230 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



4. 



Alleged de- 

 cline of 

 science in 

 England. 



either of great men of science or of great institutions, 

 and yet in spite of these we read in the course of 

 the first third of the century about the decline of 

 science in England. That such could be seriously said 

 of a country which within fifty years had in astronomy 

 discovered a new planet (the first addition to the number 

 known to the ancients), had discovered oxygen, latent 

 heat, and the decomposition of water, applied the gal- 

 vanic current for isolating the most refractory metals, 

 laid the groundwork for the undulatory theory of light, 

 established the atomic theory, put forth in statics and 

 dynamics two of the most important modern generalisa- 

 tions, 1 and introduced in the treatment of electric and 



1810. Brown (1773-1858) publishes his ' Prodromus Florae Novse Hol- 



landiae,' &c. 



1811. Charles Bell (1774-1842) asserts the difference of sensory and 



motor nerves. 

 1813. Brewster (1781-1868) begins his experiments on refraction and 



dispersion. 

 1813. Davy discovers iodine. 



1813. Wollaston publishes his synoptical scale of equivalents. 



1814. Wells (1757-1817), essay on dew. 



1815. William Smith (1769-1839) publishes his work on 'Strata.' 

 1815. Brewster gives his law for determining the polarising angle. 



1815. Leslie (1766-1832) experiments on radiant heat and temperature 



of the earth. 



1816. Prout (1785-1850), Memoir on the position of hydrogen. 



1817. Young (in a letter to Arago) suggests transverse vibrations of 



light. 



1819. Kater (1777-1835) measures the length of the seconds-pendulum. 

 1821. Faraday (1781-1867) discovers the rotation of a coil round a fixed 



magnet. 



1821. Brown, monographs on botanical subjects. 

 1821. Sabine (1788-1883) experiments on the dip of the magnetic 



needle. 

 1823. Rowan Hamilton (1805-65) presents his paper on Caustics to 



the Irish Academy. 



1823. Faraday condenses chlorine and other gases. 



1824. Sir J. Herschel (1792-1871), observations of double stars. 



1825. Sir J. Herschel, on the parallax of fixed stars. 



1 The two important generalisa- 

 tions I refer to are contained in : 

 1. George Green, 'An Essay on 



the Application of Mathematical 

 Analysis to the Theories of Elec- 

 tricity and Magnetism,' published 



