Decline of Science in England by Charles Babbage (red white royal blue txt) 📖
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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
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