997 



GRANT, ROBERT, M.A., P.R.A.S. 



QROTEPEND, GEORG FRIEDRICH. 



998 



studied chemistry under Dr. Thomas Thomson. He took his degree of 

 M.A. and subsequently Btudied at Edinburgh. In 1828 he opened a 

 laboratory in Glasgow for the practical study of chemistry, and suc- 

 ceeded Dr. Clarke as lecturer on chemistry at the Mechanics' Institute. 

 In 1830 he was appointed professor of chemistry in the Andersonian 

 University, an appointment which he held till his removal to Univer- 

 sity College, London, to take the chair of chemistry vacated by the 

 death of Dr. Edward Turner. On the appointment of Sir John 

 Herschel as master of the Mint, Professor Graham was appointed non- 

 resident assayer. In this office he had to submit all the bullion 

 received at the Mint to a uniform scientific control. In 1855, on the 

 retirement of Sir John Herschel, Mr. Graham was appointed master of 

 the Mint. 



Professor Graham's publications on chemistry have not been nume- 

 rous, but he has made some of the most important contributions that 

 have been made to the science during the present century. One of 

 the most valuable of these was his discovery of the law of diffusion of 

 gases, which obtained for him the Keith prize of the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh in 1834. He afterwards announced the discovery of 

 the polybasic character of phosphoric acid, arad some new views on the 

 constitution of salts. For these researches he obtained the gold medal 

 of the Royal Society of London in 1840. His researches on the 

 transpirability of gases obtained for him a second gold medal from the 

 Royal Society of London in 1850. In 1850 and 1854 he gave the 

 Bakeriau lectures before the Royal Society of London, and demon- 

 strated the existence of a diffusive power in liquids similar to that 

 which exists in gases. To this force he gave the name of Osmosis, and 

 showed its relation to the action which had hitherto been known under 

 the names of Endosruosis and Exosmosis. The original views and 

 discoveries which he has made are embraced in his work on the ' Ele- 

 ments of Chemistry,' the first edition of which appeared in 1842, and 

 ' a second subsequently. 



Professor Graham was the first president and one of the founders of 

 the CLemical Society of London, which was established in 1840. He 

 was also chosen president of the Cavendish Society on its foundation 

 in 1846 a position which he still holds. 



He has been often employed by the government in important 

 physical and chemical investigations. In 1846 he was one of a com- 

 mission to report on the ventilation of the Houses of Parliament. In 

 1847 he was made one of a commission for reporting on the casting of 

 guns. In 1851, in conjunction with Professors Miller and Hoffman, he 

 was employed to report on the nature of the water supplied to the 

 metropolis. 



In 1836 Professor Graham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 

 of which he has been twice elected vice-president. He was elected a 

 corresponding member of the Institute of France in 1848. He received 

 the degree of D.C.L. at the Oxford Commemoration in 1853, and he 

 is a foreign member of the academies of sciences of Berlin, Munich, 

 Turin, and Washington. 



* GRANT, ROBERT, M.A., F.R.A.S., author of the 'History of 

 Physical Astronomy,' the production of which marks an epoch in the 

 history of natural knowledge, was born at Grantoun, Strathspey, in the 

 county of Inverness, in the year 1814. His education was interrupted 

 at the age of fourteen by an illness which extended over a period of 

 six years. When he recovered, he resumed his early studies in Latin, 

 and, with no other help than books, supplied by the affectionate care 

 of his relatives, taught himself mathematics and physical astronomy, 

 together with the Greek, French, and Italian languages. Subsequently, 

 for a short time, he studied natural philosophy and classical litterature 

 at King's College, Aberdeen. In 1841 he entered the counting-house 

 of his brothers, in London, in which he remained nearly four years, 

 devoting his leisure hours to mathematics and physical astronomy. 

 In 1845 he formed the resolution to write the history of the latter 

 department of science, and shortly afterwards proceeded to Paris, 

 where he resided during 1846 and 1847, engaged in making researches 

 for the projected work in the principal libraries of that city, and 

 attending the scientific lectures delivered at the Sorbonne. Towards 

 the close of the year 1847 he entgred into an engagement with Mr. 

 Robert Baldwin, of Paternoster-row, who, having become the pro- 

 prietor of the ' Library of Useful Knowledge,' which he had originally 

 published for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,' had 

 begun the publication of a new series of that work, to write a short 

 history of physical astronomy, to form part of that series. The first 

 number was published in September 1848, but the scale of the work 

 happily was augmented, and the whole appeared complete in the 

 spring of 1852, forming a closely-printed volume of nearly 700 pages. 

 It is incumbent upou us to give some account of this work. At the 

 time when it was published, just after the completion of the first half 

 of the present century, the only works which had any claim to be 

 styled standard histories in either theoretical or observational astro- 

 nomy, were the ' History of Modern Astronomy,' by the ill-fated 

 Bailly, ending in 1781, but continued to 1810 by Vorirn, and the 

 v\ ell-known ' History ' of Delambre, of which the first volume 

 appeared in 1817; and both of these were becoming antiquated. In 

 our own day no work had appeared approaching the character of a 

 general history of the science, though only for a short period, except 

 Mr. Airy's report on Astronomy to the British Association, at its 

 second meeting, in 1832. Mr. Grant's volume therefore, from the 



time of its first appearance, was felt to supply an urgent want ; and 

 haying been found entitled, by the tests applied to it and the resulting 

 opinion formed, to rank as an astronomical classic, the gold medal of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society was awarded for it to the author, and 

 presented to him at the annual general met-tins.', February 8, 1856 ; 

 on which occasion a masterly address was delivered by the president, 

 Manuel J. Johnson, Esq., M.A., Radcliffe observer at Oxford, which 

 has been published in the 'Memoirs' and 'Monthly Notices' for the 

 session 1855-56. The award being the first which, during the society's 

 thirty-six years' existence, had been conferred on literary service, Mr. 

