YRIARTE, JUAN DE. 



YRIARTE, JUAN DE. 



Having, in 1799, completed his last term of residence at Cambridge, 

 in 1800 he settled in London, and commenced the profession of 

 medicine. His practice however was never large, so that he was 

 enabled to devote much of his time to his favourite literary and 

 scientific pursuits. Several years were then required to elapse between 

 the date of admission of a student at Cambridge and the granting of 

 his degrees in medicine, BO that Young did not obtain his degree of 

 M.B. till 1803, nor that of M.D. till 1807. As early as 1799 he had 

 written his memoir, ' Outlines and Experiments respecting Sound 

 and Light,' w hich was read before the Royal Society, and printed in 

 their ' Transactions.' Other papers ' On the Theory of Light and 

 Colours ' followed, which the Council of the lloyal Society selected 

 for the Bakerian lectures. 



In 1801 he accepted the office of Professor of Natural Philosophy 

 at the Royal Institution, which had been established the year preced- 

 ing. His first lecture was delivered January 20, 1802. His lectures 

 were not popular. His matter was too much compressed and his 

 style too laconic. In 1802 he was appointed Foreign Secretary to the 

 Royal Society, an office which he held during the remainder of his 

 lift-, and for which he was well qualified by his knowledge of the prin- 

 cipal languages of Europe. He married June 14, 1804. After ful- 

 filling for two years the duties of Professor of Natural Philosophy to 

 the Royal Institution he resigned the appointment. 



During his connection with the Royal Institution he delivered sixty 

 lectures, which form the substance of his great work, which was pub- 

 lished in 1807, and entitled 'A Course of Lectures on Natural Philo- 

 sophy and Mechanical Arts,' 2 vois. 4to. This work includes also his 

 optical and other memoirs, and a classed catalogue of scientific pub- 

 lications. A new edition was published in 1845, ' with References and 

 Notes, by the Rev. P. Kelland, M.A., F.R.S., &c., illustrated by numer- 

 ous Engravings on Copper,' 8vo. These lectures embody a complete 

 system of natural and mechanical philosophy, drawn from original 

 sources; and are distinguished not only by extent of learning and 

 accuracy of statement, but by the beauty and originality of the 

 theoretical principles. One of these is the principle of interferences 

 in the undulatory theory of light. " This discovery alone," says Sir 

 John Herschel, " would have sufficed to have placed its author in the 

 highest rank of scientific immortality, even were his other almost 

 innumerable claims to such a distinction disregarded." The first 

 reception however of Dr. Young's investigations on light was very 

 unfavourable. The novel theory of undulation especially was attacked 

 in the ' Edinburgh Review,' and Dr. Young wrote a pamphlet in reply, 

 of which only one copy was sold. He communicated frequently with 

 the French philosopher Fresnel, who entertained views similar to his 

 own on the nature of light. The undulatory theory is now generally 

 received in place of the molecular or emanatory theory. Among the 

 other difficult matters of investigation in which Dr. Young was 

 engaged was that of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, in which in fact he 

 preceded Champollion. [CHAMPOLLION, J. F.] 



In 1809 and 1810 Dr. Young delivered at the Middlesex Hospital a 

 series of lectures on the elements of medical science and practice. In 

 January 1811 he was elected one of the physicians of St. George's 

 Hospital, a situation which he retained for the remainder of his life. 

 His practice there, as elsewhere, is stated to have been eminently suc- 

 cessful, but he never became popular. In 1813 he published ' An 

 Introduction to Medical Literature, including a System of Practical 

 Nosology, intended as a Guide to Students and an Assistant to Prac- 

 titioners,' 8vo. In 1816 Dr. Young was appointed secretary to a com- 

 mission for asctrtaining the length of the seconds' pendulum, for 

 comparing the French and English standards with each other, and for 

 establishing in the British empire a more uniform system of weights 

 and measures. He drew up the three reports, 1819, 1820, 1821. In 

 1818 Dr. Young was appointed secretary to the Board of Longitude, 

 and on the dissolution of that body he became sole conductor of the 

 ' Nautical Almanac.' 



Dr. Young at various times contributed eighteen articles to the 

 'Quarterly Review,' of which nine were on scientific subjects the rest 

 on medicine, languages, and criticism. Between 1816 and 1823 he 

 wrote 63 articles for the 'Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica,' of which 46 were biographical. In 1821 he made a short tour 

 in Italy in company with his wife. In August 1827 he was elected one 

 of the eight foreign associates of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, in 

 place of Volta, who died in 1826. Dr. Young died May 10, 1829, and 

 was buried in the vault of his wife's family at Farnborough, Kent. 



In 1855 was published a ' Life of Thomas Young, M.D., F.R.S., &c., 

 by George Peacock, D.D., F.R.S., &c., Dean of Ely,' 8vo. In the same 

 year was published 'Miscellaneous Works of the late Thomas Young, 

 M.D., F.H.S.,' &c. : vols. i. and ii. including his Scientific Memoirs, &c., 

 edited by George Peacock, D.D., B'.R.S., &c., dean of Ely, 8vo, 1855 ; 

 vol. iii., Hieroglyphical Essays and Correspondence, &c., edited by 

 John Leitch. These volumes contain all Dr. Young's contributions to 

 the 'Transactions' of the Royal Society; the principal articles fur- 

 nished for the ' Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica ; ' many 

 essays from Nicholson's 'Journal' and Brando's 'Journal;' some 

 reviews on scientific subjects from the ' Quarterly Review ; ' and 

 several essays either separately published or dispersed in different 

 publications. 



