scholarly journals XIV. Account of a singular instance of atmospherical refraction

1798 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 357-360
Keyword(s):  
Small Distance ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The South ◽  
Naked Eye ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Dining Room ◽  
Beautiful Scene ◽  
As If

Dear Sir, On Wednesday last, July 26, about five oʼclock in the afternoon, whilst I was sitting in my dining-room at this place, which is situated upon the Parade, close to the sea shore, nearly fronting the south, my attention was excited by a great number of people running down to the sea side. Upon inquiring the reason, I was informed that the coast of France was plainly to be distinguished with the naked eye. I immediately went down to the shore, and was surprised to find that, even without the assistance of a telescope, I could very plainly see the cliffs on the opposite coast; which, at the nearest part, are between forty and fifty miles distant, and are not to be discerned, from that low situation, by the aid of the best glasses. They appeared to be only a few miles off, and seemed to extend for some leagues along the coast. I pursued my walk along the shore to the eastward, close to the waterʼs edge, conversing with the sailors and fishermen upon the subject. They, at first, could not be persuaded of the reality of the appearance; but they soon became so thoroughly convinced, by the cliffs gradually appearing more elevated, and approaching nearer, as it were, that they pointed out, and named to me, the different places they had been accustomed to visit; such as, the Bay, the Old Head or Man, the Windmill, &c . at Boulogne; St. Vallery, and other places on the coast of Picardy; which they afterwards confirmed, when they viewed them through their telescopes. Their observations were, that the places appeared as near as if they were sailing, at a small distance, into the harbours. Having indulged my curiosity upon the shore for near an hour, during which the cliffs appeared to be at some times more bright and near, at others more faint and at a greater distance, but never out of sight, I went upon the eastern cliff or hill, which is of a very considerable height, when a most beautiful scene presented itself to my view; for I could at once see Dengeness, Dover cliffs, and the French coast, all along from Calais, Boulogne, &c . to St. Vallery; and, as some of the fishermen affirmed, as far to the westward even as Dieppe. By the telescope, the French fishing-boats were plainly to be seen at anchor; and the different colours of the land upon the heights, together with the buildings, were perfectly discernible. This curious phenomenon continued in the highest splendour till past eight o’clock, (although a black cloud totally ob­scured the face of the sun for some time,) when it gradually vanished.

scholarly journals XVIII. A Letter from Smart Lethieullier, Esq; to D. Charles Lyttelton, relating to some Antiquities found in the County of Essex

Archaeologia ◽  
1779 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-75
Author(s):  
Smart Lethieullier
Keyword(s):  
Small Distance ◽  
The South ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Roman Villa ◽  
The Face

In a letter I wrote some years ago to my worthy and learned friend Mr. Roger Gale, I acquainted him, that in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifteen, a Roman pavement was discovered in Wansted Park; that it was immediately destroyed by digging holes through it, for planting an avenue of trees, the owner of it having no great taste for things of that nature. But, from the account I got from Mr. Holt, the then surveyor of the works, I found that there was the figure of a man on horse-back plainly to be seen in the centre, with several borders of wreathed work and ornaments, as are usual in these kinds of pavements. From the situation of this pavement, as I remember the ground thirty years ago (though the face of it now is totally changed), viz. upon an easy declivity fronting the south, close by a beautiful well of bright water, and at a small distance from the foundation of a building, which, by the nature and size of the bricks, I was certain, was Roman; I was induced to believe, that this might have been the pavement of a banqueting house belonging to some Roman villa, by reason of the beauty of the situation, its vicinity to the capital, and the Icening-street, which I had the pleasure of shewing you, where it crosses the forest, passes through my eslate, and pushes for the passage cross the river Roden, now called Ilford, though two stone bridges have in more modern times been built there.

