Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/610

596 had his instruments in order, a matter in which the society had no authority, and what made the matter more atrocious, the instruments being Flamstead's own. Newton even twitted Flamstead with his one hundred pounds a year salary, at which Flamstead indignantly reminded him that he had been receiving three hundred pounds a year himself ever since he came to London. Flamstead's work was not completed till after his death, when it appeared under the name of "Historia Ccelestis Britannica."

It is difficult to conceive more overbearing, unjust, and unworthy proceedings than those of Newton against Flamstead. Sir David Brewster, in a recent "Life of Newton," 1831, has endeavoured to defend him by asserting that Flamstead did not appreciate Newton's theory—as if Flamstead was not quite at liberty to have his own opinion, an opinion shared by many at the time, and which theory, in the first edition of the "Principia," the only one then out, was in some respects grossly incorrect—" rejected," as Flamstead termed it, "by the heavens." Secondly, that Flamstead showed unwillingness to furnish Newton with the requisite lunar observations. He was under no obligation whatever to do so; yet, as proved, he furnished him with all he had made. It is contended also that the committee had a right to break the seal of Flamstead to come at his catalogue—an assertion than which nothing can be more immoral.

On the whole view of this case, as it rests on broad facts, we are compelled, in justice betwixt man and man, to declare our opinion that Flamstead was not only one of the most illustrious astronomers which this country has produced, but also one of the most ill-used of men; and without derogating an iota from the scientific merits of Sir Isaac Newton, it is clear, from his conduct to both Leibnitz and Flamstead, that he adds another proof to that of Bacon, that intellectual greatness and moral greatness do not necessarily reside in the same mind.

Amongst the other men of mathematical note in this period we may mention Henry Briggs, the coadjutor of Napier. His "Trigonometrica Britannica" showed that he had had a near view of the binomial theorem afterwards discovered by Newton. This work was published after his death by his friend, Henry Gellibrand, also an able mathematician. Thomas Harriot, author of a work on algebra —"Artis Analyticoe Praxis"—is said to have discovered the solar spots before Galileo, and the satellites of Jupiter only a few days after Galileo. Samuel Horrocks was beforehand with Newton in the theory of the lunar motions, which Newton afterwards demonstrated to be the necessary consequence of gravitation. Dr. Wallis, Crabtree, Gascoine, Milbourn, Shakerley, and Gunter—the author of Gunter's scale—were all men of high merit in those branches of science. Barrow we have already mentioned as a distinguished geometrician as well as a theologian. He was only excelled in optics by; Newton himself; and in his "Sectiones Georaetricse" he nearly anticipated Newton's principle of fluxions. James Gregory, professor of mathematics at Edinburgh, the first, constructor of a reflecting telescope; and his nephew, David Gregory, of Oxford; John Collins, author of various philosophical works and papers; Roger Cotes, author of "Harmonia Mensurarum," &c.; and Dr. Brooke Taylor, author of "Methodus Incrementorum," were all substantial contributors to the higher sciences at this era. Halley, whose name occurs so unfavourably in the affair with Flamstead, succeeded him as astronomer royal, and is noted as being the first to find out the exact return of a comet which bears his name, and by a catalogue of the southern stars, published in 1679. Besides his profound astronomical talents, he added in various ways to the knowledge of the time. He was the first to construct tables of mortality, introduced improvements of the diving-bell; and wrote various treatises on the variations of the compass, on the trade-winds, and other subjects.

In pneumatics and chemistry the Honourable Robert Boyle made some discoveries, and considerably improved the air-pump; and Robert Hooke, already mentioned as one of the earliest theorists of gravitation, also had a pretty clear notion of the gas now termed oxygen. Thomas Sydenham is a great name in medicine of this time; and the department of natural history took a new start under the hands of Rae, Willoughby, Lester, and others. Rae published his "History Plantarum," and edited Willoughby's works on birds and fishes. Conchology was advanced by Martin Lester, and Woodward even opened up the new region of mineralogy. The two most extraordinary discoveries, however, next to those of Newton, remain yet to be mentioned—that of the circulation of the blood, by Harvey, and of the steam-engine, by Solomon de Cans, introduced into this country by the marquis of Worcester.

The theory of the circulation of the blood, like almost every other great theory founded on fact, was not left for Harvey to ponder out ab origine. That the blood flowed from the heart to the extremities was known to the ancients, and stated by Aristotle. Galen even had argued, from the discovery of valves in the pulmonary artery, that the blood was also returned to the heart. Servetus, of Geneva, the same who was put to death for heresy, had demonstrated the circulation through the lungs, and again this theory had been propounded by Rcaldus Columbus in 1559. In 1571 Cæsalpines of Arezzo came still nearer to the true theory, from observing the swelling of veins below a ligature—thence inferring that the blood flowed from the extremities as well as to them. It is clear, therefore, that all but positive demonstration was arrived at when Harvey appeared. But though this demonstration was all that was now needed, it was a work of no ordinary corn-age and genius. The few facts known were overlaid by such a heap of absurd and contradictory notions amongst medical men, that nothing but the nicest and completest experiments could establish the truth. This Harvey undertook to do, and accomplished it. He informed Boyle, as we learn irom that philosopher's "Treatise on Final Causes," that the idea of the true circulation was first suggested to him when studying under Fabricius Aquapendente, at Padua, by noticing the valves in the veins—the same that had attracted the attention of Galen. To ascertain the fact he made numerous and accurate experiments on both dead and living animals, and the result was the clearest proof of the fact that the blood is propelled from the heart through the arteries, and returned to it through the veins. Besides this his experiments threw a flood of light on the action of the heart, on its diastolic and systolic functions, as observed both in adult subjects and in