MOST GREAT DISCOVERIES MADE BY ACCIDENT l8l 



an invalid, had frog soup prescribed for her, and while the 

 frogs were being prepared she noticed certain twitchings 

 in the dead animals and called the attention of her husband 

 to the matter, and that owing to this accident Galvani was 

 led to make his great discoveries. Also that the power of 

 steam was first discovered by the oscillations of the lid of 

 a teakettle; and to these instances were added numerous 

 other historic fables which have long been exploded. 



In the case of Newton, he did not discover " the attraction 

 of gravitation"; what he did discover was that the same 

 force which caused stones, etc., to fall to the earth when 

 left unsupported, also retained the moon in her orbit; and 

 this he proved by comparing the rate of falling bodies on 

 the earth, as determined by Galileo, with the rate at which 

 the moon deviated from the straight line which she would 

 have pursued if no extraneous force had acted on her. The 

 story of the falling apple had no foundation in fact; this was 

 amply proved by Sir David Brewster in his life of Sir Isaac 

 Newton. 



Galileo had long been engaged in investigations relating 

 to falling bodies and had fully proved the absolute regularity 

 of their motion when he suggested the use of the pendulum 

 as a time measurer. Very probably he may have watched 

 the swinging chandelier and used it as an illustration, but 

 it was his previous studies and earnest thought and not the 

 mere swinging of the chandelier that pointed to the utility 

 of the pendulum. 



The story about Madame Galvani and her frog soup, 

 as given in popular books on electricity and in many old 

 textbooks, is a fabrication of Alibert, an Italian writer of 

 no repute. It is completely disproved by the fact that at 

 the time his wife's health failed Galvani had been engaged 



