550 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are heavier tlian the original metals — observations which long 

 afterward served as one of the bases for modern chemistry. By 

 completing the air pump, Sir Henry W. Ackland says, he " revo- 

 lutionized the instrumentalities by which the atmosphere of the 

 earth, the gases, many phenomena of life, and infinite chemical 

 actions may be forever studied. It led, I doubt not, to the sug- 

 gestion of rules proposed for the investigation of the Peak of 

 Teneriffe — no small effort in the seventeenth century — and thus 

 attempted to settle one physical problem which was set forth with 

 great detail and precision by the Royal Society of the time." In 

 his essays on this instrument, he " foresaw the far-reaching results 

 through its agency of a more precise knowledge of the physical 

 and the chemical properties of the atmosphere, ... its relation to 

 all organic life, and to meteorology in the widest cosmical sense. 

 Henceforward he applied himself to experiments with this instru- 

 ment, combined with his increasing power of chemical investiga- 

 tion, into almost all matter, above, upon, and within the globe ; to 

 vapors, to metals and stones of every kind. He studied respira- 

 tion in the higher animals, investigated the effects of respired air 

 on birds, on reptiles, on snails, and on plants, and the manner of 

 death in each. Though experiments on living animals such as 

 could then be performed were abhorrent to his tender soul, yet 

 the knowledge of Nature was to him a religion ; and he had to 

 pierce through the secrets of life, the cause of disease, of suffering, 

 and of death by every means that his ingenuity could devise." 



When the Royal Society was incorporated, in 1663, Boyle was 

 named a member of the Council. He was elected president of the 

 society in 1689, but declined to serve in the office on account of 

 his scruples against taking the oath. He was at one time inter- 

 ested in alchemy, and carried on experiments on the transmuta- 

 tion of metals. In the interest of this business he secured the 

 repeal of the statute against multiplying gold and silver. 



The religious side of Boyle's character was as prominent as the 

 scientific side. Some experiences that happened to him in early 

 youth gave a tinge of melancholy to his disposition ; and he was 

 moved by the reflections to which he was led by this trait to give 

 himself for a considerable time wholly to an inquiry into the prin- 

 ciples and the evidences of Christianity. Vital and sincere as was 

 his faith, he was occasionally troubled with doubts, which he spoke 

 of as being to the soul like toothache to the body, not mortal, but 

 very inconvenient. The works of apologetics current in his time 

 did not satisfy his mind, and he went to the original sources, 

 studying Hebrew and the Oriental languages, and calling in the 

 aid of the best theological scholars contemporary with him. The 

 result of this inquiry was a conviction, the intensity of which was 

 manifested by a great activity in religious discussion and reli- 



