MUTTON, WILLIAM. 



HUYQHKNS, CHRISTIAN. 



( u 



master. Upon the doth of hit f*thrr, which happened bfora ha bad 

 completed hi* eighteenth year, he boamo teacher in a aohool at the 

 neighbouring Tillage of Jeauiood ; and come yean afterward! hii 

 master, who wa> a clergyman, having been presented to a living, 

 rejjgned the eohnol in hia favour. In 1760 Hutton married, and 

 removed hi* establishment to Newcastle, where he met with consider- 

 able enooursfremrnt. While engaged in tuition he wrote hia first work, 

 entitled 'A Practical Treatite on Arithmetic ud Uook-Keeping,' which 

 appeared in 1784, and toon pawed through several edition*. In 1771 

 be publirhed hie ' Treatice on Mensuration,' 4to, London ; and the 

 nine year the bridge of Newcastle having been nearly destroyed by 

 great flood, he drew up a paper upon the beet mean* of securing its 

 future stability, which wag afterwards published under the title of 

 ' Principle* of Bridges, and the Mathematical Demonstration of the 

 Laws of Arches,' Svo, Newcastle, 1772. In 1773 he became a candidate 

 for the professorship of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy 

 of Woolwich. The examination WAS conducted with exemplary im- 

 partiality by four eminent mathematicians Dr. Honley, afterwards 

 bishop of Rochester ; Dr. Maskelyne, the astronomer-royal ; Colonel 

 Watson, the chief engineer to the Enst India Company; and Mr. 

 Landen. After its termination the examiners expressed high appro- 

 bation of all the candidates, who were eight in number, but gave a 

 decided preference in favour of Mr. Hut ton, and be was accordingly 

 appointed to the professorship. On the 10th of November 1774-, 

 (Thomson's 'History of the Royal Society') Hutton was elected a 

 Fellow of the Itoyal Society, and upon the accession of Sir John 

 Pringle to the presidency he was appointed foreign secretary to that 

 body, which office he continued to hold with the greatest credit until 

 he was displaced by Sir Joseph Banks in 1778-79, on the plea that it 

 was requisite the secretary should reside constantly in London. [BANKS, 

 SIR Jasirn.] 



In 1775 the Royal Society instituted a series of experiments on the 

 mountain Schehallien in Perthshire, with a view to determine the 

 mean density of the earth. These were conducted principally under 

 the direction of Dr. Maskelyne, and when completed the labour of 

 making the necessary calculations was allotted to Mr. Hutton, who was 

 considered the most competent person for the undertaking. Hi* report 

 is contained in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' of the year 1773. In 

 the year 1779 the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the 

 University of Edinburgh. In 1781 be published his ' Tables of the 

 Product and Powers of Numbers,' Svo, London; and in 1785 his 

 ' Mathematical Tables,' containing the common, hyperbolic, and logistic 

 logarithm?, with the sines, tangents, ic., both natural nnd logarithmic, 

 Svo, London. To these succeeded his ' Tracts on Mathematical and 

 Philosophical Subjects,' 4to, London, 1780. which were reprinted in 

 1812, 3 vols- 8ro, London. In 1795 appeared his ' Mathematical and 

 Philosophical Dictionary,' in two large quarto volumes, which has 

 since supplied all subsequent works of that description with valuable 

 information both in the sciences treated of and iu scientific biography. 



About this time he undertook, in conjunction with Dra. Pearson and 

 Shaw, the arduous task of abridging the ' Philosophical Transactions.' 

 The work was completed in Ib09 in 18 vols. 4to, and Dr. Hutton is 

 said to have received for his labour the sum of 60002. In 1806 he was 

 attacked by a pulmonary complaint, which a few yeara after led to 

 his retirement from the academy, when the Board of Ordnance mani- 

 fested their approbation of his long and met itorious services by granting 

 him a pension for life of LOOl. per annum. Dr. Hutton diod on the 

 27th of January 1823 iu the eighty-sixth year of his age, and was buried 

 at Cbarlton in Kent. 



