SCIENCE, INVENTION, DISCOVERY. 



301 



fcrologer, wrote an almanac in the style of Mer- 

 lin, 1556. The first published is said to have 

 been by Martin Hykus, at Buda in 1470. The 

 first almanac in England was printed at Oxford, 

 in 1673. 



Anatomy. The human body was studied 

 by Aristotle about 350 B. C., and its structure 

 was made part of the philosophical investiga- 

 tions of Plato and Xenophon ; it became a 

 branch of medical education, under Hippocra- 

 tes about 420 B. C. Erasistratus and Herophi- 

 lus first dissected the human form, and may be 

 regarded as the fathers of anatomy ; it is said 

 that they practiced upon the bodies of living 

 criminals about 300 and 293 B. C. Galen, 

 who died 193 A. D., was a great anatomist. 

 In England the schools were long supplied 

 with bodies unlawfully exhumed from graves ; 

 and until 1832 the bodies of executed murder- 

 ers were ordered for dissection. Pope Boni- 

 face VIII. forbade the dissection of dead 

 bodies, 1297. The first anatomical plates, 

 designed by Titian, were employed by Vesalius, 

 about 1538. The discoveries of Harvey were 

 made in 1616. The anatomy of plants was 

 discovered in 1680. 



Angling. The origin of this art is in- 

 volved in obscurity ; allusion was made to it 

 by the Greeks and Romans, and in the most 

 ancient books of the Bible, as Amos. It came 

 into general repute in England about the pe- 

 riod of the reformation. Winkin de Worde's 

 Treaty se of Fysshinye, the first book printed on 

 angling, appeared in 1496. Isaac Walton's 

 book was printed in 1653. 



Arithmetic. Where first invented is not 

 known, at least with certainty. It was 

 brought from Egypt into Greece by Thales, 

 about 600 B. C. The oldest treatise upon 

 arithmetic is by Euclid, about 300 B. C. The 

 sexagesimal arithmetic of Ptolemy was used 

 A. D. 130. Diophantus of Alexandria was the 

 author of thirteen books of arithmetical ques- 

 tions (of which six are extant) in 156. Nota- 

 tion by nine digits and zero, known at least as 

 early as the sixth century in Hindostan in- 

 troduced from thence into Arabia, about 900, 

 into Spain 1050, into England 1253. Arith- 

 metic of decimals invented 1482. First 

 work printed in England on arithmetic was 

 by Tonatall, bishop of Durham, 1522. The 

 theory of decimal fractions was perfected by 

 Lord Napier in 1617. 



Assaying. The assaying of silver and 

 gold is affected by a process called cupellation. 

 Cupels are small flat crucibles made by press- 

 ing bone ash moistened with water, into cir- 

 cular steel molds, and they are dried by ex- 

 posure to the air. The principle upon which 

 tilje operation depends is, that all raetals with 



which gold and silver are usually alloyed, are 

 convertible into oxides by exposure to atmos- 

 pheric air at a high temperature, whereas the 

 precious metals remain unacted upon. 



To assay silver by cupellation the silver is 

 flattened and wrapped up in an envelope of 

 lead. A muffle or oven is heated in an assay 

 furnace and the two metals put into it. The 

 metals melt and the lead becomes converted 

 into an oxide, which as well as any baser met- 

 als before combined with the silver is absorbed 

 by the substance of the cupel until at length 

 the silver is left absolutely pure. 



The assaying of gold is performed, to a cer- 

 tain extent in a similar way, and if the gold 

 were alloyed only with copper, the process 

 would be as simple as that of silver assaying. 

 Usually, however, gold contains silver, and this 

 cannot be got rid of by cupellation, the part- 

 ing process is, therefore, had recourse to ; this 

 consists in dissolving the silver by dilute ni- 

 tric acid, which leaves the gold perfectly pure. 



Iron ores are assayed by separating the oxy- 

 gen from the iron, by the greater affinity of 

 charcoal for that element at high temperatures. 

 The ore, some charcoal, and an alkaline flux 

 are heated in a ci'ucibie ; and the result is that 

 all the impurities in the ore are made to leave 

 the iron so that the latter is presented in a 

 purely metallic form. 



Copper ores usually contain sulphur, and in 

 order to assay them a flux is prepared of fluor 

 spar, borax, slacked lime, argol, and niter. 



Automobile. This name covers all forms 

 of self-propelling vehicles for use on country 

 roads or city streets, whether driven by steam 

 produced by the combustion of fuel, stored 

 steam, compressed air, oil or gasoline engines, 

 or by electric motors taking current from accu- 

 mulators. Automobiles are not of recent ori- 

 gin, as many generally suppose, but date back 

 to the early days of the steam engine, to the 

 time of Sir Isaac Newton, who, in 1680, pro- 

 posed a form of steam carriage which embodied 

 the essential features of a steam automobile. 

 In 1790 Nathan Read patented and constructed 

 a model steam carriage. But the first actual 

 experiments were made in 1769, by a French 

 army officer, Nicholas Cugnot, who built a 

 three wheel carriage. In America, Oliver 

 Evans, as early as 1786, suggested a form of 

 road wagon to be propelled by steam. In 1803 

 Richard Trevithick built a full sized carriage 

 which was exhibited in London, having driven 

 itself 90 miles en route from Camborne, where 

 it was constructed. David Gurney built and 

 operated a steam carriage in 1827, in which he 

 made frequent and long journeys, 'covering as 

 much as 85 miles in 10 hours. He was ex- 

 celled by Waiter Hancock Who established 



