A HISTORY OF SCIENCE

BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D.


ASSISTED BY EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, M.D.


IN FIVE VOLUMES

VOLUME III.

CONTENTS

DETAILED CONTENTS

BOOK III. MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES

I. THE SUCCESSORS OF NEWTON IN ASTRONOMY

II. THE PROGRESS OF MODERN ASTRONOMY

III. THE NEW SCIENCE OF PALEONTOLOGY

IV. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN GEOLOGY

V. THE NEW SCIENCE OF METEOROLOGY

VI. MODERN THEORIES OF HEAT AND LIGHT

VII. THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

VIII. THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

IX. THE ETHER AND PONDERABLE MATTER

APPENDIX

CONTENTS

BOOK III
CHAPTER I. THE SUCCESSORS OF NEWTON IN ASTRONOMY
The work of Johannes Hevelius—Halley and Hevelius—Halley's observation
of the transit of Mercury, and his method of determining the parallax of
the planets—Halley's observation of meteors—His inability to
explain these bodies—The important work of James Bradley—Lacaille's
measurement of the arc of the meridian—The determination of the
question as to the exact shape of the earth—D'Alembert and his
influence upon science—Delambre's History of Astronomy—The
astronomical work of Euler.
CHAPTER II. THE PROGRESS OF MODERN ASTRONOMY
The work of William Herschel—His discovery of Uranus—His discovery
that the stars are suns—His conception of the universe—His deduction
that gravitation has caused the grouping of the heavenly bodies—The
nebula, hypothesis,—Immanuel Kant's conception of the formation of the
world—Defects in Kant's conception—Laplace's final solution of the
problem—His explanation in detail—Change in the mental attitude of the
world since Bruno—Asteroids and satellites—Discoveries of Olbersl—The
mathematical calculations of Adams and Leverrier—The discovery of the
inner ring of Saturn—Clerk Maxwell's paper on the stability of Saturn's
rings—Helmholtz's conception of the action of tidal friction—Professor
G. H. Darwin's estimate of the consequences of tidal action—Comets
and meteors—Bredichin's cometary theory—The final solution of the
structure of comets—Newcomb's estimate of the amount of cometary dust
swept up daily by the earth—The fixed stars—John Herschel's studies
of double stars—Fraunhofer's perfection of the refracting
telescope—Bessel's measurement of the parallax of a star,—Henderson's
measurements—Kirchhoff and Bunsen's perfection of the
spectroscope—Wonderful revelations of the spectroscope—Lord Kelvin's
estimate of the time that will be required for the earth to become
completely cooled—Alvan Clark's discovery of the companion star of
Sirius—The advent of the photographic film in astronomy—Dr. Huggins's
studies of nebulae—Sir Norman Lockyer's "cosmogonic guess,"—Croll's
pre-nebular theory.
CHAPTER III. THE NEW SCIENCE OF PALEONTOLOGY
William Smith and fossil shells—His discovery that fossil rocks are
arranged in regular systems—Smith's inquiries taken up by Cuvier—His
Ossements Fossiles containing the first description of hairy
elephant—His contention that fossils represent extinct species
only—Dr. Buckland's studies of English fossil-beds—Charles Lyell
combats catastrophism,—Elaboration of his ideas with reference to
the rotation of species—The establishment of the doctrine of
uniformitarianism,—Darwin's Origin of Species—Fossil man—Dr.
Falconer's visit to the fossil-beds in the valley of the
Somme—Investigations of Prestwich and Sir John Evans—Discovery of the
Neanderthal skull,—Cuvier's rejection of human fossils—The finding
of prehistoric carving on ivory—The fossil-beds of America—Professor
Marsh's paper on the fossil horses in America—The Warren mastodon,—The
Java fossil, Pithecanthropus Erectus.
CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN GEOLOGY
James Hutton and the study of the rocks—His theory of the earth—His
belief in volcanic cataclysms in raising and forming the continents—His
famous paper before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1781—-His
conclusions that all strata of the earth have their origin at the bottom
of the sea—-His deduction that heated and expanded matter caused the
elevation of land above the sea-level—Indifference at first shown this
remarkable paper—Neptunists versus Plutonists—Scrope's classical work
on volcanoes—Final acceptance of Hutton's explanation of the origin
of granites—Lyell and uniformitarianism—Observations on the gradual
elevation of the coast-lines of Sweden and Patagonia—Observations on
the enormous amount of land erosion constantly taking place,—Agassiz
and the glacial theory—Perraudin the chamois-hunter, and his
explanation of perched bowlders—De Charpentier's acceptance of
Perraudin's explanation—Agassiz's paper on his Alpine studies—His
conclusion that the Alps were once covered with an ice-sheet—Final
acceptance of the glacial theory—The geological ages—The work of
Murchison and Sedgwick—Formation of the American continents—Past,
present, and future.
CHAPTER V. THE NEW SCIENCE OF METEOROLOGY
Biot's investigations of meteors—The observations of Brandes and
Benzenberg on the velocity of falling stars—Professor Olmstead's
observations on the meteoric shower of 1833—Confirmation of Chladni's
hypothesis of 1794—The aurora borealis—Franklin's suggestion that
it is of electrical origin—Its close association