HMS Endeavour 1768–71

2020 ◽  
pp. 36-138
Author(s):  
Toby Musgrave
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Full Advantage ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The South ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face

This chapter points out Joseph Banks's participation in determining the places to properly observe the ensuing transit of Venus. It explains that the transit of Venus is a rare astronomical event during which the planet passes across the face of the sun. It also describes the twenty-five-year-old Banks who desperately wanted the opportunity to collect, study, and record both natural history specimens and knowledge from mostly unexplored part of the world, the South Seas. The chapter highlights Banks's preparation for the first southern circumnavigation of HMS Dolphin and take full advantage of the voyage's natural history potential. It also talks about Alexander Dalrymple, a distinguished hydrographer who joined Banks in the South Seas.

Notices of the Volcanic Rocks and Geysirs of Iceland

The Geologist ◽  
1858 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 175-178
Author(s):  
J. E. Vaux
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Summer Climate ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rugged Surface ◽  
Winter Time ◽  
As If

The name “Iceland” raises ideas, especially in the winter time, the reverse of cheering; and a subsequent low average of fingers and toes suggests itself as no very unlikely price to pay for witnessing the marvels of Thing Valla. Gentle reader! what think you of an al fresco breakfast taken on the plain, “in shirt-sleeves, with a white handkerchief wrapped round the head for fear of the sun, the whole landscape gleaming and glowing in the beauty of one of the hottest summer days I ever remember?” Such is the description given of the summer climate as the party encamped to examine the place more in detail.Descending the gorge of the Almanna Gja, they went towards the lake. “The perpendicular walls of rock rose on either hand from the flat greensward that carpeted its bottom, pretty much as the waters of the Red Sea must have risen on each side of the fugitive Israelites. A blaze of light smote the face of one cliff, while the other lay in the deepest shadow; and on the rugged surface of each might still be traced corresponding articulations that once had dovetailed into each other, ere the igneous mass was rent asunder. So unchanged, so recent, seemed the vestiges of this convulsion, that I felt as if I had been admitted to witness one of nature's grandest and most violent operations, almost in the very act of its execution. A walk of about twenty minutes brought us to the borders of the lake—a glorious expanse of water, fifteen miles long, by eight miles broad, occupying a basin formed by the same hills, which must also, I imagine, have arrested the further progress of the lava torrent. A lovelier scene I have seldom witnessed. In the foreground lay huge masses of rock and lava, tossed about like the ruins of a world, and washed by waters as bright and green as polished malachite.

Introductory remarks

1978 ◽  
Vol 284 (999) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
The South ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Do So

What we are here to discuss concerns the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. It is very fitting that we should do so in this place, because the Royal Society was intimately concerned with events that led to its discovery in 1770. We go back to 1716, to a communication printed in Latin in the Philosophical Transactions by Edmond Halley, then Savilean Professor of Geometry at Oxford and Secretary of this Society. There, and for no less an objective than the more accurate determination of the dimensions of the Universe, he drew attention to the unique opportunities to that end to be presented by observing the transits of Venus across the face of the Sun due on 6 June 1761 and 3 June 1769. In the event international observations in the former year were largely fruitless, giving added reason for adequate observations in 1769. One of the conclusions of the specially appointed Transit Committee of the Society was that one site for observation should be in the South Seas.

XXVIII. The caudal heart of the eel a lymphatic heart.—Effect of the force with which the lymph-stream is propelled therefrom on the flow of the blood in the vein into which the heart opens.— Explanation of the appearance of blood propelled in successive drops, as if from the heart, along the caudal vein.—Influence which the force of the lymph-stream from the heart exerts in accelerating and promoting the flow of blood in the caudal vein

1868 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 675-683 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Lymphatic System ◽  
Vascular System ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Naked Eye ◽  
Caudal Vein ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lymphatic Heart ◽  
As If