Dr. Olinthus Gregory, the successor and biographer of Dr. Hutton, 

 rays in bis memoir, that as a preceptor he " was characterised by 

 mildneB, kindness, promptness in discovering the difficulties which 

 his pupils experienced, patience in labouring to remove those diffi- 

 culties, unwearied perseverance, and a never-filling love of the art of 

 communicating knowledge by oral instruction." He was equally 

 characterised by an unassuming deportment and general simplicity of 

 manners, by the mildness and equability of his temper, and tue per- 

 manency and warmth of his personal attachments. His benevolence 

 was great, and be was a kind friend and benefactor to the needy votary 

 of science. 



Towards the close of Dr. Hutton's life a subscription was entered 

 into by hia friends and pupils for a marble bust, which was admirably 

 executed by Oahagan, and at bis death was bequeathed to the Literary 

 and Philosophical Society of Newcastle, where it now is. 



Besides the work* above mentioned, and the papers iu the ' Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society,' Dr. Hutton was a constant contributor 

 to the ' Lady's Diary,' of which periodical he was editor for many 

 years. Hi remaining works connist of ' Elements of Conic Sections,' 

 (Svo, 1787 ; ' A Course of Mathematics, designed for tho Use of Cadata 

 iu the Royal Military Academy,' 3 vol.., London, 1798-1801, of which 

 seven! later editions have appeared ; ' Recreations in Mathematics and 

 Natural Philosophy, from the French of Montucla,' 4 vol*. Svo, London, 

 1803 ; and some others. 



HUTTON, WILLIAM, was born at Derby, of poor parents, on the 

 30th of September 1723. lly frugality, industry, and integrity he 

 raised bimseif to opulence and eminence. It has been said of him 

 that " in many particular* of energy, perseverance, and prudence he 

 deserves to be called the English Franklin." At the ago of seven he 



was sent by his father to work iu the silk-mill at Derby, which occu- 

 pation he quitted at seventeen, and was bound apprentice to an uncle 

 at Nottingham, who was a stocking-maker. He ran away during his 

 apprenticeship, and wandered as far as Birmingham, the town in 

 which he subsequently acquired a fortune ; but distress compelled him 

 to return to his uncle. The poor remuneration whicb be obtained for 

 hi* labours at the stocking-frmine induced him to look anxi"ii-ly 

 towards some other means of gaining a livelihood; and in 1746 he 

 bought an old worn-down press, and taught himself the art of book- 

 binding. In 1749 he walked to London and back to purchase a (aw 

 bookbinders' tools. In the same year he commenced attending South- 

 well, fourteen mile* distant from Nottingham, on the market-day; 

 nnd there he rented a shop at twenty shillings a year, and opened it 

 for the sale of books. In bis autobiography he *aya : " During this 

 rainy winter I tot out at five every Saturday morning, carried a burden 

 of from three pounds' weight to thirty, opened shop at ten, starved in 

 it all day upon bread, cheese, and half a pint of ale, took from one to 

 six shillings, shut up at four, and by trudging through the solitary 

 night and the deep roads five hours more, 1 arrived at Nottingham by 

 nine, where I always fouud a mess of milk-porridge by the fire, pre- 

 pared by my valuable sister." Hutton's sitter was a woman of supe- 

 rior mind, and he owed much to her encouragement. Hi* object wa* 

 to save a small sum to enable him to commence business in a large 

 town ; and in 1750, after having twice visited Birmingham iu or 

 see the chances of success which the place offered, he on the third 

 visit took the lesser half of a small shop, at a rent of one shilling per 

 week, and furnished it with a small supply of books. The overseer* 

 teamed him for two years under the idea that he would become charge- 

 able to the parish. Five shillings a week covered all his expenses, 

 and at the end of the first year he had saved 20/. Fortune continued 

 to smile upon him, and in 1755 he married. In 1791 his property was 

 destroyed during tho Church and King Riots at Birmingham iu that 

 year, but after great difficulty he succeeded in recovering 53902. from 

 the county. He now relinquished business in favour of his son. II-- 

 had filled successively all the local offices of the town. In 1781 he 

 wrote and published hia ' History of Birmingham ;' and this was fol- 

 lowed by other works in tho following order : ' Journey to London,' 

