scholarly journals II.—Gastaldi on Italian Geology and the Crystalline Rocks

1887 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 531-540
Author(s):  
T. Sterry Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Crystalline Rocks ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
Especial Reference ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Made In

The present writer in 1883 reviewed the history of the rocks of the Alps and the Apennines with especial reference to the geological relations of serpentine and its associates, in a paper which appeared in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, and is reprinted, revised and with some additions, as the tenth chapter of his volume entitled “Mineral Physiology and Physiography” (Boston, 1886). Therein he gave a somewhat detailed account of the labours in Italian geology of the late Professor Bartolomeo Gastaldi, of Turin, a list of whose publications on that subject from 1871 to 1878, so far as known to the writer, will there be found, including his letter to Quintino Sella, in 1878, on the general results of explorations made in 1877 (loc. cit., 458).

A Note on the Temple of Zeus at Cyrene and its Re-Erection

1994 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 185-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. H. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Account ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Jewish Revolt ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Made In

During the course of work in Cyrenaica extending over the 1950s and 1960s I was asked by the late Richard Goodchild, then Controller of Antiquities, to note and comment on any architectural features which I felt to have special significance. In this way, across the years, I handed over to him various short notes with drawings of miscellaneous items that I had observed. Of one such observation a copy has come to hand recently among old papers.While working with the Michigan Expedition to Apollonia (1965–68) I visited the late Professor Stucchi's project for re-erecting the remains of the Temple of Zeus at Cyrene, begun in 1967. During the visit I was interested to observe the detailing of a triglyph block from the peristyle entablature. This seemed to conflict with, or rather to add somewhat to the then accepted building history of the temple — i.e. a (late) Archaic Greek Temple overthrown during the Jewish Revolt and subsequently refurbished minus the peristyle.Work on Professor Stucchi's project is not yet completed; and although he published both progress reports and some discussion of the findings, he has not, to my knowledge, given us a detailed account of the evidence for the history of the building; so perhaps my note made in 1968 remains of interest. I have left the argument as it stood, but some updating material has been added to the footnotes.G.R.H.W.Avignon, December 1993.

XXIII. On the water-barometer erected in the hall of the Royal Society

1832 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 539-574 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Metallic Tube ◽  
French Academy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Made In

I have for some time entertained an opinion, in common with some others who have turned their attention tot he subject, that a good series of observations with a Water-Barometer, accurately constructed, might throw some light upon several important points of physical science: amongst others, upon the tides of the atmosphere; the horary oscillations of the counterpoising column; the ascending and descending rate of its greater oscillations; and the tension of vapour at different atmospheric temperatures. I have sought in vain in various scientific works, and in the Transactions of Philosophical Societies, for the record of any such observations, or for a description of an instrument calculated to afford the required information with anything approaching to precision. In the first volume of the History of the French Academy of Sciences, a cursory reference is made, in the following words, to some experiments of M. Mariotte upon the subject, of which no particulars appear to have been preserved. “Le même M. Mariotte fit aussi à l’observatoire des experiences sur le baromètre ordinaire à mercure comparé au baromètre à eau. Dans l’un le mercure s’eléva à 28 polices, et dans Fautre l’eau fut a 31 pieds Cequi donne le rapport du mercure à l’eau de 13½ à 1.” Histoire de I'Acadérmie, tom. i. p. 234. It also appears that Otto Guricke constructed a philosophical toy for the amusement of himself and friends, upon the principle of the water-barometer; but the column of water probably in this, as in all the other instances which I have met with, was raised by the imperfect rarefaction of the air in the tube above it, or by filling with water a metallic tube, of sufficient length, cemented to a glass one at its upper extremity, and fitted with a stop-cock at each end; so that when full the upper one might be closed and the lower opened, when the water would fall till it afforded an equipoise to the pressure of the atmo­sphere. The imperfections of such an instrument, it is quite clear, would render it totally unfit for the delicate investigations required in the present state of science; as, to render the observations of any value, it is absolutely necessary that the water should be thoroughly purged of air, by boiling, and its insinuation or reabsorption effectually guarded against. I was convinced that the only chance of securing these two necessary ends, was to form the whole length of tube of one piece of glass, and to boil the water in it, as is done with mercury in the common barometer. The practical difficulties which opposed themselves to such a construction long appeared to me insurmount­able; but I at length contrived a plan for the purpose, which, having been honoured with the approval of the late Meteorological Committee of this Society, was ordered to be carried into execution by the President and Council.

