GRIFFITH, WILLIAM. 



GRIMM, F. M., BAUOK. 



HI 



to the ' Ufa of Gri.bach ' by Profmor Kothe (In German) ; to Homes 



Introduction to the Holy Scripture..' 7th i, voL ii, p. 28, Ac. ; to 

 Dr. SW. Riblical HenneneuUc.,- pp. 340-340 ; *c- 



GRIFFITH. WILLIAM, KM born in the yew 1810, and baring 

 bra detin*d for the medical profession, he completed hi* education 

 at I'oinnity College, then called the London University. He dintin- 

 nitbed himself in the medical cUsacs, but more especially in that of 

 botany, of which Dr. Lindley wai the profeaior. He went out to 

 India ai an nrit1an<-tiirg-im on the Mdru establishment, where he 

 armed on the S4th of September 1832. Shortly after his arrival he 

 wai appointed by the Bengal government to examine the botany of 

 Tenaeeerim. In 1835 be and Dr. M'Clellaud were selected to accompany 

 Dr. Wallich into A swim for the purpoae of reporting upon the growth 

 of Ike tea-plant From Assam he proceeded in company with Dr. 

 Bayfold to examine the then unexplored tracta which lie beyond 

 Loddra and Ava, on the extreme frontier of the eastern territories of 

 Great Britain. In 1837 he was appointed to accompany Captain 

 FMnberton on bis mission to Bootan. Two years afterwards, in 1839, 

 he was sent with the army of the Indus to examine the character of 

 the vegetation of Afghanistan. During these several journeys he lost 

 BO opportunity of making observations and collecting objects in 

 natural history. Although his appointments mostly had regard to his 

 botanical knowledge, bis reports, snd letters written during his 

 journeys, as well ss his papers, show that there waa little of intereat to 

 the naturalist that escaped his notice. In his travels he collected both 

 plants and animals. In collecting plants he bad the object in view of 

 writing a ' Flora of India,' and to this great work he never ceased to 

 devote himself. Many of his zoological specimens were cent to 

 Europe, and have been described and published by various naturalists. 

 He devoted much time to the fresh-water fishes of India, of which ho 

 made a large collection, and an account of them has been given in the 

 ' Calcutta Journal of Natural History.' At the time of his death his 

 collection of birds consisted of about six hundred specimens, affording 

 perhaps one of the moat extensive and instructive illustrations of the 

 geographical distribution of the birds of India extant. 



In 1841 Griffith was appointed to the medical duties at Malacca, 

 and upon Dr. Wallich's absence owing to illness, he waa appointed to 

 the superintendence of the Botanical Garden at Calcutta, and the 

 duties of the Professor of Botany in the Medical College. On the 

 return of Dr. Wallich he resumed his place at Malacca, and waa there 

 eixed with the disease of hia liver, which terminated his existence on 

 the 9th of February 1845. 



Griffith's was a life rather of promise than fulfilment. Ho was 

 educated in England ot a time when the blind deference which was 

 paid to the authority of Linnaeus as the end of botanical inquiry was 

 beginning to pacs away under the influence of the writing and teaching 

 of Professor Lintlley at University College; and when the genius and 

 profoundly philosophical views of Robert Brown were becoming 

 appreciated by his countrymen. He saw the right direction of 

 botanical investigation, and in the wide field for research which his 

 residence in India afforded aimed at something more than the collecting 

 of specimens and the descriptions of specie*. His life was too short 

 to observe much, and hia illness top rapid to afford opportunity for 

 publishing many of the results of his observations. He has however 

 left papers scattered in journals and Transactions, which indicate very 

 extraordinary powers of observation, and throw much light on the 

 subjects on which they treat. Among these papers may be specially 

 mentioned those ' On the Ovulum of Santaluin, Osyris, Loranthus, and 

 Visium,' ' On the Structure and Relations of the Various Forms of 

 Rnirantbi,' in the 18th and succeeding volumes of the ' Transactions 

 of the Li o use an Society.' Amongst other contributions to botany by 

 Griffith are' A Memoir of the Structure of Salvinia and Azolla,' in 

 the 'Calcutta Journal of Natural History;' a 'Description of Two 

 genera of Hamamelidjc, two species of 1 odostemon, and one species 

 of Kaulfussia," in the ' Asiatic Researches ;' on the family of Khizo- 

 pnonet, and a report on the ' Tea-plant of Upper Assam/ in the 



Transactions of the Agricultural Society of Calcutta.' 



GRIJIALDI, FKANCfcSCO MARIA, an Italian philosopher, and a 

 member of the order of Jesuits, ws born at Bologna in 1619. His 

 education being completed, he was, according to Moutucla, employed 

 during several yearn in giving instruction in the belles-lettres; and 

 during the Utter part of his life he applied himself to the study of 

 atronoiny and optics. He died at Bologna, in 1663, in the forty- 

 fourth year of bis age. 



Grimaldi was associated with Riccioli in making astronomical 

 observations, and he gave particular descriptions of the spots on the 

 raooa'a disc. It was aucrted by Moutucla that Grimaldi gave to 

 those spot* the designations by which they are now distinguished 

 arasng astronomers ; thus superseding the name* of the mountains 

 nd sea* of the earth which had been given to them by Hevelius; but 

 this is apparently a mistake. 



