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12661 results in History of science

Page 50 of 634

Polynesian Researches during a Residence of Nearly Six Years in the South Sea Islands
  • Volume 1
  • William Ellis
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • From humble origins, and trained by the London Missionary Society in theology, printing and rudimentary medicine, William Ellis (1794–1872) sailed for the Society Islands in 1816. He found himself at the cusp of major cultural change as Western influences affected the indigenous Polynesians. During his time there, Ellis became a skilled linguist and able chronicler of the traditional yet rapidly shifting way of life. He succeeded in capturing vivid stories of a leisured people who, without written language, had developed a rich oral tradition, social structure and belief system. Published in 1829, this two-volume collection proved to be an important reference work, notably for its natural history; it soon accompanied Darwin aboard the Beagle. Volume 1 covers the voyage to Tahiti, the development of Tahitian orthography, the conversion of chief Pomare II, the establishment of a printing press on Moorea, and Ellis's first sermon in Tahitian, delivered on Huahine.

Great Artists and Great Anatomists
  • A Biographical and Philosophical Study
  • Robert Knox
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    16 October 2013
  • A gifted yet controversial anatomical teacher, Robert Knox (1791–1862) published this remarkable study in 1852. It explores the influence of anatomy on evolutionary theories and fine art respectively. The first part of the work discusses the lives and scientific insights of the eminent French naturalists Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844). Rejecting the explanations offered by natural theology, Knox maintains that descriptive anatomy can give answers to questions surrounding the origin and development of life in the natural world. The latter part of the book is concerned with the relation that anatomy bears to fine art, specifically the painting and sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. Entering the debate about the importance of anatomical knowledge in art, Knox focuses on 'the immortal trio' of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Henry Lonsdale's sympathetic biography of Knox has also been reissued in this series.

Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
  • The Second Edition
  • Volume 2
  • Joseph Priestley
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    05 September 2013
  • By the late eighteenth century, scientists had discovered certain types of gas, such as 'fixed air' (carbon dioxide), but their composition was little understood. Relatively few investigations into gases had taken place, and so the polymath Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) was able to make major breakthroughs in the field using a range of experimental techniques. While living near a brewery, he found that it was possible to outline the shape of the gas above fermenting beer with smoke, and that fire would burn with varying strength depending on the composition of the air. This three-volume collection first appeared between 1774 and 1777. Following the international interest and new discoveries prompted by the publication of its predecessor, Volume 2 - reissued here in its corrected 1776 second edition - includes accounts of further experiments, Priestley's paper on the conducting power of charcoal, and, most significantly, notes on what he calls 'dephlogisticated air' (oxygen).

Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres
  • Volume 4
  • Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de Lamarck
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    06 May 2013
    First published in:
    1817
  • Best known for his ideas relating to evolution, French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) first built his reputation as a botanist and was elected to the prestigious Académie des Sciences in 1779. His career took a new turn in 1793 when he was made professor of 'insects, worms and microscopic animals' at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, although he lacked prior knowledge of the subject area. Undaunted, Lamarck set out to classify organisms which few naturalists had considered worthy of study since Linnaeus. He was the first to distinguish vertebrates from 'invertebrates' - a term he coined - by the presence of a vertebral column. In this groundbreaking seven-volume work, published between 1815 and 1822, he arranges invertebrates into twelve classes, laying the foundations for the modern study of these organisms. Volume 4, first published in 1817, continues to classify insects.

The History and Philosophy of Earthquakes
  • Accompanied by John Michell's 'Conjectures Concerning the Cause, and Observations upon the Phænomena of Earthquakes'
  • Edited by Member of the Royal Academy of Berlin
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    22 August 2013
    First published in:
    1757
  • The aftershocks of the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755 were not only physical: the scientific investigations undertaken in its wake formed the basis of the science of seismology. Published in 1757, the present work is, in the words of its presumed editor, John Bevis (1695–1771), 'a repertory of all that has been written of earthquakes and their causes', and includes several recent papers published by the Royal Society. At the time, scientists suggested subterranean fires or electrical shocks in the atmosphere as possible causes of earthquakes. This reissue also incorporates a brief 1760 work by John Michell (1724/5–93), which uses Bevis' collection as a source and suggests that earthquakes were caused by seismic waves through the earth: it was one of the first to propose that tsunamis were the result of undersea earthquakes. Both these works rank as important steps in the developing understanding of one of nature's most destructive phenomena.

Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes
  • Being Records of Travel on the Amazon and its Tributaries, the Trombetas, Rio Negro, Uaupés, Casiquiari, Pacimoni, Huallaga and Pastasa
  • Volume 1
  • Richard Spruce
  • Edited by Alfred Russel Wallace
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 February 2014
  • Having previously embarked on a collecting expedition to the Pyrenees, backed by Sir William Hooker and George Bentham, the botanist Richard Spruce (1817–93) travelled in 1849 to South America, where he carried out unprecedented exploration among the diverse flora across the northern part of the continent. After his death, Spruce's writings on fifteen fruitful years of discovery were edited as a labour of love by fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), whom Spruce had met in Santarém. This two-volume work, first published in 1908, includes many of the author's exquisite illustrations. Showing the determination to reach plants in almost inaccessible areas, Spruce collected hundreds of species, many with medicinal properties, notably the quinine-yielding cinchona tree, as well as the datura and coca plants. Volume 1 contains Wallace's biographical introduction and a list of Spruce's published works. The narrative includes discussion of Pará, Santarém, and the Negro and Orinoco rivers.

Taxidermy
  • With the Biography of Zoologists
  • William Swainson
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • First published in 1840 as a volume in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia - a series published between 1830 and 1844, intended for the self-educating middle class - this work was written by the naturalist and artist William Swainson (1789–1855). The first part is a treatise on taxidermy, showcasing methods of Victorian science that may appear gruesome to modern readers. It discusses the best ways to collect, preserve and present animals for scientific study. Swainson gives detailed advice, making allowances for naturalists working in different locations and searching for a range of species. The directions for skinning and mounting animals are not for the faint-hearted, but they offer a fascinating insight into the practices of the time. The work's second part is a zoological bibliography, with short biographies of notable authors. Zoological painters and engravers, such as Thomas Bewick (1753–1828), are also featured.

An Historical Account of Coffee
  • With an Engraving, and Botanical Description of the Tree
  • John Ellis
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    16 October 2013
  • This tract, which first appeared in 1774, considers the characteristics, cultivation and uses of the coffee plant. Its author, John Ellis (c.1710–76), was a botanist and zoologist who from 1770 to 1776 served as a London agent for the government of Dominica. Published in order to promote the prosperity of the island, the work reflects the difficulties faced by the coffee growers. Ellis begins by describing the flower and fruit of the coffee plant. He then presents his historical survey, drawing on contemporaneous travel writing to illuminate coffee-related practices around the globe. The narrative takes in the plant's early uses in Arabia, its cultivation in the colonies, and the growth of coffee houses in Europe. This reissue also contains a 1770 work by Ellis which gives instructions on transporting plants overseas. Reissued elsewhere in this series is The Early History of Coffee Houses in England (1893).

Electric Railways and Tramways, their Construction and Operation
  • A Practical Handbook
  • Philip Dawson
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    27 June 2013
    First published in:
    1897
  • One of the world's leading electrical engineers and involved in projects across the globe, Sir Philip Dawson (1866–1938) was at the forefront of the new technology of electric locomotion. Published in 1897, less than twenty years after the first successful demonstration of an electric passenger locomotive and just seven years after the opening of London's first electrified underground line, this handbook covers all aspects of the building and running of a successful electric railway, ranging from the construction of the permanent way and different means of delivering current through to financial accounting, staff organisation and discipline. Impressed by the speed of American progress, Dawson is keen to impress upon his reader the need for Europe to keep up. With some 500 illustrations, this work offers a uniquely revealing picture of the earliest days of a technology that is now taken for granted.

Papers, Literary, Scientific, Etc.
  • Volume 2
  • Fleeming Jenkin
  • Edited by Sidney Colvin, J. A. Ewing
  • Introduction by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • An electrical engineer, university teacher and wide-ranging writer, Fleeming Jenkin (1833–85) filed thirty-five British patents in the course of his career. Edited by Sidney Colvin (1845–1927) and J. A. Ewing (1855–1935) and first published in 1887, this two-volume work brings together a selection of Jenkin's varied and engaging papers. The collection ranges from notes on his voyages as a marine telegraph engineer, to a critical review of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, essays on literature, and thoughts on technical education. A memoir written by Robert Louis Stevenson, his former student, provides biographical context and attests to Jenkin's many interests and talents across the arts and sciences. Volume 2 includes Jenkin's papers on political economy, scientific education, and applied science, notably marine telegraphy. Abstracts of his scientific papers, along with a list of his patents, form an appendix to the volume.

