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BOOK III

CHAPTER I. THE SUCCESSORS OF NEWTON IN ASTRONOMY

The work of Johannes Hevelius—Halley and Hevelius—Halley's observation

of the transit of Mercury, and his method of determining the parallax of

the planets—Halley's observation of meteors—His inability to

explain these bodies—The important work of James Bradley—Lacaille's

measurement of the arc of the meridian—The determination of the

question as to the exact shape of the earth—D'Alembert and his

influence upon science—Delambre's History of Astronomy—The

astronomical work of Euler.

CHAPTER II. THE PROGRESS OF MODERN ASTRONOMY

The work of William Herschel—His discovery of Uranus—His discovery

that the stars are suns—His conception of the universe—His deduction

that gravitation has caused the grouping of the heavenly bodies—The

nebula, hypothesis,—Immanuel Kant's conception of the formation of the

world—Defects in Kant's conception—Laplace's final solution of the

problem—His explanation in detail—Change in the mental attitude of the

world since Bruno—Asteroids and satellites—Discoveries of Olbersl—The

mathematical calculations of Adams and Leverrier—The discovery of the

inner ring of Saturn—Clerk Maxwell's paper on the stability of Saturn's

rings—Helmholtz's conception of the action of tidal friction—Professor

G. H. Darwin's estimate of the consequences of tidal action—Comets

and meteors—Bredichin's cometary theory—The final solution of the

structure of comets—Newcomb's estimate of the amount of cometary dust

swept up daily by the earth—The fixed stars—John Herschel's studies

of double stars—Fraunhofer's perfection of the refracting

telescope—Bessel's measurement of the parallax of a star,—Henderson's

measurements—Kirchhoff and Bunsen's perfection of the

spectroscope—Wonderful revelations of the spectroscope—Lord Kelvin's

estimate of the time that will be required for the earth to become

completely cooled—Alvan Clark's discovery of the companion star of

Sirius—The advent of the photographic film in astronomy—Dr. Huggins's

studies of nebulae—Sir Norman Lockyer's "cosmogonic guess,"—Croll's

pre-nebular theory.

CHAPTER III. THE NEW SCIENCE OF PALEONTOLOGY

William Smith and fossil shells—His discovery that fossil rocks are

arranged in regular systems—Smith's inquiries taken up by Cuvier—His

Ossements Fossiles containing the first description of hairy

elephant—His contention that fossils represent extinct species

only—Dr. Buckland's studies of English fossil-beds—Charles Lyell

combats catastrophism,—Elaboration of his ideas with reference to

the rotation of species—The establishment of the doctrine of

uniformitarianism,—Darwin's Origin of Species—Fossil man—Dr.

Falconer's visit to the fossil-beds in the valley of the

Somme—Investigations of Prestwich and Sir John Evans—Discovery of the

Neanderthal skull,—Cuvier's rejection of human fossils—The finding

of prehistoric carving on ivory—The fossil-beds of America—Professor

Marsh's paper on the fossil horses in America—The Warren mastodon,—The

Java fossil, Pithecanthropus Erectus.

CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN GEOLOGY

James Hutton and the study of the rocks—His theory of the earth—His

belief in volcanic cataclysms in raising and forming the continents—His

famous paper before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1781—-His

conclusions that all strata of the earth have their origin at the bottom

of the sea—-His deduction that heated and expanded matter caused the

elevation of land above the sea-level—Indifference at first shown this

remarkable paper—Neptunists versus Plutonists—Scrope's classical work

on volcanoes—Final acceptance of Hutton's explanation of the origin

of granites—Lyell and uniformitarianism—Observations on the gradual

elevation of the coast-lines of Sweden and Patagonia—Observations on

the enormous amount of land erosion constantly taking place,—Agassiz

and the glacial theory—Perraudin the chamois-hunter, and his

explanation of perched bowlders—De Charpentier's acceptance of

Perraudin's explanation—Agassiz's paper on his Alpine studies—His

conclusion that the Alps were once covered with an ice-sheet—Final

acceptance of the glacial theory—The geological ages—The work of

Murchison and Sedgwick—Formation of the American continents—Past,

present, and future.

