Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/78

 MATTEUCCI

5G

MATTHEW

abstractions practised upon the liodies that fall uiulor the ohsorvation of ihe senses. The universal is innna- nent in the indiviihial ami iiuilliplieil liy reason oT its mailer. In llie .system of I'lato, matter (iiri 6v, ivtipov: the "formless and invisible") is also the condition untler which being becomes the object of the senses. It gives to being all its imperfections. It is by a mix- ture of being and nothingness, rather than by the realization of a potentiality, that .sensible things exist. While for Aristotle matter is a real element of being, for Plato it is not. Of \eoplatonists, Philo (fol- lowing Plato and the Stoics) also considered matter the principle of imperfection, of limitation and of evil; Plotinus made it empty space, or a pure possibility of Being.

These systems are mentioned here because through them St. Augustine drew his knowledge of Greek phi- losophy. And in the doctrine of St. Augustine we find the source of an important current of thought that ran through the Middle Ages. He puts forward at difl'er- ent times two views as to the nature of matter. It is first, corporeal substance in a chaotic state; second, an element of complete indetermination, approaching to the tii) Sv of Plato. St. Augustine was not directly acquainted with the works of Aristotle, yet he seems to have approached very closely to this thought (prob- ably through the Latin writings of the Neoplatonists) in certain passages of the "Confessions" (cf. Lib. XIII, v, and xxxiii); "For the changeableness of changeable things is capable of all those forms to whioh the changeable are changed. And what is this? Is it soul? Or body? If it could be said: 'Nothing: something that is and is not', that would I say.". . . " For from nothing they were made by Thee, yet not of Thee: nor of anything not Thine, or which was be- fore, but of concreated matter, because Thou didst create its informity without any interposition of time." St. Augustine does not teach the dependence of quantity upon matter; and he admits a quasi- matter in the angels. Moreover, his doctrine of the rationes seminales (of Stoical origin), which found many adherents among later scholastics, clearly as- signs to matter something more than the character of pure potentiality attributed to it by St. Thomas. It may be noted that Albert the Great, the predecessor of St. Thomas, also taught this doctrine and, further, was of the opinion that the angelic "forms" must be held to have a fundamentum, or ground of differentia- tion, analogous to matter in corporeal beings.

Following St. Augustine, Alexander of Hales and St. Bonaventure, with the Franciscan School as a whole, teach that matter is one of the intrinsic ele- ments of all creatures. Matter and form together are the principles of individuation for St. Bonaventure. Duns Scotus is more characteristically subtle on the point, which is a capital one in his .synthesis. Matter IS to be distinguished as: (a) Materia prima prima, the universalized indeterminate element of contingent be- ings. This has real and numerical unity, (b) Materia secundo prima, united with "form" and quantified. _(c) Materia tertio prima, subject of accidental change in existing bodies. For Scotus, who acknowledges his indebtedness to Avicebron for the doctrine (De rerum princip., (I. viii, a. 4), Materia prima prima is homoge- neous in all creatures without exception. His system is dualistic. Among later notable scholastics Suarez may be cited as attributing an existence to primordial matter. This is a logical consequence of his doctrine that no real distinction is to be admitted between essence and existence (q. v.). God could, he teaches, " preserve matter without a form as He can a form without matter" (Dispul. Metaph., xv, sec. 9). In his opinion, also, quantified matter no longer appears as the principle of individuation. A considerable number of theologians and philosophers have professed his doctrine upon both these points.

ALBEnTUB Magnus, Opera (Lyons, 1651); Alexander of

Hai.k.s. In iluodrcim Arislolrlin Mrta-phi^ffP hhron (1572)' Il>EM VniM-rsn- rii,'„la„i,T S,immn {C,,!,,^.,,,., Hi:""; S r Titomam AcjmNAs. ((,.,,.. U';,in,;i. iss:' 7L'i, ,.^,,,,,,11. ,,„,,,«/„ De

Nalum iMiil.n.r. II. frun ii'i" /;;./. w,( ,.'., • ;., .< ,.,nl u.iHhua Cr.nluns. l„ H„.liuu,„,l, T,,n,l„t,. h, I' ,., \ 'I ;,„. Ihwd-

littcl, l\, il i\. Di MuUoi,, 11. , . \.i I ,1,, , > ."nita

. . . Thomfx a Via. . . Cum". ' : ! •iJ);

