M O N 



670 



M O N 



Mentser- MONTSERRAT is the name of a mountain of 

 Spain, in the province of Catalonia, celebrated for its 

 Montucla. ncr rmtage, and as a place of resort for pilgrims. It is 

 s -y. ' said to be about 24 miles in circumference, stretching 

 from W. to E. along the right bank of the river Llobre. 

 gat, and is equally remarkable for the composition, 

 form, arrangement, and position of its rocks. It con- 

 sists of limestone, sand, and pebbles cemented together, 

 and forming a kind of breccia. " The rich earth," 

 says Laborde, " on part of these rocks being dissolved 

 by the action of the rain-water, has formed crevices 

 full of trees and aromatic plants. This vegetation is 

 the more extraordinary, as there is no spring on the 

 mountain ; the streamlets sometimes seen there ap- 

 pearing to proceed from reservoirs formed by rains in 

 the crevices of the mountain, and running in the bed 

 of porous stones, which lie across the middle of it." 

 Hence the mountain seems to have been split into 

 masses of the most grotesque shapes, in the form of 

 caves, pillars, and rugged fragments piled upon one 

 another to the height of above 3000 feet above the level 

 of the ocean. The view from the summit of Montser- 

 rat is extensive and grand. Corn, vines, and olives 

 cover the lower parts of the mountain. The situation 

 of the highest peak of Montserrat is in East Long. 

 1, 46', 7", and North Lat. 41, 38' 59". See Laborde's 

 View of Spain, vol. i. p. 125. 



MONTUCLA, (JEAN ETIENNE,) a French mathe- 

 matician of considerable note, was born at Lyons, on 

 the 5th of September, 1725. Being early distinguish- 

 ed for his love of knowledge, he was placed under the 

 tuition of the Jesuits, from whom he gained the ele- 

 ments of an extensive acquaintance with science and 

 classical literature. At the age of sixteen, he quitted 

 their seminary, for the purpose of studying law at 

 Thoulouse, and, after the usual course of preparation, 

 obtained a counsellorship in the Parliament of that city : 

 but feeling little inclination for his employment, and 

 meeting with little encouragement in the exercise of it, 

 he renounced the bar in 1 753, and removed to Paris with 

 the view of supporting himself by literary exertions. 

 Soon after his arrival, being fortunately admitted to 

 the society of d'Alembert and Diderot, their conversation 

 gave a settled tendency to his pursuits, and he formed 

 the project of that work, by which his name is so well 

 known among men of science. At first, however, his 

 efforts were limited to a lower department. He wrote 

 in the Gazette Francoise ; and translated several works, 

 one of which was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's re- 

 port of the latest cases of inoculation at Constantino. 

 pie. The utility of the practice, at that time (1756,) 

 about to be tried on a prince of the blood, was keenly 

 discussed, and Montucla's translation appeared with ad. 

 vantage as an appendix to M. de la Condamine's me- 

 moir upon this question. Two years before, a subject 

 more akin to the bent of his mind, had furnished Mon- 

 tucla with scope for original investigation : it was the 

 Hisloire des Kecherches tur la Quadrature du Cercle, 

 received with an applause well calculated to animate 

 the author in his great undertaking, the Histoire des 

 Mathematiques. 



Lord Bacon justly thought, that a rational account 

 of the steps by which the mind had advanced to its ac- 

 tual proficiency in the several departments of philoso- 

 >4 *phy, might prove a work of great utility and entertain- 

 ment. But though mathematical science is perhaps the 

 only branch of human knowledge, which has attained 

 the degree of accuracy and precision requisite for exe- 



cuting such an enterprize, the task of giving any thing 'Moniucla. 

 like a regular narrative of the order and gradation, ac- '"-"' 

 cording to which the discoveries in that science had fol. 

 lowed each other, seems to have been undertaken for 

 the first time by M. de Montmort, the friend and fel- 

 low-labourer of Bernoulli. M. de Montmort, however, 

 did not live to complete his attempt ; the materials 

 which he had accumulated were entirely lost at his 

 death, and Montucla had the undivided honour of sup- 

 plying this desideratum. His work, in two volumes 

 4to, was published in 1758. The extensive acquaint- 

 ance with the science, and the unwearied spirit of re- 

 search which it displayed, were rewarded with univer- 

 sal applause ; the defective arrangement, and the ra 

 ther inelegant style were forgotten in the general me- 

 rits of the work, or excused from the difficulty of treat- 

 ing so new and intricate a subject. In its first shape, 

 the Histoire des Matfiematiqiies extended only to the 

 conclusion of the 17th century; but the author's dili- 

 gence had not abated, and his promise of continuing 

 the narrative to a later period was afterwards fulfilled. 

 In the meantime, however, his studies were impeded, 

 though not suspended, by an appointment to the post 

 of Secretaire de I'Intendance at Grenoble. His conduct 

 in this office, which he held for three years, would seem 

 to have given entire satisfaction, since, when M. Turgot 

 was commissioned in 1764 to superintend the improve- 

 ments which the government were endeavouring to in- 

 troduce at Cayenne, Montucla was nominated to accom- 

 pany him in the character of secretary, dignified also 

 with the title of Astronomer Royal. Of Montucla's ce- 

 lestial observations we have no account, but the science 

 of botany is indebted to him for the knowledge of se- 

 veral equinoctial plants brought home on his return, 

 which happened in 1 766. After this short absence,' he 

 became chief clerk to the overseers of the king's build- 

 ings. In the discharge of that easy duty, Montucla en- 

 joyed a competence, and found leisure to prosecute his 

 inquiries concerning his favourite subject. The stormy 

 factions, which desolated France during the revolution, 

 seem to have left him unharmed, till 1792, when his 

 office was abolished by the republican government, and 

 the historian of mathematics was left exposed in his old 

 age to all the calamities of want. It is painful to re- 

 late, that the man, whose respectable character ought 

 to have secured him esteem and patronage, even if his 

 arduous labours in the cause of science had not be- 

 nefited mankind, was unable to gain the necessaries of 

 life except by consigning those talents which had illus- 

 trated the highest achievements of our species, to the 

 management of a lottery-office ! It was not till within 

 a few months of his death that a scanty pension of 

 L.I 00 from the government raised him above the mise- 

 ries of abject poverty. But, in the midst of these de. 

 pressing circumstances, Montucla did not forget his 

 promise to complete the history of mathematics. Forty 

 years of application had greatly augmented his know- 

 ledge of the subject ; the second edition of his work, 

 begun in 1 798, was enriched with many new details in 

 the period before examined, and the relation might 

 have been conducted with equal skill to the proposed 

 termination, had not death put a stop to his exertions, 

 on the 15th of December 1799. Happily his manu. 

 scripts were in such a state as to be capable of publica- 

 tion. The printing of the first part was continued 

 without interruption ; and M. de la Lande, in 1 802, ar- 

 ranged the remaining papers into two additional vo- 

 lumes, which continue the history to the beginning of 