 1784; 'The Court of Requests,' 1784 ; 'The Hundred Court,' 1788; 

 'History of Blackpool,' 1788; 'Battle of I!osworth Held,' 1789; 

 ' History of Derby,' 1790; ' Tha Barbers, a Poem,' 17U3; ' Edgar aud 

 Elfrida, a Poem,' 17&3; 'The Roman Wall,' 1801; 'Remarks upon 

 North Wales,' 1801; 'Tour to Scarborough,' 1803; 'Pocuis, chiefly 

 Tales,' 1804; ' Trip to Coathatn,' 1808. 



Mr. Hutton died September 20th, 1815, a few days before the com- 

 pletion of his ninety-second year. In 1816 hia daughter published 

 'The Life of William Hutton, Stationer, of Birmingham, and the 

 History of his family : Written by Himself.' ThU work is one of the 

 most entertaining and instructive pieces of autobiography in the 

 language. An edition of this work was published in is H, in the series 

 of ' Kniitht's English Miscellanies.' This edition contains some interest- 

 ing notes by Catherine Hutton, Mr. Hutton's daughter, who was then 

 in her eighty-fifth year; and passages of a personal nature from Huttou's 

 works are added as notes. 



HUYGHENS, CHRISTIAN, son of Constantino Huyghens, pos- 

 sessor of Zulichem, Zelhem, &c., in Holland ; whence Huyghens 

 (Latinised Hugenius) is often called Zulicheuiius, though bis inherit- 

 ance was the secoud-uamed estate, aud the initials C. H. u /.., or 

 C. H. D. Z., often appear on the title) of his works. 



For the life of Huyghens our authority is the account prefixed by 

 S'Gravesande to tho edition of bis works. The <SIoge by Coudorcet 

 is superficial, and appears to us partial. The various historical work* 

 on mathematics may of course be consulted on points of scientific 

 character. 



Christian Huyghens was born at the Hague, on the 14th of April 

 1629. His father had been secretary to three princes of Orange, and 

 was advantageously known by some Latin poems and other small 

 works: he died iu ltiS7,.at the age of ninety. His eldest sou, Con- 

 stantino, succeeded him in the post of secretary, ami MoompanUd 

 William III. to England in that capacity in 16S8. Tho subject of this 

 article, hia second son, from his boyhood showed an aptitude for 

 mathematical and mechanical studies, and iu 1645 he prosecuted them 

 at the University of Leydeu under the care of Schooton. In 1 

 he studied civil law at Breda, a course being then and there established, 

 partly under the management of his father. Iu 1C41I he accompanied 

 a count of Nassau to Denmark ; and in 1655 he visited France. 1K> 

 then remained in Holland till 1060, when be went "gain to France, 

 and iu 1661 to England, both which voyages he repeated in 1063. In 



1665 be was invited to Frnnco by Colbert, where he remaiued from 



1666 to 1681, with the exception of two trips to Holland in 1670 aud 

 Iti75 for health. This consideration prompted his final return to 

 Holland in 1CU1 : be was again in Euglaud iu 1689, aud died at the 

 Hague on the 8th of June 1695. The preceding enumeration of 

 changes of place is almost all that can be said of Huyghens uncon- 

 nected witu his philosophical fame. Condorcet informs us that thu 

 edicts against thu Protestants occasioned bis relinquishuient of tho 

 honours and emolument* which he hell iu Franco; aud that he 

 refused to be made a special exception, we suppose to the edict 

 incapacitating Huguenots from ollice. Hia family ulso, according to 