Theoria motus lunae exhibens omnes eius inaequalitates
  • In additamento hoc idem argumentum aliter tractatur simulque ostenditur quemadmodum motus lunae cum omnibus inaequalitatibus innumeris aliis modis repraesentari atque ad calculum revocari possit
  • Leonhard Euler
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • The problem of the moon's orbit was one that Leonhard Euler (1707–83) returned to repeatedly throughout his life. It provided a testing ground for Newton's theory of gravitation. Could the motion of the moon be entirely accounted for by Newton's theory? Or, as Euler initially suspected, did other forces need to be invoked? For practical purposes, if the moon's orbit could be accurately predicted, its motion would provide the universal timekeeper required to solve the longitude problem. In addition to the mathematical 'three-body problem', a topic still under investigation today, Euler was faced with the statistical problem of reconciling observations rendered inconsistent by experimental error. The present work, published in Latin in 1753, is Euler's triumphant solution. It may not be the last word on a subject which has occupied mathematicians and astronomers for over three centuries, but it showed that Newton's laws were sufficient to explain lunar motion.

Genera of Birds
  • Thomas Pennant
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • The naturalist and traveller Thomas Pennant (1726–98) helped popularise British ornithology by meticulously compiling and arranging existing research. At the age of twelve, Pennant had been given Francis Willughby's Ornithology (1678), to which he credited his lifelong love of natural history. His own writings on ornithology are heavily based on the classification system devised by Willughby and John Ray, which divides birds primarily into land birds and waterfowl. Although Pennant's brief, accessible book brought few original insights to the field, it boosted public interest in the study and classification of birds. The detailed descriptions of the appearance and habits of each bird are enlivened by the author's elegant turns of phrase. This better-known 1781 version of the 1773 original includes fifteen fine engravings. Pennant's other zoological works include Arctic Zoology (1784–5) and his History of Quadrupeds (third edition, 1793), both of which are reissued in this series.

Polynesian Researches during a Residence of Nearly Six Years in the South Sea Islands
  • Volume 2
  • William Ellis
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • From humble origins, and trained by the London Missionary Society in theology, printing and rudimentary medicine, William Ellis (1794–1872) sailed for the Society Islands in 1816. He found himself at the cusp of major cultural change as Western influences affected the indigenous Polynesians. During his time there, Ellis became a skilled linguist and able chronicler of the traditional yet rapidly shifting way of life. He succeeded in capturing vivid stories of a leisured people who, without written language, had developed a rich oral tradition, social structure and belief system. Published in 1829, this two-volume collection proved to be an important reference work, notably for its natural history; it soon accompanied Darwin aboard the Beagle. In Volume 2, Ellis moves between Huahine and Raiatea, giving further background on the existing customs and polytheistic rituals, contrasted with the introduction of Western religion, dress, schools, housing, medicine and law.

Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
  • The Second Edition, Corrected
  • Volume 1
  • Joseph Priestley
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    05 September 2013
  • By the late eighteenth century, scientists had discovered certain types of gas, such as 'fixed air' (carbon dioxide), but their composition was little understood. Relatively few investigations into gases had taken place, and so the polymath Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) was able to make major breakthroughs in the field using a range of experimental techniques. While living near a brewery, he found that it was possible to outline the shape of the gas above fermenting beer with smoke, and that fire would burn with varying strength depending on the composition of the air. This three-volume collection first appeared between 1774 and 1777. Primarily an account of Priestley's early experiments, with details of apparatus including candles and live mice, Volume 1 is reissued here in its corrected 1775 second edition and also incorporates a brief history of the field of inquiry.

A Treatise on the Yellow Fever, as It Appeared in the Island of Dominica, in the Years 1793–4–5–6
  • To Which Are Added, Observations on the Bilious Remittent Fever, on Intermittents, Dysentery, and Some Other West India Diseases
  • James Clark
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    16 October 2013
  • In 1793, the Caribbean island of Dominica fell victim to the deadly yellow fever virus. The British physician James Clark (c.1737–1819), who practised on the island for many years, witnessed the outbreak at first hand. He published this descriptive account in 1797, using the work to discuss his methods of attempting to treat the disease, which was considered among the most lethal tropical ailments of the time. Long before the link between mosquitoes and disease transmission was made, Clark explains his hypothesis about the origins of the outbreak and discusses the symptoms of its sufferers as well as possible methods of prevention. He also includes chapters addressing other ailments, including typhus, dysentery, cholera and tetanus. This remains an enlightening resource in the history of the understanding and treatment of disease in tropical climates.

