scholarly journals XV. A new demonstration of the binomial theorem, when the exponent is a positive or negative fraction. By the Rev. Abram Robertson, A. M. F. R. S. Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford. In a letter to Davies Giddy, Esq. F. R. S

1806 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 305-326 ◽  

Dear Sir, Being perfectly convinced of your love of mathematical science, and your extensive acquirements in it, I submit to your perusal a new demonstration of the binomial theorem, when the exponent is a positive or negative fraction. As I am a strenuous advocate for smoothing the way to the acquisition of useful knowledge, i deem the following articles of some importance ; and unless I were equally sincere in this persuasion, and in that of your desire to promote mathemati­cal studies, in requesting the perusal, I should accuse myself of an attempt to trifle with your valuable time. The following demonstration is new only to the extent above mentioned ; but in order that the reader may perceive the proof to be complete, a successive perusal of all the articles is necessary. As far as it relates to the raising of in­tegral powers, it is in substance the same with one which I drew up in the year 1794, and which was honoured with a place in the Philosophical Transactions for 1795. If, therefore, you think the following demonstration worthy the attention of mathematicians, you will much oblige me by presenting it to the Royal Society.

1761 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 173-177 ◽  

My Lord, The present bad state of health of my worthy friend and collegue Dr. Bradley, his Majesty's Astronomer, prevented him from making the proper observations of the transit of Venus on Saturday morning last; and consequently, has deprived the public of such as would have been taken by so experienced and accurate an observer.


Philosophy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Longworth

John Langshaw Austin (b. 1911–d. 1960) was White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He made a number of contributions in various areas of philosophy, including important work on knowledge, perception, action, freedom, truth, language, and the use of language in speech acts. Distinctions that Austin drew in his work on speech acts—in particular his distinction between locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts—have assumed something like canonical status in more recent work. His work on knowledge and perception figures centrally in some recent work on these topics, especially with respect to questions about the nature of episodes of seeing and the way they can figure in enabling us to know things about our environments. His work on meaning and truth has played an important role in recent discussions of the extent to which sentence meaning can be accounted for in terms of truth-conditions. His work on action and freedom has played a role in some more recent discussions. However, Austin is often aligned with an approach to philosophical questions that focuses heavily on the way we use ordinary language. Many philosophers who are skeptical about the value of that approach are therefore skeptical about the worth of some of Austin’s work.


In the year 1782, while Sir Joseph Banks, the autocrat of the philosophers, who presided so formidably over the Royal Society for no less than forty-three years, was still comparatively new to office, the extraordinary conduct of a learned and popular Fellow involved the Royal Society in a situation of some difficulty. James Price was not only wealthy and of high social standing, he was also a man of considerable reputation as a chemist. In May of the year before, he had been elected to the Society with complete confidence. In the spring of 1782, to the consternation of his fellow chemists, this man whom they held to be not only an authority on chemistry but a man of honour put forward a claim to have achieved the goal towards which throughout the ages the efforts of the alchemists had been directed. He had discovered, he said, a means of transmuting baser metal into gold. He claimed to be in possession of a white powder, capable of converting fifty times its own weight of mercury into silver and a red powder which could convert sixty times its weight of mercury into gold. Between 7 May and 25 May 1782 he conducted in public in the laboratory in his house at Stoke, near Guildford, a series of experiments which appeared to his audience to confirm his claim in every respect. The demonstrations were attended by a distinguished company, including his neighbours Lord Onslow, Lord King and Lord Palmerston, although, as the Royal Society could not but feel, it was not a scientific audience nor one qualified to pass judgement on his claim. The apparent success of his experiments caused an immense sensation and the belief in his powers was strengthened when the gold and silver alleged to have been produced were found genuine on assay and were exhibited to the King. The University of Oxford—Price had been a Fellow-commoner of Oriel—presented him with the degree of M.D. on account of* his chemical labours ’, and two editions of his book,1 describing in great detail the chemical reactions concerned in the process, were quickly sold.