That which has given celebrity to Grimaldi is his work entitled 



rhjsico-mathesis de Lumine, Coloribus, et Iride aliisque annex!*,' 



which was published at Bologna, in 4to, in 1665. The greater part of 



Ihe work cooits of a tedious discussion concerning the nature of 



the conclusion of which is that light is not a substantial but an 



(Mental quality; the rest however possesses the highest interest, 

 ' H contains account* of tmmeroui experiments relating to the 



interference* of the ray* of light A description of the work is given 

 in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for that year. 



Grimaldi, having admitted the sun's light into a dark room, through 

 a small aperture, remarked that the breadths of the shadows of slender 

 objects, is needles and hair*, on a screen, were much greater than 

 they would have been if the rays of light bod passed by them in 

 straight lines. He observed also that the circle of light formed on a 

 screen by the rays passing through a very small perforation in a plate 

 of lead was greater than it would be if its magnitude depended solely 

 on the divergency of the rays ; and he arrived at the conclusion that 

 the rays of light suffer a change of direction in pairing near the edges 

 of objects : this effect he designated ' diffraction.' By Newton it was 

 subsequently called 'inflexion.' He found that the shadow of a 

 small body was surrounded by three coloured streaks or bands which 

 became narrower as they receded from the centre of the shadow ; 

 and, when the light was strong, be perceived similar coloured band* 

 within the shadow : there appeared to be two or more of these, the 

 number increasing in proportion as the shadow was farther from the 

 body. 



Having admitted the sun's rays into a room through two small 

 circular apertures, Grimaldi received the cones of light on a screen 

 beyond the place where they overlapped each oth> r ; and he observed, 

 as might be expected, that, within the space on which the rays from 

 both apertures fell, the screen waa more strongly enlightened than it 

 would have been by one cone of light; but he was surprised to find 

 that the boundaries of the penumbral portions which overlaid one 

 another were darker than the corresponding portions in which there 

 was no overlaying. This phenomenon of interference was, at the 

 time, enunciated as a proposition : "That a body actually enlightened 

 may become obscure by adding new light to that which it has already 

 received." 



Grimaldi also observed the elongation of the image, when a pencil 

 of light from the sun is made to pass through a glass prism ; but he 

 ascribed the dispersion of the light to irregularities in the material of 

 which the prism was formed ; and he was far from suspecting the 

 different refrangibilities of the rays. The discovery of this fact, 

 which hs led to so many important consequences in physical optics, 

 was reserved for Newton. 



GRIMALDI, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO, called IL BOLOQKKSE, a 

 celebrated Bolognese painter, born in 1606, was the pupil and relation 

 of the Carracci. He was particularly excellent in landscape, both as a 

 painter and an etcher: he etched some of the landscapes of Titian. 

 He painted also history and portrait, and was employed by Louis XIV. 

 and the Cardinal Mazarin for three years at Paris, painting in the 

 Louvre and in the cardinal's palace. He was also much employed by 

 Innocent X. at Rome, in the Vatican, in the Palazzo Quiriuale, and in 

 the Church of San Martino a' Monti ; and there are some good 

 landscapes by him in the Colonna Palace. He died at Rome in 1680 : 

 Pietro Santo Burtoli married one of his daughters. His son Aleesandro 

 assisted hioi in some of his works ; he was a good painter in a stylo 

 similar to that of his father. 



GRIMM, F. M., BARON, was born at Ratisbon, in 1723, of poor 

 parents, who gave him however an excellent education. Having 

 finished his studies he published a tragedy called ' Banise,' which 

 proved a complete failure. He afterwards accompanied a young Count 

 Schouburg to Leipzig and to Paris, where he became a reader to the 

 duke of Saxe-Gotha, This place however wai more honourable than 

 lucrative, and Grimm was in very narrow circumstances when he made 

 the acquaintance of J. J. Rousseau, which became a close intimacy, 

 strengthened by the fondness for music of both of them. Rousseau 

 introduced him to Baron Holbach, Madame D'Epinay, and other 

 persons distinguished cither by their rank or talents. When Paris 

 became divided between the partisans of the French and Italian 

 music, Grimm declared for the latter and became the leader of the 

 Coin tie la Reine, a party so called on account of their assembling in 

 the pit, under the box of the queen, while the opposite party, 

 assembling under the box of the king, was called Coin du Roi. Grimm 

 wrote on the occasion a witty pamphlet, entitled ' Le Petit Prophcte 

 de Uoeuiischbroda,' Paris, 1753. His opponents tried to answer him, 

 but were entirely beaten out of the field by another pamphlet entitled 

 ' Lettres sur la Muaique Franjaise.' Hisantagonists now talked about 

 banishment or the Hostile, but the excitement soon subsided, and the 

 author received universal praise. On becoming secretary to Count 

 Friesen he obtained still easier access to the higher circles of society, 

 where his chief object was to gain the favour of the ladies by the 

 elegance of his conversation, manners, and external appearance. His 

 relations with the editors of the ' Encyclopedic," and with many other 

 eminent individuals of France, as* well as his talents and great tact, 

 opened to him a brilliant career. On the death of Count Friesen he 

 became secretary to the Duke of Orleans, and began also at that 

 time to write for several German princes his literary bulletins, which 

 contained exceedingly clever analyses of all the more important 

 literary productions of France. 



In 1776 he was nominated by the Duke of Gotha his minister at 

 the French court with the title of baron, but this circumstance did 

 not interrupt bis literary occupations. He left France at the Revolu- 

 tion, aud retired to Gotba. In 1795 he was nominated by the Empress 

 Catharine of Russia her minister at Hamburg, a post which he 