Space and Geometry in the Light of Physiological, Psychological and Physical Inquiry
  • Ernst Mach
  • Translated by Thomas J. McCormack
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    23 January 2014
  • The Austrian scientist Ernst Mach (1838–1916) carried out work of importance in many fields of enquiry, including physics, physiology, psychology and philosophy. Published in this English translation of 1906, these essays examine geometry from three different perspectives. Mach argues that, as our ideas about space are created by the senses and how we experience our environment, researchers must not consider the subject from a mathematical standpoint alone. In the first essay, he explains how humans generate spatial concepts. Next, he discusses the psychology of geometry, its empirical origins, and its development. In the final piece, he writes from the viewpoint of a physicist, outlining how various mathematicians, such as Carl Friedrich Gauss and Bernhard Riemann, have contributed to our geometrical understanding. Also reissued in this series in English translation are Mach's The Science of Mechanics (1893) and Popular Scientific Lectures (1895).

Gold Mines of the Rand
  • Being a Description of the Mining Industry of Witwatersrand, South African Republic
  • F. H. Hatch, J. A. Chalmers
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    13 June 2013
    First published in:
    1895
  • The mining engineer and petrologist Frederick Henry Hatch (1864–1932) left the Geological Survey of Great Britain in 1892, relocating to South Africa. He worked for De Beers and with John Hays Hammond for Cecil Rhodes, finding important new gold fields in Matabeleland and Mashonaland. Control of the gold mines was a significant factor in the tension between Dutch and English settlers that would result in the Second Boer War in 1899. Prior to this, Rhodes and Hammond were behind the abortive Jameson Raid, but Hatch had returned to England briefly and was not implicated. This 1895 work, written with South African mining engineer J. A. Chalmers, reveals the extent of gold reserves in the Transvaal, and the engineering skills needed to exploit them. It deals with geological, economic and legal aspects of the mining industry, remaining of interest to historians of South Africa and the British Empire.

Researches in Theoretical Geology
  • Henry T. De la Beche
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • The geologist Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche (1796–1855) made important contributions as both a surveyor and a theorist. Elected to the Royal Society in 1823, he mapped geological strata in Devon during the 1830s and became the founding director of the British Geological Survey, the world's first national geological survey. In 1847, he was elected president of the Geological Society of London. Reflecting the scope of his scientific knowledge, the present work covers a wide range of topics, including the density of planets, the mineralisation of organic remains, and what could be inferred from the fossils thus created. The book was first published in 1834, the year he became embroiled in an argument with his contemporary Roderick Murchison. Lasting several years, the dispute became known as the 'The Great Devonian Controversy'. De la Beche's Geological Manual (third edition, 1833) has also been reissued in this series.

Catalogus bibliothecæ historico-naturalis Josephi Banks
  • Volume 5, Supplementum et index auctorum
  • Jonas Dryander
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    27 March 2014
  • Following his stint as the naturalist aboard the Endeavour on James Cook's pioneering voyage, Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820) became a pre-eminent member of the scientific community in London. President of the Royal Society from 1778, and a friend and adviser to George III, Banks significantly strengthened the bonds between the practitioners and patrons of science. Between 1796 and 1800, the Swedish botanist and librarian Jonas Dryander (1748–1810) published this five-volume work recording the contents of Banks' extensive library. The catalogue was praised by many, including the distinguished botanist Sir James Edward Smith, who wrote that 'a work so ingenious in design and so perfect in execution can scarcely be produced in any science'. Volume 5 (1800) contains a list of works from the first four volumes indexed by author, as well as a supplementary list of those items that were acquired after the publication of the previous volumes.

Sound
  • A Course of Eight Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain
  • John Tyndall
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    23 January 2014
  • Professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution between 1853 and 1887, the British physicist and mountaineer John Tyndall (1820–93) passionately sought to share scientific understanding with the Victorian public. A lucid and highly regarded communicator, he lectured on such topics as heat, light, magnetism and electricity. In this collection of eight lectures, first published in 1867, Tyndall explains numerous acoustic phenomena for a non-specialist audience. Emphasising the practical nature of scientific enquiry, he describes experiments throughout and includes many illustrations of laboratory equipment. The lectures discuss the general properties of sound, how it travels, how noise and music differ, how gas flames can produce musical notes, and much more. Several of Tyndall's other publications, from his work on radiant heat to his exploration of alpine glaciers, are also reissued in this series.

Page 50 of 634