The 1869 controversy of cellular theory: Goodsir versus Virchow

2020 ◽  
pp. 096777202094273
Author(s):  
Michael T Tracy
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Medical Education ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
General Meeting ◽  
Cell Theory ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
Medical Establishment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Dispute

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland’s national academy of science and letters and has been in existence since the eighteenth century. On 23 November 1868, a general meeting was held by the RSE at which members nominated the German academic, Professor Rudolf Virchow, as an Honorary Fellow in recognition of his key contributions to cellular theory. This nomination was opposed by the Reverend Joseph Taylor Goodsir, brother of the late Professor of Anatomy at Edinburgh University, John Goodsir. Reverend Goodsir went on to accuse the German professor of plagiarising his late brother’s pioneering work in the formulation of cell theory. The resultant furore created by the Reverend Goodsir led to an acrimonious scientific dispute in the Edinburgh medical establishment, then one of the leading centres of medical education. The current work describes the history of cellular theory as it pertains to John Goodsir and Rudolf Virchow, discusses the history behind the scientific dispute and interprets Reverend Joseph Taylor Goodsir’s role relating his actions to his continuing battle with mental illness, and the aftermath of the dispute as it affected the reputation of John Goodsir.

scholarly journals Further researches on the nervous system of the uterus

1851 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 609-610
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Gravid Uterus ◽  
Elastic Tissue ◽  
Spinal Nerves ◽  
Striking Resemblance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fibrous Tissues ◽  
Made In

The author states, that on the 8th of April 1838, he discovered, in dissecting a gravid uterus, structures which had a striking resemblance to ganglionic plexuses of nerves; and, in the following December, he traced, in another gravid uterus, the sympathetic and spinal nerves into these new structures. He requested several distinguished anatomists to examine these dissections, and to compare them with similar dissections of the unimpregnated uterus, which he had made in the course of the same year. He then quotes, at some length, the opinions given by these several referees after their examination; and which appear, for the most part, to be favourable to the views of the author, namely, that the structures in question are not mere fibrous tissues, but that they possess the character of nerves, and that they augment in size with the enlargement of the uterus during pregnancy. Among those to whom the preparations were submitted for examination, however, two persons declared it to be their opinion, which they founded on observations with the microscope, that the filaments regarded by the author as nerves, are bands of elastic tissue only, and not plexuses of nerves; and the author, on receiving this intimation, withdrew the paper which he had presented to the Royal Society, and which had been read on the 12th of December 1839, in which paper the appearances displayed in his dissections were minutely described and delineated. The author next proceeds to give the history of his subsequent researches on the same subject, which he extended to the corresponding parts in some of the larger quadrupeds; and from all these he obtained accumulated evidence of the truth of his original opinions. He also adduces the testimony of various observers, in addition to those he had before cited, which are all in accordance with his own views, as they are expressed in his paper, printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1841, an Appendix to which was published in the volume of the same work for 1842. Later observations and dissections have served only to confirm him in his opinions; and he considers them as establishing the fact that the nerves of the uterus are considerably enlarged during the gravid state of that organ.

On the Further Development of Gompertz's Law

1889 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Matthew Makeham
Keyword(s):  
Great Degree ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
High Probability ◽  
Human Organism ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
Vital Force ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Constitution ◽  
Common Observation ◽  
Further Development

In the article “Mortality”, in the Penny Cyclopæia, the late Professor De Morgan gave the following description of the law of mortality propounded by Gompertz in the paper presented to the Royal Society in 1825. “As this ingenious paper”, says De Morgan, “contains a deduction from a principle of high “probability, and terminates in a conclusion which accords in a “great degree with observed facts, it must always be considered “a very remarkable page in the history of the enquiry before “us…. There is in the human constitution a power of “resisting the effects of disease which increases from birth up to “a certain age, and diminishes from that time forwards.… “Mr. Gompertz assumes that the power to oppose destruction “loses equal proportions in equal times, &c, &c.” Gompertz's theory of mortality, then, is based upon the supposed physiological fact that the living human organism is endowed with a certain recuperative power, becoming (after a few years from birth) ever less and less efficient with the lapse of time, which he terms “the power to oppose destruction”, but which, for brevity, I will call “vital force”, the truth of which supposition is evidently a question for common observation.

scholarly journals The scholar as craftsman: Derek de Solla Price and the reconstruction of a medieval instrument

2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seb Falk
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Cavendish Laboratory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Made In

The Royal Society Conversaziones were biannual social evenings at which distinguished guests could learn about the latest scientific developments. The Conversazione in May 1952 featured an object that came to be called King Arthur's Table. It was a planetary equatorium, made in Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory at the behest of Sir Lawrence Bragg. Conceived by the historian of science Derek de Solla Price as a huge, tangible realization of Chaucerian astronomy, it was displayed at the new Whipple Museum of the History of Science, discarded, stored incognito, catalogued with that whimsical name, and finally re-identified in 2012. This article examines the biography of that object and, through it, the early, inchoate years of the discipline of history of science in Cambridge. The process of disciplinary establishment involved a range of actors beyond well-known figures such as Herbert Butterfield and Joseph Needham; the roles of Price and Bragg are highlighted here. Study of these individuals, and of the collaboration that brought about the reconstruction, reveals much about the establishment of a discipline, as well as changing scholarly and curatorial attitudes towards replicas.