YRIARTE, JUAN DE, was born at Orotava, in the island of Tene- 



riffe, on the 15th of December 1702. His father was a native of 

 Navarre, and held a commission in the troops stationed in the Canaries. 

 His mother was a native of Orotava. Juun was the first-born of a 

 family of five sons and three daughters. 



When Juan had barely completed his eleventh year, his father, who 

 entertained a high opinion of French seminaries, sent him to France, 

 under the charge of Pedro de Hely, French consul in the Canaries, 

 who was returning to his native country. He sailed from Orotava on 

 the 18th of December 1713, and did not return to the Canaries till 

 1724. The year 1714 was spent in attendance at the public schools of 

 Paris; in April 1715 Hely transferred his residence to Rouen, whither 

 his ward accompanied him. At what time Yriarte returned to Paris 

 does not clearly appear ; but he spent eight years in the college of Louis 

 le Grand, where he distinguished himself by his acquirements in the 

 classical languages and in the mathematics. Before returning to 

 Teneriffe he visited London, apparently with a view to make himself 

 master of the English language. His stay there was short : the intel- 

 ligence of his father's declining health precipitated his departure. 



On his arrival at Orotava, some time in 1724, he found his father 

 already dead. It had been his wish that Juan should proceed from 

 the Canaries to Spain, and study law in some of the Spanish universi- 

 ties. The young man remained some months at Orotava, seemingly 

 irresolute to follow out the career designed for him by his father, and 

 during this time he was busy extending the knowledge of the English 

 language acquired during his short residence in London. At last he 

 resolved to comply with the wishes of his deceased parent, and sailed 

 for Spain .about the end of 1724. 



The reputation of the royal library induced him to visit Madrid, 

 and the facilities afforded him by that institution for indulging his 

 passion for reading detained him longer in that capital than he 

 intended. The frequency of his visits and the class of works he used 

 attracted the notice of the principal librarian, Don Juan de Ferraras, 

 and of the king's confessor, Father Guillermo Clarke, who was director 

 of the royal printing-office. The terms in which these officials spoke 

 of the acquirements of the young stranger induced the Duke de Bejar 

 to engage Yriarte as tutor for his sou. Yriarte succeeded so well in 

 this charge that he was successively engaged to give lessons to the son 

 of the Duke of Alba and to the Infante Dom Manuel of Portugal, who 

 visited Madrid about that time. His leisure hours were spent in the 

 royal library, in which his first patrons at length procured him an 

 appointment. On the 19th of April 1729, Yriarte was appointed secre- 

 tary to the royal printing-office ; and on the 4th of January 1732 a 

 librarian in the royal library. 



Hia extensive knowledge of languages and his passionate love of 

 books alike qualified him for filling the latter post. During the thirty- 

 nine years that he continued librarian he added two thousand manu- 

 scripts and upwards of ten thousand printed volumes to the collection. 

 In 1729 he had published a catalogue of the geographical and chrono- 

 logical works contained in the library ; in 1730, a catalogue of the 

 mathematical works; in 1769 he published the first volume of a cata- 

 logue of the Greek manuscripts in the royal library, illustrated with 

 notes, indices, and -anecdotes. A second volume was promised, but 

 never appeared. 



The linguistic attainments of the librarian were frequently put in 

 request by the government officers ; and so valuable were they found, 

 that on the 21st of February 1740 he was appointed official translator 

 to the principal secretary of state. The secresy observed in a ministe- 

 rial cabinet renders it impossible to learn with certainty the exact 

 qualifications he showed himself to be possessed of for this office ; but 

 during the whole twenty-nine years that he continued to fill it, he 

 enjoyed a high reputation among Spanish statesmen for method, punc- 

 tuality, and severe integrity. 



The laborious duties of the librarian and official translator did not 

 occupy the whole time of Yriarte. In 1743 he was elected a member 

 of the Royal Academy, and continued till his death to take an active 

 part in its labours. The chief labour of devising an improved system 

 of orthography, punctuation, and accentuation for the Spanish language 

 fell upon Yriarte : he was ordered by the king to compile a Spanish- 

 Latin Dictionary, in which however he proceeded no further than the 

 letter A ; and he published a Latin grammar in Castilian verse. He 

 had also a hand in revising and improving the ' Hispania Nova ' of 

 Nicolas Antonio, and the ' Biblioteca Arabico-Hispana Escurialense ' of 

 Casiri, and was of material assistance to Abreu in his ' Coleccion de 

 Tratados de Paz d'Espaiia.' 



Yriarte composed elegantly in verse, both in Spanish and Latin. 

 A collection of Spanish proverbs rendered into Latin verse, of epi- 

 grams in Latin, of translations from Martial, and of occasional verses 

 both in Latin and Spanish, was published by subscription after his 

 death. Juan Yriarte died at Madrid on the 23rd of August 1771, in 

 the sixty-ninth year of his age. In addition to the works already 

 mentioned, he left in manuscript 'Historia de las Islas de Canada,' and 

 ' Paldografia Griega.' He also contributed largely to the ' Diario de 

 los Literatos de Espana.' 



Three brothers of the name of Yriarte, nephews of Don Juan, have 

 distinguished themselves in the public service, and in the literature of 

 their country, but the materials for their biography are very scanty. 

 They appear to have been all born in Teneriffe; it is probable therefore 

 that their parents were settled there, and that the prosperous fortunes 