CHAPTER V. THE NEW SCIENCE OF METEOROLOGY

Biot's investigations of meteors—The observations of Brandes and

Benzenberg on the velocity of falling stars—Professor Olmstead's

observations on the meteoric shower of 1833—Confirmation of Chladni's

hypothesis of 1794—The aurora borealis—Franklin's suggestion that

it is of electrical origin—Its close association with terrestrial

magnetism—Evaporation, cloud-formation, and dew—Dalton's demonstration

that water exists in the air as an independent gas—Hutton's theory of

rain—Luke Howard's paper on clouds—Observations on dew, by Professor

Wilson and Mr. Six—Dr. Wells's essay on dew—His observations

on several appearances connected with dew—Isotherms and ocean

currents—Humboldt and the-science of comparative climatology—His

studies of ocean currents—Maury's theory that gravity is the cause

of ocean currents—Dr. Croll on Climate and Time—Cyclones and

anti-cyclones,—Dove's studies in climatology—Professor Ferrel's

mathematical law of the deflection of winds—Tyndall's estimate of

the amount of heat given off by the liberation of a pound of

vapor—Meteorological observations and weather predictions.

CHAPTER VI. MODERN THEORIES OF HEAT AND LIGHT

Josiah Wedgwood and the clay pyrometer—Count Rumford and the vibratory

theory of heat—His experiments with boring cannon to determine the

nature of heat—Causing water to boil by the friction of the borer—His

final determination that heat is a form of motion—Thomas Young and the

wave theory of light—His paper on the theory of light and colors—His

exposition of the colors of thin plates—Of the colors of thick

plates, and of striated surfaces,—Arago and Fresnel champion the wave

theory—opposition to the theory by Biot—The French Academy's tacit

acceptance of the correctness of the theory by its admission of Fresnel

as a member.

CHAPTER VII. THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

Galvani and the beginning of modern electricity—The construction of

the voltaic pile—Nicholson's and Carlisle's discovery that the galvanic

current decomposes water—Decomposition of various substances by Sir

Humphry Davy—His construction of an arc-light—The deflection of the

magnetic needle by electricity demonstrated by Oersted—Effect of

this important discovery—Ampere creates the science of

electro-dynamics—Joseph Henry's studies of electromagnets—Michael

Faraday begins his studies of electromagnetic induction—His famous

paper before the Royal Society, in 1831, in which he demonstrates

electro-magnetic induction—His explanation of Arago's

rotating disk—The search for a satisfactory method of storing

electricity—Roentgen rays, or X-rays.

CHAPTER VIII. THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

Faraday narrowly misses the discovery of the doctrine of

conservation—Carnot's belief that a definite quantity of work can be

transformed into a definite quantity of heat—The work of James Prescott

Joule—Investigations begun by Dr. Mayer—Mayer's paper of 1842—His

statement of the law of the conservation of energy—Mayer and

Helmholtz—Joule's paper of 1843—Joule or Mayer—Lord Kelvin and the

dissipation of energy-The final unification.

CHAPTER IX. THE ETHER AND PONDERABLE MATTER

James Clerk-Maxwell's conception of ether—Thomas Young and

"Luminiferous ether,"—Young's and Fresnel's conception of transverse

luminiferous undulations—Faraday's experiments pointing to the

existence of ether—Professor Lodge's suggestion of two ethers—Lord

Kelvin's calculation of the probable density of ether—The vortex theory

of atoms—Helmholtz's calculations in vortex motions—Professor

Tait's apparatus for creating vortex rings in the air—-The ultimate

constitution of matter as conceived by Boscovich—Davy's speculations

as to the changes that occur in the substance of matter at different

temperatures—Clausius's and Maxwell's investigations of the

kinetic theory of gases—Lord Kelvin's estimate of the size of the

molecule—Studies of the potential energy of molecules—Action of gases

at low temperatures.

APPENDIX