SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JOHN WIN THRO P. 837 



ent from us in all respects. It would be at least prudent not to 

 ascribe similar functions to different organs ; and our language, 

 the product of our cerebration, would be impotent to represent 

 the emotions of an arthropod or a mollusk ; for beings that differ 

 in structure differ also in thought and instinct. The cochlea 

 being adapted to the hearing of simple or composite sounds, tones, 

 or noises, audition proper does not exist where there is no cochlea. 

 We are, in return, much less well endowed than the spider and 

 crawfish to perceive rapid tremors and vibrations, of which we 

 can make continuous sounds only when they exceed forty in a 

 second. Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the 

 Revue Scientifique. 



-4~->- 



SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JOHN WINTHROP. 



THE name of Winthrop has always been an honored one in 

 New England, in the domain of public affairs, and one mem- 

 ber of the family, at least, has placed it high on the rolls of science. 

 Several of the Winthrops of colonial times were cultivators of the 

 sciences, but none employed such high talents so exclusively in 

 this field of activity as did the subject of the present sketch. 



John Winthrop, one of many Johns in that family, was born 

 in Boston, December 19, 1714, and was graduated from Harvard 

 College in 1732. His family history is a part of the history of 

 Massachusetts. His father, Judge Adam Winthrop, was a great- 

 grandson of the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony ; 

 a graduate of Harvard; chief justice of the Court of Common 

 Pleas ; colonel of the Boston regiment ; and a lay member of the 

 Provincial Council. Six years after graduation, John Winthrop, 

 being then twenty-four years old, was elected to the Hollis pro- 

 fessorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy by the cor- 

 poration of Harvard College. The choice being submitted to the 

 overseers of the college, that body appointed a committee " to ex- 

 amine the professor-elect as to his knowledge of the mathemat- 

 ics," which soon reported favorably. Certain of the overseers, 

 who were especially anxious to protect the college from any pos- 

 sible contamination of heresy or schism, tried to have a commit- 

 tee appointed "to examine Mr. Winthrop about his principles 

 of religion." This matter was debated at several meetings, but 

 finally voted down, and Winthrop's election was thereupon ap- 

 proved. He was formally inaugurated, as was then the custom, 

 January 2, 1738-'39. The ceremonies included two Latin ora- 

 tions, the reading of the rules to govern the professor, prescribed 

 by the founder of the professorship, and the singing of a psalm, 

 after which came a dinner. 



