438 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 57. 



spirit. These are the men thnt found societies, 

 schools, sects ; wherever one unselfish and earnest 

 man settles down, there we invariably find a 

 cluster of students of his subject, that often lasts 

 for ages. Take, for instance, Leeds. There we 

 see that John llyley created, at a later period, 

 the Yorkshire school of geometers ; comprising 

 amongst its members such men as Swale, AVJiitiey, 

 Ryley ("Sam"), Gawthorp, Settle, and .John 

 Baines. This, too, was in a district in many 

 respects very analogous to Lancashire, but es- 

 pecially in the one to which the argument more 

 ii imcdiately relates : — it was a district of weavers, 

 only substituting wool for cotton, as cotton had 

 in the other case been substituted for the silk of 

 Spitalfields. 



We see nothing like this in the agricultural 

 districts ; neither do we in those districts whore 

 the ordinary manufacturing operations themselves 

 require the employment of the head as well as the 

 hands and feet. With the exception, indeed, of 

 the schoolmaster, and the exciseman, and the sur- 

 veyor, there are comparatively few instances of 

 persons whose employment was not strictly seden- 

 tary having devoted their intellectual energies to 

 mathematics, independent of early cultivation. To 

 them the subject was more or less professional, and 

 their devotion to it was to be expected — indeed 

 far more than has been realised. It is professional 

 now to a larger and more varied class of men, and 

 of course there is a stronger body of non-academic 

 mathematicians now than at any former period. 

 At the same time it may be doubted whether there 

 be even as many really able men devoted to 

 science purely and for its own sake in this country 

 as there were a century ago, when science wore a 

 more humble guise. 



Combining what is here said with the mastei-ly 

 analysis which Mr. Wilkinson has given of the 

 books which were accessible to these men, it ap- 

 pears that we shall be able to form a correct view 

 on the subject of the Lancashire geometers. Of 

 course documentary evidence would be desirable 

 — it would certainly be interesting too. 



To such of your readers as have not seen the 

 mathematical periodicals of that period, the ma- 

 terials for wdiich were furnished by these men, it 

 may be sufficient to state that the " Notes and 

 Queries" is conceived in the exact spirit of those 

 works. The chief difference, besides the usual 

 subject-matter, consists in the greater formality 

 and " stiffness " of those than of this ; arising, how- 

 ever, of necessity out of the specific and rigid 

 character of mathematical researcli in itself, and 

 the more limited range of subjects that were open 

 to discussion. 



The one great defect of the researches of those 

 men was, that they were conducted in a manner 

 so desultory, and that the subjects themselves 

 were often so isolated, that there can seldom be 



made out more than a few dislocated fragments 

 of any one subject of inquiry whatever. Special 

 inquiries are prosecuted with great vigour and 

 acumen ; but we look in vain for system, classi- 

 fication, or general principles. This, however, is 

 not to be charged to them as a scientific vice, pe- 

 culiarly : — for, in truth, it must be confessed to 

 be a vice, not only too common, but almost uni- 

 versal amongst English geometers; and even in 

 the geometry of the Greeks tliemselves, tlie great 

 object appears to have been "problem-solving" 

 ratlier than the deduction and arrangement of 

 scientific trulhs. The modern French geometers 

 have, however, broken this spell ; and it is not too 

 much too hope that we shall not be long ere we 

 join them in the development of the systems they 

 have already opened ; and, moreover, add to the 

 list some independent topics of our own. The 

 chief dangers to which we are in this case exposed 

 are, classification with incomplete data, and drawing 

 inferences upon trust. It cannot be denied, at all 

 events, that some of our French cotemporaries 

 have fallen into both these errors; but the abuse 

 of a principle is no argument for our not using it, 

 though its existence (or even possible existence) 

 shouhl be a strong incentive to caution. 



These remarks have taken a more general form 

 than it is usual to give in your pages. As, how- 

 ever, it is probable that many of your readers may 

 feel an interest in a general statement of a very 

 cin-ious intellectualq^henomenon, I am not without 

 a hope that, though so far removed from the usual 

 topics discussed in the work, they will not be 

 altogether unacceptable or useless. . 



Pen-and-Ink. 



iHt'nar ^aUi. 



Sermon's Pills. — In Guizot's Life of Monh^ 

 Duke of Albermarle, translated and edited by the 

 present Lord Wharncliffe, it is stated (p. 313.) that 

 when the Duke was suffering from the diseases 

 which afterwards proved fatal to him, 



" One oF liis neighbours, at New Hall, formerly an 

 officer in his army, mentioned to him certain pills said 

 to be sovereign against the dropsy, wliicli were sold at 

 Bristol by one Sermon, who had also served under his 

 orders in Scotland as a private soldier. This advice 

 and remedy from ancient comrades, inspired the old 

 general with more confidence than the skill of the phy- 

 sicians. He sent for Sermon's pills, and found himself 

 so much recovered by them for a time, that he returned 

 to London at the close of the summer." 



Having "found," in the newspajicrs of the d.ay, 

 the following paragraphs illustrative of this pas- 

 sage in the great General's history, I think them 

 sufficiently interesting " to make a JSTote of." 



" London, July 13. 1669. — His Grace the Lord 

 General, after a long and dangerous distemper, is (God 