 Johnson first vindicated its propriety in that respect, and after a brief 

 view of the historical literature of astronomy (from which the preceding 

 remarks on that subject have been derived), proceeds to give a sketch 

 of the contents and a statement of the character of the work itself : 

 " The first thirteen chapters of the book," he observe?, " are devoted 



to an historical exposition of the theory of gravitation Thi* 



inquiry forms by far the most laborious part of the volume. To col- 

 lect his materials, the author had not only to wade through a multitude 

 of special treatises, but also to search the published records of all the 

 great academies of Europe. Then the arrangement, in anything like 

 lucid order, of the vast mass which he had accumulated, in the narrow 

 compass of an octavo volume, was no slight difficulty; and if we 

 further consider that his facts were to be stated in language which was 

 to satisfy the mathematician, and to be intelligible to the educated 

 public, I think it admits of question whether the task of construction 



was not as great as that of collection and discussion All 



that is known of the physical construction of sun, planets, and 

 comets, is given in great detail in the fourteenth and fifteenth- chapters, 

 together with many valuable contributions to the literature of tho?e 

 subjects. Nor has the author omitted to trace the history of observa- 

 tional astronomy from the earliest period to the present time." 

 " Throughout the book," Mr. Johnson continues, " no one can fail to 

 be struck with the skill, integrity, and discernment the author has 

 displayed in tracing the successive stages of progress ; or with the 

 scrupulous care he has taken to assign to each of the great men whom 

 he reviews their proper share in the common labour." 



Mr. Grant had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society on the 14th of June 1850; and in November 1852, after the 

 publication of his book, he was appointed editor, under the superin- 

 tendence of the council, of the ' Monthly Notices ' of that society, 

 containing papers, abstracts of papers, and reports of its proceedings, 

 a periodical which may be regarded as a means of diffusing a know- 

 ledge of the present progress of astronomy equivalent in importance 

 to the former ' Correspondence ' of Von Zach aad the ' Astronomische 

 Nachrichteii ' of Schumacher, while it is in some respects superior to 

 both, besides being the record of the actual proceedings of the society 

 from which it emanates. 



Mr. Grant has recently added to his scientific occupations that of a 

 public teacher of astronomy, having delivered two courses of lectures 

 on that science at the London Institution, one in illustration of its 

 progress and philosophy, and of recent discoveries especially the 

 other elementary, adapted to a juvenile auditory, and forming part of 

 the Educational series of the lectures at that establishment. 



The title and description of his great work are as follows : ' History 

 of Physical Astronomy, from the earliest ages to the middle of the 

 nineteenth century. Comprehending a detailed account of the estab- 

 lishment of the theory of gravitation by Newton, and its development 

 by his successors ; with an exposition of the progress of research on 

 all the other subjects of celestial physics,' Svo, Lend., 1852, pp. 20 

 and 638. 



GROTEFEND, GEORG FRIEDRICH, a distinguished philologist 

 and antiquarian, was born at Miinden in Hanover on June 9, 1775. 

 He was educated in his native town aud at Ilfeld till 1795, when 

 he proceeded to Gottingen, where he became intimate with Heyne, 

 Tychsen, and Heeren. On the recommendation of Heyne he was 

 appointed in 1797 assistant teacher in the Gotfcingen town school ; 

 and after he had made himself known by his work ' De pasigra- 

 phia sive scriptura universal!/ published in 1799, he was chosen 

 pro-rector of the Gymnasium of Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1803, 

 and shortly afterwards con-rector. Besides many learned contri- 

 butions to the 'Aligemeinen Cyclopiidie ' of Ersch and Gruber, 

 and to other periodical works, he published in 1815, 'Anfangs- 

 griinde der deutschen Poesie' (Elements of German Poetry), and 

 founded in 1817 a society for the investigation of the German language. 

 In 1821 ho was called to be director of the Lyceum at Hanover, which 

 thenceforth became his residence. In 1823-24 he published au entirely 

 remodelled edition of Wenck's Latin grammar in 2 vols. 4to, and a 

 smaller one for the use of schools in 1826. His most noticeable works 

 however are those relating to the deciphering of the eastern cuneiform 

 inscriptions, on which he expended much and successfully directed 

 labour; and those devoted to an investigation of the old Italian 

 languages and geography. Among these works are his 'Neuen Bei- 

 tra'ge zur Erluuteruug der perse politanische Keilschrift' (New Con- 

 tributions towards the Explanation of the Persepolitan Cuneiform 

 Inscriptions), 1837 : and ' Neue Beitrage zur Erlauterung der Babylo- 

 nische Keilschrift,' 1810. For early attempts these works possessed 

 considerable merit, but their value has been lowered by the inde- 

 fatigable labours of more recent investigators. On the Italian antiquities 



