Decline of Science in England by Charles Babbage (ebook reader with android os .TXT) 📕

doubt his view was the just one. Yet such is the state of

ignorance which exists on these subjects, that I have several

times heard him mentioned as one of the greatest mathematicians

of the age. [This of course could only have happened in England.]

But in this as in all other points, the precision with which he

comprehended and retained all he had ever learned, especially of

the elementary applications of mathematics to physics, was such,

that he possessed greater command over those subjects than many

of far more extensive knowledge.

In associating with Wollaston, you perceived that the predominant

principle was to avoid error; in the society of Davy, you saw

that it was the desire to see and make known truth. Wollaston

never could have been a poet; Davy might have been a great one.

A question which I put, successively, to each of these

distinguished philosophers, will show how very differently a

subject may be viewed by minds even of the highest order.

About the time Mr. Perkins was making his experiments on the

compression of water, I was much struck with the mechanical means

he had brought to bear on the subject, and was speculating on

other applications of it, which I will presently mention.

Meeting Dr. Wollaston one morning in the shop of a bookseller, I

proposed this question: If two volumes of hydrogen and one of

oxygen are mixed together in a vessel, and if by mechanical

pressure they can be so condensed as to become of the same

specific gravity as water, will the gases under these

circumstances unite and form water? “What do you think they will

do?” said Dr. W. I replied, that I should rather expect they

would unite. “I see no reason to suppose it,” said he. I then

inquired whether he thought the experiment worth making. He

answered, that he did not, for that he should think it would

certainly not succeed.

A few days after, I proposed the same question to Sir Humphry

Davy. He at once said, “they will become water, of course;” and

on my inquiring whether he thought the experiment worth making,

he observed that it was a good experiment, but one which it was

hardly necessary to make, as it must succeed.

These were off-hand answers, which it might perhaps be hardly

fair to have recorded, had they been of persons of less eminent

talent: and it adds to the curiosity of the circumstance to

mention, that I believe Dr. Wollaston’s reason for supposing no

union would take place, arose from the nature of the electrical

relations of the two gases remaining unchanged, an objection

which did not weigh with the philosopher whose discoveries had

given birth to it.

[The result of the experiment appeared, and still appears to me,

to be of the highest importance; and I will shortly state the

views with which it was connected. The next great discovery in

chemistry to definite proportions, will be to find means of

forming all the simple unions of one atom with one, with two, or

with more of say other substance: and it occurred to me that the

gaseous bodies presented the fairest chance of success; and that

if wishing, for instance, to unite four atoms of one substance

with one of another, we could, by mechanical means, reduce the

mixed gases to the same specific gravity as the substance would

possess which resulted from their union, then either that such

union would actually take place, or the particles of the two

substances would be most favourably situated for the action of

caloric, electricity, or other causes, to produce the

combination. It would indeed seem to follow, that if combination

should take place under such circumstances, then the most

probable proportion in which the atoms would unite, should be

that which furnished a fluid of the least specific gravity: but

until the experiments are made, it is by no means certain that

other combinations might not be produced.]

The singular minuteness of the particles of bodies submitted by

Dr. Wollaston to chemical analysis, has excited the admiration of

all those who have had the good fortune to witness his

experiments; and the methods he employed deserve to be much more

widely known.

It appears to me that a great mistake exists on the subject. It

has been adduced as one of those facts which prove the

extraordinary acuteness of the bodily senses of the individual,

—a circumstance which, if it were true, would add but little to

his philosophical character; I am, however, inclined to view it

in a far different light, and to see in it one of the natural

results of the admirable precision of his knowledge.

During the many opportunities I have enjoyed of seeing his minute

experiments, I remember but one instance in which I noticed any

remarkable difference in the acuteness of his bodily faculties,

either of his hearing, his sight, or of his sense of smell, from

those of other persons who possessed them in a good degree.

[This was at Mr. South’s observatory, and the object was, the

dots on the declination circle of his equatorial; but, in this

instance, Dr. Wollaston did not attempt to TEACH ME HOW TO SEE

THEM.]

He never showed me an almost microscopic wire, which was visible

to his, and invisible to my own eye: even in the beautiful

experiments he made relative to sounds inaudible to certain ears,

he never produced a tone which was unheard by mine, although

sensible to his ear; and I believe this will be found to have

been the case by most of those whose minds had been much

accustomed to experimental inquiries, and who possessed their

faculties unimpaired by illness or by age.

It was a much more valuable property on which the success of such

inquiries depended. It arose from the perfect attention which he

could command, and the minute precision with which he examined

every object. A striking illustration of the fact that an object

is frequently not seen, FROM NOT KNOWING HOW TO SEE IT, rather

than from any defect in the organ of vision, occurred to me some

years since, when on a visit at Slough. Conversing with Mr.

Herschel on the dark lines seen in the solar spectrum by

Fraunhofer, he inquired whether I had seen them; and on my

replying in the negative, and expressing a great desire to see

them, he mentioned the extreme difficulty he had had, even with

Fraunhofer’s description in his hand and the long time which it

had cost him in detecting them. My friend then added, “I will

prepare the apparatus, and put you in such a position that they

shall be visible, and yet you shall look for them and not find

them: after which, while you remain in the same position, I will

instruct you how to see them, and you shall see them, and not

merely wonder you did not see them before, but you shall find it

impossible to look at the spectrum without seeing them.”

On looking as I was directed, notwithstanding the previous

warning, I did not see them; and after some time I inquired how

they might be seen, when the prediction of Mr. Herschel was

completely fulfilled.

It was this attention to minute phenomena which Dr. Wollaston

applied with such powerful effect to chemistry. In the ordinary

cases of precipitation the cloudiness is visible in a single drop

as well as in a gallon of a solution; and in those cases where

the cloudiness is so slight, as to require a mass of fluid to

render it visible, previous evaporation, quickly performed on

slips of window glass, rendered the solution more concentrated.

The true value of this minute chemistry arises from its cheapness

and the extreme rapidity with which it can be accomplished: it

may, in hands like those of Wollaston, be used for discovery, but

not for measure. I have thought it more necessary to place this

subject on what I consider its true grounds, for two reasons. In

the first place, I feel that injustice has been done to a

distinguished philosopher in attributing to some of his bodily

senses that excellence which I think is proved to have depended

on the admirable training of his intellectual faculties. And, in

the next place, if I have established the fact, whilst it affords

us better means of judging of such observations as lay claim to

an accuracy “MORE THAN HUMAN,” it also opens, to the patient

inquirer into truth, a path by which he may acquire powers that

he would otherwise have thought were only the gift of nature to a

favoured few.

APPENDIX, No. 1.

In presenting to my readers the account of the meeting of men of

science at Berlin, in the autumn of 1828, I am happy to be able

to state, that its influence has been most beneficial, and that

the annual meeting to be held in 1831, will take place at Vienna,

the Emperor of Austria having expressed a wish that every

facility which his capital affords should be given to promote its

objects.

It is gratifying to find that a country, which has hitherto been

considered adverse to the progress of knowledge, should become

convinced of its value; and it is sincerely to be hoped, that

every one of the numerous members of the Society will show, by

his conduct, that the paths of science are less likely than any

others to interfere with those of politics.

ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT CONGRESS OF PHILOSOPHERS AT BERLIN, ON THE

18TH OF SEPTEMBER 1828. FROM THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

APRIL, 1829.

The existence of a large society of cultivators of the natural

sciences meeting annually at some great capital, or some central

town of Europe, is a circumstance almost unknown to us, and

deserving of our attention, from the important advantages which

may arise from it.

About eight years ago, Dr. Okens, of Munich, suggested a plan for

an annual meeting of all Germans who cultivated the sciences of

medicine and botany. The first meeting, of about forty members,

took place at Leipsic, in 1822, and it was successively held at

Halle, Wurtzburg, Frankfort on the Maine, Dresden, Munich, and

Berlin. All those who had printed a certain number of sheets of

their inquiries on these subjects were considered members of this

academy.

The great advantages which resulted to these sciences from the

communication of observations from all quarters of Germany, soon

induced an extension of the plan, and other departments of

natural knowledge were admitted, until, at the last meeting, the

cultivators even of pure mathematics were found amongst the ranks

of this academy.

Several circumstances, independent of the form and constitution

of the academy, contributed to give unwonted splendour to the

last meeting, which took place at Berlin in the middle of

September of the last year.

The capital selected for its temporary residence is scarcely

surpassed by any in Europe in the number and celebrity of its

savans.

The taste for knowledge possessed by the reigning family, has

made knowledge itself fashionable; and the severe sufferings of

the Prussians previous to the war, by which themselves and Europe

were freed, have impressed on them so strongly the lesson that

“knowledge is power,” that its effects are visible in every

department of the government; and there is no country in Europe

in which talents and genius so surely open for their possessors

the road to wealth and distinction.

Another circumstance also contributed its portion to increase the

numbers of the meeting of the past year. The office of president,

which is annually changed, was assigned to M. Alexander de

Humboldt. The universality of his acquirements, which have left

no