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Fesruary 24, 1923] 
NATURE 
257 

The Bicentenary of Sir Christopher Wren. 
By Eng.-Capt. Epcar C. Situ, O.B.E., R.N. 
| header during the celebration, next week, of 
the bicentenary of Sir Christopher Wren the 
main interest must needs centre around his great 
work as an architect, his position as one of the repre- 
sentative men of science of the seventeenth century 
should not be overlooked. Five years younger than 
Boyle, and ten years the senior of Newton, Wren 
had as his contemporaries Wilkins, Hooke, Goddard, 
Willis, Sydenham, Flamsteed, and Barrow. The year 
Wren was born Galileo was writing his famous 
“Dialogues,” and in the subsequent developments which 
made England the scientific centre of the world Wren 
was one of the pioneers. While quite a youth Wren 
joined the group of philosophers who met at the 
lodgings of Wilkins or Boyle at Oxford, and at twenty- 
five he became Gresham professor of astronomy. 
Four years later he returned to Oxford as Savilian 
professor. The Royal Society owed much to him, 
and he was one of its earliest presidents. Perhaps 
not such an extraordinary boy as Young or Hamilton, 
his genius was recognised from the first. Barrow 
indeed, in 1662, referred to him “ As one of whom 
it was doubtful whether he was most to be commended 
for the divine felicity of his genius or for the sweet 
humanity of his disposition—formerly as a boy a 
prodigy ; now as a man a miracle, nay, even some- 
thing superhuman.” 
Wren was born at East Knoyle, in Wiltshire, on 
October 20, 1632. His grandfather, Francis Wren, 
was a mercer in the city of London; his father, also 
Christopher Wren, was rector of East Knoyle and 
dean of Windsor. Another son of Francis was Matthew 
Wren, bishop of Hereford, Norwich, and Ely ; a stiff- 
necked prelate who spent more years in the Tower 
than he need have done. Wren’s mother died when 
he was young, but his father survived till 1658. At 
nine Wren was sent to Westminster school, then under 
the famous Busby. From Westminster, after an 
interval, probably due to the unsettled state of affairs— 
Oxford then having more soldiers than students—he 
passed to the University and was entered as a gentle- 
man commoner of Wadham College, of which Wilkins 
was the warden. He graduated B.A. in 1651, M.A. 
in 1653, and that year became a fellow of All Souls, 
holding his fellowship until 1661, the year he was 
< akei Savilian professor. 
ike most students of his day, Wren roamed over 
many fields of learning. With a talent for fine and 
accurate drawing he combined a manipulative skill 
which was the envy even of Hooke. These found 
employment in many ways. For Willis he made the 
elaborate drawings for a work on the anatomy of the 
brain. He was one of the first to inject liquids into 
the veins of animals. Writing to Petty in 1656 he 
says, “‘ The most considerable experiment I have made 
of late is this ;—I injected wine and ale into the mass 
of blood in a living dog, by a vein....I am in 
further pursuit of the experiment, which I take to 
be of great concernment, and what will give great 
light to the theory and practise of physic.” 
Wren’s two professorships cover a period of sixteen 
NO. 2782, VOL. 111] 
722 
years—1657 to 1673. The Gresham and Savilian 
chairs were the first mathematical and astronomical 
professorships founded in England. One or the other 
had been held by Briggs, Bainbridge, Turner, Greaves, 
Gellibrand, and Gunter. Gresham College, London, 
was the old mansion of Sir Thomas Gresham, which 
stood on a site stretching between Bishopsgate Street 
and Old Broad Street. The lodgings of the professors 
of music and physic and the Reading Hall were close 
to Bishopsgate Street, but the quarters of the other 
professors were situated around a large quadrangle. 
An interesting sketch of the college is given in Weld’s 
“History of the Royal Society.” Wren’s appoint- 
ment was owing to Lawrence Rooke exchanging the 
chair of astronomy for that of geometry, the transfer 
being due “to a conveniency of the lodgings which 
opened behind the Reading Hall.” Wren’s lectures 
were read the same day as Rooke’s and attended by 
the same auditors. He discoursed on_ telescopes, 
eclipses, the planet Saturn, and meteorology, and to 
this period belong his demonstrations concerning 
cycloids. 
In February 1661 Wren resigned both his Gresham 
professorship and his fellowship of All Souls and 
returned to Oxford to succeed Seth Ward as Savilian 
astronomer. In this position he continued to in- 
vestigate a wide range of subjects, suggesting self- 
registering weathercocks, thermometers, and rain- 
gauges; constructing telescopes for measuring small 
angles, and making experiments with pendulums. In 
1668 he showed his experiments to illustrate the 
laws of motion by the collision of balls. Newton 
afterwards writing of the laws of motion said: “ Dr. 
Christopher Wren, knight ; John Wallis and Christian 
Huygens, who are beyond comparison the leading 
geometers of this age, arrived at the laws of the colli- 
sion and mutual rebound of two bodies; but their 
truth was proved by Dr. Wren by experiments on 
suspended balls in the presence of the Royal Society.” 
It was while Wren still held the Gresham professor- 
ship that the Royal Society came into existence. The 
first official record was a memorandum of November 28, 
1660. This gave the names of the persons who had 
“mett together at Gresham Colledge to heare Mr. 
Wren’s lecture.” After the lecture “ they did, accord- 
ing to the usual manner, withdrawe for mutuall con- 
verse,” and it was agreed upon that “ this Company 
would continue their weekly meeting on Wednesday, 
at 3 of the clock in the tearme time, at Mr. Rooke’s 
chamber at Gresham Colledge; in the vacation, at 
Mr. Ball’s chamber in the Temple.” Wilkins was 
chairman on this occasion. At the next meeting, 
December 5, Sir Robert Moray, the first elected presi- 
dent, brought word that the King approved of the 
Society and would be ready to give encouragement 
to it. The minutes also record that ‘“‘ Mr. Wren be 
desired to prepare against the next meeting for the 
Pendulum Experiment.” On December 19 Mr. Wren 
and Dr. Petty were “ desired to consider the philosophy 
of Shipping, and bring in‘their thoughts to the company 
about it.” 
H2 