The remarkable pulsating organ in the tail of the eel, which forms the subject of this paper, was discovered by the late Dr. Marshall Hall. He viewed it as belonging to the blood-vascular system, and named it the “Caudal Heart." His description of it was founded on observations made on small eels under the micro­scope. In large eels the heart may, as he also pointed out, be seen with the naked eye by spreading the tail on a plate of glass and viewing it against the light. Not only, however, are the pulsations of the organ itself thus visible, but also the very peculiar appearance of successive drops of blood propelled, as if from the heart, with great velo­city along the caudal vein, which was observed by Dr. Marshall Hall in his microsco­pical examinations, though incorrectly interpreted by him: To explain the true nature of the phenomenon here referred to,—to prove thereby that the caudal heart belongs, not to the blood-vascular system, but to the lymphatic system, and to inquire into the influence which the force of the lymph-stream from the heart exerts in accelerating and promoting the flow of blood in the caudal vein, constitute the object of the communication here presented to the Royal Society.

Viannella viscaciæ n.sp., a Nematode Parasite of the South American rodent Viscacia viscacia

1925 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 157-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Goodey
Keyword(s):  
Alimentary Canal ◽  
Intestinal Wall ◽  
South American ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
The South ◽  
Zoological Society ◽  
Naked Eye ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Eye Examination ◽  
The Subject

Two members of a collection of the South American rodent Viscacia viscacia received by the Zoological Society of London, died early this year, one of them about 10 days after arrival at the Gardens. At the post-mortem examination both were found to have the alimentary canal heavily parasitized with Trichostrongylid nematodes. In the stomach there occurred Graphidioides rudicaudatus and Trichostrongylus retortæformis, whilst in the small intestine there were a few specimens of Trichostrongylus retortæformis and large numbers of the worm which forms the subject of the present paper. To naked eye examination of the intestinal wall the worms appeared as small bright red spots about the size of a pin's head and it could be seen that each was spirally coiled.

The Magic of Orpheus and the Ambiguities of Language

Ramus ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Segal
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Greek Myth ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
As If

Language is among the most mysterious of man's attributes. Its power not only to communicate truths about reality, but also to compel assent in the face of reality has often appeared miraculous, magical, and also dangerous. The marvel that mere words could impel men to the most momentous actions, and the admiration or fear that this fact inspires, are recurrent themes in classical literature. To express and understand this power Greek myth early framed the figure of Orpheus, a magical singer, half-man, half-god, able to move all of nature by his song. How that myth shifts in meaning and emphasis in representing that power is the subject of this essay. Though primarily concerned with classical writers, I shall also consider how a few modern poets used and transmuted this mythic material. My reading of the myth is both diachronic and synchronic. I attempt to study some aspects of its historical development and also to interpret it (especially in part I) as if all of its versions, taken together, form a contemporary statement about the relation of art and life.Orpheus is a complex, multifaceted figure. For the ancients he is not only the archetypal poet, but also the founder of a mystical religion known as Orphism, with a well-developed theology, cosmogony, and eschatology of which much survives in hymns and short epics, mostly of late date. The ‘poetic’ Orpheus inevitably overlaps with the founder of Orphism, but it is the Orpheus of the poetic tradition that this essay discusses.

scholarly journals On the refraction of sound by the atmosphere

1874 ◽  
Vol 22 (148-155) ◽  
pp. 531-548 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Small Distance ◽  
High Wind ◽  
Experimental Basis ◽  
The South ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Common Observation ◽  
High Winds ◽  
Quiet Day

