170 History of Luminescence 



phlogiston that renders the de-aerated calcareous earth fit to attract the 

 light with certain degrees of affinity. 



van's gravesande, van musschenbroek, and contemporaries 



Just as Lemery's chemistry influenced the early chemical thought 

 of the eighteenth century, so the Traite de Physique of Rohault 

 influenced physical views (see Chap. IV) , Sarton -^ has pointed out 

 how the Cartesian gradually gave way to the Newtonian philosophy 

 in the various translations and later editions of this famous book. 



The Dutch textbook of physics, contemporary with Boerhaave's 

 Chemistry, was the Physices Elementa Matheniatia, etc. (1720-1721) 

 of Willem Jakob van's Gravesande (1688-1742) , professor of mathe- 

 matics at the University of Leyden. It was translated into English 

 by J. T. Desaguliers (1683-1744) .^* 'sGravesande was an upholder 

 of the Newtonian philosophy. The first edition was mostly me- 

 chanics and properties of liquids and gases, but later editions (1747) 

 inckided the Bononian stone, phosphorus of urine, and electro- 

 luminescence. 



Holland was a country very active in natural philosophy in the 

 early eighteenth century. Nicolas Hartsoeker (1656-1725), a native 

 of Holland and professor at Utrecht, who spent much of his seven- 

 teenth-century years in Paris and published largely in French, wrote 

 a series of books Conjectures Physiques (Amsterdam, 1706) , includ- 

 ing the Suites de Conjectures Physiques and the Eclaircissements, 

 which followed. He was largely anti-Newton in point of view. In 

 the 1706 volume, Book I treated the system of the world, Book II 

 the earth and its properties. Book III the principles of physics, and 

 Book IV various meteors. Book III contained discourses on fire, 

 light, and colors but it was only in connection with fire that Hart- 

 soeker explained luminescence. He told why many kinds of phos- 

 phors (rotten wood, insects, and fish, or water of the sea) give light 

 without heat {clarte sans chaleur sensible) when exposed to the air, 

 while other bodies heat themselves considerably without giving light. 

 The reason lay in Cartesian doctrine. The matter of the first ele- 

 ment was held in the pores of bodies and in the case of linninous 

 substances able to push the " parcelles " of the material aside, appear- 

 ing as rays of light. In coal or heated metals, the first element can- 

 not escape, despite the large amount present, and consequently coal 

 retains its heat for a long time without giving much light. 



"G. Sarton, The study of early scientific textbooks, Isis 38: 137-148, 1947-1948. 



^* In addition to translating 'sGravesande, Desaguliers wrote A course of experi- 

 mental philosophy. The first edition appeared in 1725 and many others followed. In 

 the 1734-1744 edition, luminescence is referred to but nothing of any value is included. 