De Wulf, Histoire de la i'/.i;..'..,;^./,i, ,1/,,; I, uii);

Fahges, Mature et Forme en pi'stiu-< tl< :. nies

(Paris, 1892); Grote, Aristotle (Loiidoii, is, : i ,: ri„to and the other companions of .Sucrates iLuin[u\i. [ i,., I1,,ikr, The Metaphysics of the School (London, 1S,1);. l..)i,i,..^i,i,u. Philosophic Theoreticce Instituliones (Home, ISUGJ; AlEnclER, Ontologie (Ijouvain, 1902); Nys, Cosmolot/ie (Louvain, 1904); Scotus, Opera (Lyons, 1639); Saint-Hilaire. (Euvres d' Aria- tote (Paris, 1837-92); Suabez: M etaphysicarum disputationum (.Mainz, 1605); Ueberweg: History of Philosophy, tr. Morris (1872); WiNDELBAND, A History of Philosophy, tr. Tuftb (New York, 1S93).

Francis Aveling.

Matteucci, Cablo, physicist, b. at Forli, in the Romagna, 21 June, 1811; d. at Ardenza, near Leg- horn, 25 July, 1868. He studied mathematics at the University of Bologna, receiving his doctorate in 1829. Then he went to the Paris Ecole Polytcchnique for two years as a foreign student. In 1831 he returned to Forli and began to experiment in physics. In taking up the Voltaic pile he took sides against Volta's con- tact theory of electricity. He remained at Florence until his father's death in 1834, when he went to Ravenna and later to Pisa. His study of the Voltaic battery led him to announce the law that the dccom- po.sition in the electrolytic cell corresponds to the work developed in the elements of the pile. From the ex- ternal effect it became possible to calculate the mate- rial used up in the pile. In 1837 he was invited by his friend Buoninsegm, president of the Ravenna Hos- pital, to take charge of its chemical laboratory and at the same time assume the title and rank of professor of physics at the college. There he did most excellent work and soon became famous. Arago, hearing of the vacancy in the chair of physics at the University of Pisa, wrote to Humboldt asking him to recommend Matteucci to the Grand-Duke of 'Tuscany. This appli- cation was successful and there at Pisa he continued his researches. Beginning with Arago's and Faraday's discoveries he developed by ingenious experiments our knowledge of electro-statics, electro-dynamics, in- duced currents, and the like, but his greatest achieve- ments however were in the field of electro-physiology, with frogs, torpedoes, and the like.

He was also successful as a politician. In 1848 Commissioner of Tuscany to Charles Albert; .sent to Frankfort to plead the cause of his country before the German Assembly; 1849 in Pisa, director of the tele- graphs of Tuscany; 1859 provisional representative of Tuscany at Turin, and then sent to Pans with Peruzzi and NeriCorsini to plead the annexation of Piedmont; 1860 Inspector-General of the telegraph lines of the Italian Kingdom. Senator at the Tuscan As.semlily in 1848, and again in the Italian Senate in 1860; Minister of Public Instruction, 1862, in the cabinet of Rattazzi. He won the Copley medal of the Royal Society of London, and was made corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1844. He published a great deal in English, French, and Italian journals of science. His larger works were: "Lezioni di fisica" (4th ed., Pisa, 1858); "Lezioni sui fenomeni fi.sico- chimici dei corpi viventi " (2nd ed., Pisa, 1846); "Ma- nuale di telegrafia elettrica" (2nd ed., Pisa, 1851); "Cours special sur I'induction, le magn^tisme de rota- tion", etc. (Paris, 18,54); " Lettres sur I'instruetion publique" (Paris, 1864); "Traits des ph^nomenes electro-physiologiques des animaux" (Paris, 1844).

BiANCHi, Carlo Matteucci e V Italia del sua tempo (Rome, 1874); Nuova Enciclopedia Ilaliana (Turin, 1882).

William Fox.

Matthew, Saint, Apostle and Evangeli.st. — "The name Matthew is derived from the Hebrew Mattija,