My object in this paper is to offer explanations of some of the more common phenomena of the transmission of sound, and to describe the results of experiments in support of these explanations. The first part of the paper is devoted to the action of wind upon sound . In this part of the subject I find that I have been preceded by Professor Stokes, who in 1857 gave precisely the same explanation as that which occurred to me. I have, however, succeeded in placing the truth of this explanation upon an experimental basis; and this, together with the fact that my work upon this part of the subject is the cause and foundation of what I have to say on the second part, must be my excuse for introducing it here. In the second part of the subject I have dealt with the effect of the atmosphere to refract sound upwards, an effect which is due to the variation of temperature, and which I believe has not hitherto been noticed. I have been able to show that this refraction explains the well-known difference which exists in the distinctness of sounds by day and by night, as well as other differences in the transmission of sound arising out of circumstances such as temperature; and I have applied it in particular to explain the very definite results obtained by Professor Tyndall in his experiments off the South Foreland. The Effect of Wind upon Sound is a matter of common observation. Cases have been known in which, against a high wind, guns could not be heard at a distance of 550 yards, although on a quiet day the same guns might be heard from ten to twenty miles. And it is not only with high winds that the effect upon sound is apparent; every sportsman knows how important it is to enter the field on the lee side even when the wind is very light. In light winds, however, the effect is not so certain as in high winds; and (at any rate so far as our ears are concerned) sounds from a small distance seem at times to be rather intensified than diminished against very light winds. On all occasions the effect of wind seems to be rather against distance than against distinctness. Sounds heard to windward are for the most part heard with their full distinctness; and there is only a comparatively small margin between that point at which the sound is perceptibly diminished and that at which it ceases to be audible.

scholarly journals III. On the orientation of certain Greek temples and the dates of their foundation derived from astronomical considerations, being a supplement to a paper on the same subject published in the Transactions of the Royal Society in 1893

1897 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 43-65 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Slight Modification ◽  
Angular Distance ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Time Of Year ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Temple

The paper now presented to the Royal Society is a sequel to one on the same subject read here on April 27, 1893, and published in the Transactions for that year. In that paper the subject was explained at some length; it will, therefore, be unnecessary in this to repeat more than a very few explanatory observations. The aim of this inquiry is to deduce the date of the foundation of a Greek (or Egyptian) temple from its orientation, but I confine myself entirely to Greek temples, in which, however, the same practice was followed which had previously been reduced to a system in Egypt ( vide ‘ Dawn of Astronomy,’ by Sir J. N. Lockyer). Almost all the temples in Greece and its Colonies had an Easterly frontage, and the principal religious function in each temple took place on the morning of the day when the sun, as it rose above the visible horizon, shone through the open Eastern door directly upon the sanctuary, where there was usually a statue of the deity in the centre. As some time was requisite for the priests to prepare for the ceremony, the orientation of the temple was so directed as to combine with the sunrise the previous heliacal rising or setting of some conspicuous star which could also be observed from the sanctuary. In the absence of clocks the heliacal rising or setting of stars was very greatly observed by the ancients—the meaning of the term being that the star, when very slightly above the horizon, should just be visible in the twilight, before being extinguished by the dawn. The angle of the orientation depended primarily on the time of year chosen for the principal festival, but it would be liable to a slight modification for the sake of combining an heliacal star with the sunrise, and it is the latter consideration which offers the means of determining the date of foundation, because the stars, owing to the precession of the equinoxes, are affected by a slow, but steady movement, which alters the amplitude, as it is called, of their rising or setting—viz., the angular distance from the true East or West as the case may be, and which is reckoned positive if towards the North, and negative if towards the South.

Emmanuel Levinas: Um estudo sobre a ética da alteridade

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abimael Francisco do Nascimento
Keyword(s):  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Transcendental Philosophy ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Thought ◽  
Philosophical Criticism ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
First Philosophy

The general objective of this study is to analyze the postulate of the ethics of otherness as the first philosophy, presented by Emmanuel Levinas. It is a proposal that runs through Levinas' thinking from his theoretical foundations, to his philosophical criticism. Levinas' thought presents itself as a new thought, as a critique of ontology and transcendental philosophy. For him, the concern with knowledge and with being made the other to be forgotten, placing the other in totality. Levinas proposes the ethics of otherness as sensitivity to the other. The subject says here I am, making myself responsible for the other in an infinite way, in a transcendence without return to myself, becoming hostage to the other, as an irrefutable responsibility. The idea of the infinite, present in the face of the other, points to a responsibility whoever more assumes himself, the more one is responsible, until the substitution by other.

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