scholarly journals Address of the President, Sir Archibald Geikie, K. C. B., at the Anniversary Meeting on December 1, 1913

1914 ◽  
Vol 89 (613) ◽  
pp. 451-468
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Vice President ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Fatal Disease ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Special Studies ◽  
Made In

On these annual occasions it is usual to begin the retrospect of the year by discharging the melancholy duty of taking note of the losses which death has inflicted on our Society since the last Anniversary. On the present occasion we are fortunate in not having to deplore the passing away of any of the distinguished men who form the remarkable band of our Foreign Members. But on the other hand, the blanks which have been made in our Home List are exceptionally heavy, for no fewer than twenty of our Fellows have died, and among these some whose places it will for many years be hard to fill. Especially numerous and serious have been the losses among those who represent the various departments of the Physical Sciences. In George Howard Darwin we mourn the departure of one of the most brilliant and most estimable of our colleagues, who by the originality and distinction of his researches amply sustained the scientific renown of our publications and enhanced the prestige of the Society. He was elected a Fellow in 1879, served repeatedly on the Council, and was Vice-President during the last year of his presence there. He was awarded a Royal Medal in 1884, and only two years ago received as the crowning mark of our appreciation of his achievements in science the award of the Copley Medal. There was a widespread hope among the Fellows that he would this year be elected to the Presidential Chair of the Royal Society. But, while still with the promise of further years of fruitful work before him, he was attacked by a fatal disease which carried him off on December 7 last in the 68th year of his age. With admiration and pride we recall the keen insight and the laborious but brilliant calculations which culminated in the production of George Darwin's memorable essays on the history of our planet and its satellite. We remember the long years during which he devoted his mind to the study of the Tides, thereby elucidating that complicated subject, and at the same time rendering valuable service to the art of navigation. We think, too, of the many hours which, first and last, he cheerfully gave up to the furtherance of scientific progress by attendance on committees, boards, and congresses, not in this country only but also abroad, as representative of the Royal Society in international organisations. On this Anniversary, however, our thoughts turn more tenderly to the man himself as he lived and moved among us. Long shall we cherish the remembrance of the example of his gentle and studious nature, his unfailing courtesy and kindly cheerfulness, his ardour in the cause of scientific research, his large-minded tolerance towards those who differed from him, and that helpful sympathy, inherited from his illustrious father, which led him to take interest in each fresh advance of knowledge in every department of Nature, even in those furthest removed from his own special studies.

Flapping Flight

1915 ◽  
Vol 19 (73) ◽  
pp. 13-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice F. Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Flapping Flight ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
Limited Supply

A paper on “Flapping Flight of Aeroplanes ” by the present writer was communicated by the late Professor G. F. FitzGerald to the “ Proceedings ” of the Royal Society (Vol. 64, pp. 420-430) in 1899. At that date much that is now almost common knowledge concerning the mechanics of flight was little thought of, much less understood, practical aviation did not exist, and a limited supply of experimental results presented confusing specimens of discordant and unreliable data to the inquirer. The development, during the last eight years, of the practice and science of aviation, seems to justify a review of the paper1 of 1899 in the light of better information, and of a better understanding of the influence of head resistance and other things, ignored fifteen years ago.

Frederick Hughes Scott and his contribution to the early history of the transmitter concept

1983 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-247 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Synaptic Transmission ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Sympathetic Nerve ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Early History ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Nerve Impulses ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chemical Transmission

The first experimental evidence in favour of the theory of humoral transI mission of nerve impulses was Otto Loewi’s classical observation on the vagus and accelerans substances in the frog’s heart (i). It is well known that ideas of this kind had been discussed earlier, and the literature that is often quoted includes work by T. R. Elliott (2), on the possibility of a release of adrenaline from sympathetic nerve endings, and that by Dixon (F.R.S. 1911), on the release of muscarine in the mammalian heart (3). There are, however, even earlier publications: in 1937 Sir Henry Dale read a paper (4) to the Physiological Society entitled: ‘E. Du Bois-Reymond and chemical transmission’. Dale refers to a paper by Du Bois-Reymond (For. Mem. R.S. 1877), in which ideas of chemical transmission were formulated (5). The aim of this essay is to draw attention to two remarkable papers by F. H. Scott (6,7) that have in recent years been rescued from total oblivion. The present writer became aware of these at the occasion of the Royal Society Discussion on ‘Subcellular and Macromolecular Aspects of Synaptic Transmission’, held in 1970. Two of the contributors quoted Scott: A. D. Smith (8) the paper from 1905, and A. Dahlström (9) that from 1906 (7).

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