402 Memoir of Dr. Thomas Young. 



From want of knowledge of the composition of white 

 light, Hooke had not an exact notion of the nature of in- 

 terferences, as Young was deceived by an assumed syllabic 

 or dissyllabic value of the hieroglyphics. 



Young is universally allowed to be the discoverer of the 

 theory of interferences ; hence, by a consequence which 

 appears to me inevitable, Champollion should be regarded 

 as the discoverer of the hieroglyphics. 



Had Young, while alive, been allowed to choose the 

 alternative of being considered the author of the doctrine 

 of interferences, leaving the hieroglyphics to Champollion, 

 or of retaining the hieroglyphics and abandoning to Hooke 

 the ingenious optical theory, I have no doubt that he 

 would have readily recognized the claims of our illustrious 

 countryman. 



Farther, no one can dispute with him the title of being 

 distinguished in the history of the memorable discovery of 

 the hieroglyphics, as Kepler, Borelli, Hooke, and Wren, 

 figure in the history of universal gravitation. 



The limits of this Memoir do not permit me even to cite 

 the simple titles of the numerous papers which Dr. Young 

 published : yet the publication of such a rich catalogue 

 would have certainly been sufficient for his honour. Who 

 would not suppose that we were enumerating the labours 

 of several academies, and not those of a single person, as in 

 the following series ? — 



Memoir on Iron Furnaces ; Essays on Music and Paint- 

 ing ; Researches into the Habits of Spiders, and the System 

 of Fabricius ; On the Stability of the Arches of Bridges ; 

 On the Atmosphere of the Moon ; Mathematical Theory 

 of Epicycloidal Curves ; Restitution and Translation of dif- 

 ferent Greek Inscriptions; On the Means of strengthening 

 the Timber-work of Wooden Vessels ; On the Action of 

 the Heart and Arteries in the Phenomenon of Circulation ; 

 Theory of the Tides; On the Diseases of the Chest; 

 On the Friction in the Axes of Machines ; On the 

 Yellow Fever; On the Calculation of Eclipses; Essays on 

 Grammar, &c. 



Such a variety of elaborate works one would have 

 thought sufficient to shut up their author in his study. 

 Thomas Young, on the contrary, was a man of the world. 