1940 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 173-195

John Mellanby was born in 1878 in County Durham. His father was manager of a shipbuilding yard at West Hartlepool. From Barnard Castle School he obtained a scholarship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1896. He was placed in the first class of the first part of the Science tripos in 1899 and of Part II in Physiology in the following year. A year later he was appointed physiologist in charge of research in the new laboratory of Messrs Burroughs & Wellcome at Brockwell Park. He worked there till he went late in 1904 to Manchester to do the clinical work necessary for his medical degree. He took his M.D. in 1907 and was awarded the Horton Smith Prize for the best thesis presented by candidates for the degree in his year. He then worked as George Henry Lewes research student at Cambridge for two years till in 1909 he was appointed lecturer-in-charge of the physiological department at the Medical School of St Thomas’s Hospital. Here he stayed till in 1936 he was appointed Waynflete Professor of Physiology in the University of Oxford in succession to Sir Charles Sherrington. In 1911 he married Alice Mary, daughter of Joseph Watson, of Barrhead. In 1920 the post that he held at St Thomas’s became a professorship in the University of London. In 1929 he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society and was serving on the Council at the time of his death, which took place after five weeks illness on 15 July 1939. He is survived by his wife and one daughter.


1695 ◽  
Vol 19 (216) ◽  
pp. 73-78

2. Tractatus de Salis Cathartici amari in aquis ebeshamensibus & hujusmodi aliis contenti naturInâ & usu. Aut. Nehemia Grew, M. D. utriusque Reg. Soc. Soc. Lond. Impensis S. Smith & B. Walford. In 12º In the former of them are contained, 1. His Inaugural Oration , when he entred upon that Employ­ment, Octob. 31. 1649.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania M. Maci

Purpose This study aims to examine the way in which elderly people, men and women, with a terminal illness use language to construct a narrative about their “living-with-dying” experience. Design/methodology/approach This investigation is a secondary analysis based on a corpus of health and illness narratives collected by the Health Experiences Research Group at the University of Oxford and published by the DIPEx charity (available at: http://healthtalk.org/home). Findings This study shows that there are qualitative differences in the way in which not only elderly people but also men and women report their experience with terminal illness and their relation to death. Originality/value Understanding the different perspectives from which elderly people narrate their experiences of how they live while dying from terminal illness can help health professionals to develop more effective all-inclusive health policies and practices in end-of-life care.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry J. Snaith ◽  
Samuele Lilliu

Henry J. Snaith is Professor of Physics in the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford and Fellow of the Royal Society. He has pioneered the field of perovskite solar cells and published more than 300 papers. He is the founder and Chief Scientist Officer of Oxford Photovoltaics, which holds the largest perovskite patent portfolio worldwide and focuses on developing and commercialising perovskite PV technology. In this interview, he discusses the present status and future prospects of perovskite PV. The interview is available at https://youtu.be/sbe9Z5oEs5o.


Isaac Newton dedicated his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica to the Royal Society, founded by King Charles II and ‘flourishing under the protection of the most powerful monarch James II.’ Edmond Halley, but for whom the book would probably never have been published, personally presented a copy of it to the King in June 1687, being ‘assured that when the weighty Affairs of your Government permit it; your Majesty has frequently shewn your self enclined to favour Mechanical and Philosophical Discoveries.’ 1 During the previous month, by a curious irony of timing, one of the ‘Affairs of Government’ had been the prosecution of the Vice-Chancellor and Senate of the University of Cambridge, with Isaac Newton standing in court as one of the ‘men either of publick Character in the Body [that is, the Senate], or the Seniors of their Houses, or some way eminently known in the University’. 2 He had stood there as an opponent of the arbitrary demands of James II upon the University. The King sought to introduce into it, as a Master of Arts, a Papist, indeed a Benedictine monk, enjoying the royal confidence: one Alban Francis. Newton’s biographers have agreed that he played a decisive role in stiffening resistance to the royal policy, preparing the way for the trial of the seven bishops and the King’s downfall. 3


The visit to the University of Oxford took place of Thursday 21 July. The visitors arrived in Oxford by coach where they were met by student guides who took them on short tours of some of the Colleges and University buildings and later to the Colleges where they were entertained to lunch. In the afternoon they went sight-seeing again, some to the Museum of the History of Science to see a special exhibition illustrating the work of the early Fellows of the Royal Society, and some to Blackwells where a display of scientific books had been arranged. At 3.30 the visitors assembled in the Sheldonian Theatre where Honorary Degrees were conferred on five of the distinguished guests (see p. 86). After the Degree Ceremony there was a garden party at Wadham where the visitors were the guests of the Warden, Sir Maurice Bowra, and the Fellows. In the evening the President and Council were entertained to dinner at Wadham together with the Council of the British Academy as guests of Sir Maurice Bowra, President of the British Academy. On Monday 25 July a visit was made to the University of Cambridge. Twelve coaches left Burlington House and arrived at the University of Cambridge Library where the visitors were able to inspect the Library, and in particular, the special collection of exhibits with Royal Society associations.


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