146 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 



make or collect observations of this kind in all parts of the Avorlcl, and to com- . 

 municate tbcm to tlic Royal Society, "in order to leave as complete a history) 

 as may be to those that are hereafter to compare all together, and to complete i 

 and perfect this abstruse theory." 



Anotiier science Avhicb at this era engaj^cd the attention of the Society was i 

 geology, or, as it was then termed, "the Natural History of the Earth ;" thei 

 chief representatives of which, before the Society, appear to have been Dr. 

 Lister and Dr. "Woodward. Of the former, Lyell remarks : " He was the first 

 who was aware of the continuity over large districts of the principal grouj 

 of strata in the British scries, and who proposed the construction of regular . 

 geological maps." Woodward published an essay towards a Natural llistoryj 

 of the Earth, Avhich attracted much attention and was elaborately reviewed ini 

 the Transactions. Dr. Whewell, moreover, has noted as " one of the most re- 

 markable occurrences in the progress 6f descriptive geology in England, the for- 

 mation of a geological museum by William Woodward as early as 1G95.J 

 This collection, formed with great labor, systematically arranged, and carefully j 

 catalogued, he bequeathed to the University of Cambridge; founding and eu-t 

 dowing at the same time a profes^orshij) of the study of geology. The Wood- 

 wardian Museum still subsists, a monument of the sagacity with which its. 

 author so early saw the importance of such a collection."* 



An official connexion of the Society with the progress of astronomical obser-:j 

 vations resulted from its relations to the observatory of Greenwich (founded^ 

 1675,) of which, after having done much to sustain and advance it during the^ 

 many years while it remained neglected by government, the Society finally 

 became the formal directors or visitors by royal warrant. Under this authority 

 the Society are required to exact from the astronomer royal for the time beingj 

 an account of the annual observations made, to inspect the instruments of the., 

 observatory, and to su])erintend and, if deemed proper, to direct its operations 

 If, therefore, so eminent an autliority as jM. Struve has singled it out as a poini 

 well worthy of remark and encomium, that the astronomers of this illustrioi 

 observatory have maintained one unchanged sj'stem or plan in their laborf 

 during the long period from the origin of (be establishment to the present day 

 something of this uniformity may reasonably lie ascribed to its connexion witt 

 and subordination to a fixed and self-perpetualing body like the Royal Society.) 



The application of steam, which in our day has acquired so astonishing a 

 development, did not fail to find among the early Fellows of the Society: 

 at least one curious inquirer, whose speculations and projects are preserved ini 

 the Transactions. Dr. Papin, inventor of the well-known digester for softening 

 bones, and whose " philosophical supper" prepared upon that plan may still be 

 enjoyed by the readers of Evelyn's Diary, is noticed in 1690 as having in- 

 vented a method of draining mines by the force of " vapor," in which, though 

 much was wanting to the practical perfection of the engine, the philosophical 

 principle of the condensation as well as elastic force of steam is observed and 

 pointed out. At a later pei'iod Dr. l^apiu communicated to the Society an ea 

 tension of this principle to the propulsion of boats " to be rowed by oars moved! 

 with heat," and had the honor of having his project referred to Sir Isaac; 

 Newton, from whom it received a conditional approval.t 



* Woochvarcl, whatever his scientific moit, seems to have beeu of an irascible teuipera-i 

 ment. He was expelled from the coimcil of the Society for insulting Sir Hans Sloane andj 

 refusing to apologize. He fbnght a duel with Dr. Mead, occasioned by a dispute, as Voltaire,! 

 says, sur Id manic re tin purgcr loi midade. Woodward's foot slipped and befell. " Take), 

 your lite I" exclaimed Meade. " Anything but your physic," replied Woodward. j 



tThe Ijetter known project of Savery, wliose jngine was able, through the introduction of' 

 a vacuum, to perform double tlie work of that devised, at a sti'l earlier day, by the Marqiiisj 

 of Worcester, was exiiibited before the Society ( IG9U, ) and the certificate granted by that bodj!: 

 to the ingenious contriver, was the means of his obtaiuiug ii patent from the Crowu for tht: 

 ■manufacture of steam-engines. — Weld, I, 357. ' Ifl 



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