
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Design, Natural Theology, Ancient Authorities, Human Species, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology

People mentioned:

Cicero, Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43BC) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> Galen Galen (129/30–199/200) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    The extract explores evidence for divine design from the anatomy, senses, and instincts of humans. Chateaubriand states that '[v]arious authors, and Dr Nieuwentyt Nieuwentijt, Bernard (1654–1718) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> in particular, have proved that the bounds within which our senses are confined, are the very limits that are best adapted to them, and that we should be exposed to a great number of inconveniences and dangers, were these senses more or less enlarged' (426).

Genre:

Letter, Serial

Subjects:

Botany, Education, Observation, Taxonomy, Anatomy, Fieldwork, Design, Biogeography

    Describes the structure, taxonomy, and in some cases habitat of the German woundwort and a number of varieties of nasturtium. Writes in reference to the woundwort that 'B. de Saint Pierre Saint Pierre, Jacques Henri Bernardin de (1737–1814) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> thinks that the flutings are as many channels to facilitate watering the root' (429). Observes that 'lightenings' can be observed on the nasturtium leaf at nightfall or dawn and reports: 'Mademoiselle Linnaeus
Close   View the register entry >> was the first who made this observation' (430).

Genre:

Letter, Introduction; Letter, Serial

[2] Mechanics

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Reminiscences

Subjects:

Reason, Unbelief, Miracle, Religion

    Relates Jean F de Laharpe's Laharpe, Jean François de (1739–1803) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> account of a conversation which took place in 1788, during which '[m]any impious jests were launched against religion; one read passages from Voltaire's Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de (1694–1778) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Pucelle [Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de] 1755. La pucelle d'Orléans, poème divisé en quinze livres, Louvain: [n.p.]
Close   View the register entry >>, amidst universal plaudits [...] a third admired the revolution which Voltaire had effected in the empire of the Sciences—"That Great man," cried he,"gave the tone of his age; he is read as generally in every anti-chamber, as in the superb apartments of our illustrious men"' (457). Recounts predictions made by Jacques Cazotte Cazotte, Jacques (1720–92) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> concerning the French Revolution.

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Letter, Serial

Subjects:

Ornithology, Animal Behaviour, Vivisection

People mentioned:

Francis Bacon (1st Viscount St Alban), Bacon, Francis, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561–1626) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>Athanasius Kircher, Kircher, Athanasius (1601/2–80) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Pierre Belon Belon, Pierre (1517–64) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Recounts the author's 'experiments and observations' on the 'singing of birds', 'which were chiefly intended to determine, whether birds had any innate ideas of the notes, or song, which is supposed to be peculiar to each species' (462). Asserts that this is 'a subject which has never before been scientifically treated' (459). Describes the singing habits, rearing, behaviour, and habitat of a number of different bird species. Reports: 'I procured a cock nightingale, a cock and hen blackbird, a cock and hen rook, a cock linnet, as also a cock and hen chaffinch, which that very eminent anatomist, Mr Hunter Hunter, John (1728–93) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, some years since, was so obliging as to dissect for me, and begged that he would particularly attend to the state of the organs in the different birds, which might be supposed to contribute to singing' (463). Later relates the results of these comparative dissections.

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Letter

Subjects:

Mathematics, Geometry, Philosophy, Materialism

    Defines the different spheres of the beau-monde as: good company, bad company, and nobodies. States: 'The Beau-monde, like the chance world of Descartes Descartes, René Du Perron (1596–1650) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, is composed of a certain number of circles' (466).

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Invertebrate Zoology, Observation, Taxonomy, Anatomy, Microscopy

    Describes the lifecycle, development, and reproduction of oysters. States: 'In viewing them attentively by the microscope, a milky humour is discovered, which may be called semen, or sperm of oysters, and of all other testaceous fish'. Later reports: 'On account of them having no progressive motion, Aristotle Aristotle (384–322 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> gave them the name of aquatic plants'. (471)

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Technology, Disease

    Describes the peculiar 'dexterity and science' of the garden irrigation system used in Buenos Aires. Also reports: 'The water of this river is clear as crystal [...] but its coldness, when drank [sic], brings on dysenteries and other dangerous diseases; the most fatal complaint, however, and one that never fails to attack Europeans,—I say never, for I never knew an instance of an entire escape from it, is what I call black fever; I believe it has no name in the Materia Medica of England or Europe, and being the only disease known there, it is called simply the fever'. (474)

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Reminiscences

Subjects:

Quackery, Lecturing, Education, Libraries, Museums, Morality

    Describes the city of London in 1769 as giving 'an equal chance to every trade and profession; it is a place where the meanest of employments may become the source of wealth; and where chimney sweepers, old-clothes-men, hair-dressers, tailors, and quacks, sometimes acquire affluence, and frequently enjoy the privileges of being ranked in the class of gentlemen' (481). Later observes: 'London is also a place very advantageous to the student in his pursuits of various branches of science; where, by attending on different Professors, conversing with men of genius, learning, and experience, consulting libraries, visiting museums, exhibitions, &c. he may enjoy the means of making the most desirable progress in his studies, if he have sufficient resolution to escape the dangerous dissipations of the place' (482).

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Serial

Subjects:

Domestic Economy, Nutrition, Chemistry

    Gives descriptions of various kitchen implements, ingredients, and methods of preservation. States: 'Vegatables soon sour, and corrode metals and glazed red ware, by which a strong poison is produced. Vinegar by its acidity does the same, the glazing being of lead or arsenic' (486).

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Serial

Subjects:

Electricity

    Reports: 'A Mr. Beyer Beyer, Mr (manufacturer of electrical conductors, of 33 Rue de Clichy, Paris) (fl. 1806) BA1/1/9c/2
Close   View the register entry >>, to whom France owes the construction of the principal conductors (Para-ton-nerres) in that empire, possesses one of the completest collections of electrical machines in Paris, in la Rue de Clichy, No. 33. His magnificent battery, of sixty feet in circumference, kills an ox in a second of time. It is powerful enough to kill an elephant. An infinitely lesser shock kills the largest species of game, such as deer or hares; and a still slighter, all sorts of volatiles, as turkies [sic], geese, &c. As soon as the animal is put to death by these means, the flesh acquires a degree of tenderness which is really wonderful. There is no time to be lost in passing it from the electrical machine to the spit' (432).

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Letter

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Language, Astronomy

    States: 'Descartes Descartes, René Du Perron (1596–1650) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, pursuant to the principle of explaining all the actions of beasts by the laws of mechanism, pretended that they were but mere machines, or pure automatons; but in this age of extensive improvement and general information, our reason seems to run counter to such sentiment, and even to banish it from society' (568).

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Letter

Subjects:

Systematics, Cosmology, Physics, Chemistry, Magnetism, Mineralogy, Natural Philosophy

People mentioned:

Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>Edmond Halley, Halley, Edmond (1656?–1743) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>Gottfried W Leibniz, Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>Leonhard Euler, Euler, Leonhard (1707–83) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>Isaac Newton, Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>Francis Bacon (1st Viscount St Alban) Bacon, Francis, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561–1626) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Gives an account of Georg C Lichtenberg's Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph (1742–99) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> 1783 report of the eighteenth century's contribution to natural philosophy.

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Geometry, Natural Philosophy

    States: 'All are vain of something, and think they possess some gift, some talent, some quality, which gives them a superiority over their neighbours [...]. Thus doth the man of science prefer the acquistion of solid knowledge to the superficial frothiness of a wit, the wit considers the man of science as little better than a drudge employed in the collection of materials for himself to play with; while the man of sober sense, considers the one as a pedant, and the other as a coxcomb, where they are not employed in the investigation of useful knowledge, or in putting vice and folly out of counternance. The historian, the geometrician, &c. value themselves for being in pursuit of facts solely: the speculative philosopher regards these facts merely as the footsteps of investigation, and finds his superiority in the use which he makes of them' (585).

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Hydropathy

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Geology, Mineralogy, Vulcanology

    Gives a description of Sourther, the largest cavern in Iceland. States: 'The sides, or partitions of the cavern, produce the greatest effect, as they are covered with a sort of varnish in horizontal squares, separated by borders in-relief. This varnish is formed of a very fine vitreous, but opaque matter: in some parts it is black, but it is generally of a greenish colour, and similar to that employed in the manufactories of earthenware. This varnish as well as the stalactites just mentioned, affords a certain proof of the operation of subterraneous fires, and that the lava, in a state of fusion, has passed, like a rivulet through this channel, while it began to cool on the sides and top of the cavern. The flux of lava must have given to the cavern its present form; while the same fusion must have covered the sides of the cavern with a metallic alkaline varnish, by melting the interior crust of the cavern in those parts where the heat was strongest. The same cause must also have produced the stalactites.' (591)

Genre:

Letter, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Subjects:

Mechanics, Electricity, Heat, Friction, Magnetism, Matter Theory, Gravity

    Outlines theories of mechanics, the nature and properties of motion, and gravity.