MATHEMATICS AND THE SCIENCES — LASLEY 185 



"He believed that the basic laws and concepts of his system could 

 be derived from experience. This is the meaning of ''hypotheses 

 non ■fingo.'' Newton was uncomfortable about absolute space, abso- 

 lute rest and action at a distance, since he found no basis for them 

 in experience. The successes of his theories prevented discovery of 

 the fictitious character of his foundations." 



Daniel Bernouli (1700) following shortly after Newton has been 

 called the founder of mathematical physics. 



From this era dates the origin of organic chemistry. Lavoisier 

 (1743-94) transmuted alchemy into a rational science. Perhaps, as 

 his judges said when he faced the guillotine, the republic had "no 

 need of savants." Certain it is that chemistry had great need of 

 Lavoisier. 



Mathematics through the calculus as we know it today was shaped 

 largely by the hand of Euler (1707). 



Sedgwick and Tyler state in their history of science that at the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century general physics and chemistry 

 were "still in the preliminary stage of collecting and coordinating 

 data, with attempts at quantitative interpretation, while in their 

 train the natural sciences were following somewhat haltingly." 



Geike adds that at this time "geology and biology were not yet 

 inductive sciences." 



But the stirrings of science in the eighteenth century projected 

 themselves into the nineteenth. Dalton (1803) with his law of 

 multiple proportions for the formation of compounds supplied the 

 first scientific approach to the atomic theory. 



Lyell with his publication of his "Principles" in 1830 raised 

 geology to the dignity of a science. 



Biology was admitted to the union of sciences in the Victorian age 

 through the efforts of Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Wallace, and others. 



By 1850 the older universities had founded scientific schools. 

 Academies of science began to be formed. The public by the open- 

 ing of the twentieth century was science-minded. A new era was 

 about to dawn. 



This new era took the form of a new conception as to the structure 

 of matter. There were significant undercurrents in the world of 

 physics. Sir Humphrey Davy made what he called his greatest 

 discovery, Michael Faraday. Faraday (1791-1867) discovered the 

 principle of magneto-electricity, and originated the electromagnetic- 

 field theory. The world was little aware of these tremendous hap- 

 penings. Even at a time when the Atlantic cable was in operation 

 Gladstone could (and did) ask Faraday whether electricity had a 

 use. And Faraday replied, "Why Sir, there is every probability 

 that you will soon be able to tax it." 



