Page:Evolution of the thermometer.djvu/8

 Casper Ens inserted in his "Thaumaturgus mathematicus," published at Cologne in 1651, a translation of the "76th Problem" of Leurechon, containing an account of the thermometer, and added to the word "instrumentum" the adjective "Drebbelianum." Reyer, Sturm, and others copied the phrase and it was incorporated in an article published in the "Journal des Sçavans," 1678, thus becoming a part of authoritative literature.

Ten years later, Dalencé, drawing his inspiration from the "Journal des Sçavans," published an attractive, illustrated volume entitled "Traittez des baromètres, thermomètres, et notiomètres, ou hygromètres, Amsterdam, 1688;" in this he wrote: "The thermometer was invented by a peasant of North Holland, named Drebbel," and he added that Drebbel was "called to the court of King James where he also invented the microscope." This statement was accepted by the Dutch savants Boerhaave and Musschenbroek, the French Abbé Nollet and others, and on their authority has been repeated over and over again, so that until very recently all encyclopedias, dictionaries of science and historical essays in natural philosophy adopted without reservation the phrase: