Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy

INDEX.

• Acoustics cultivated by Pythagoras and Aristotle, page 248.
• Æpinus, his laws of equilibrium of electricity, 332.
• Aëriform fluids, liquids kept in a state of vapour, 321.
• Agricola, George, his knowledge of mineralogy and metallurgy, 112.
• Air, compressibility and elasticity of; limitation to the repulsive tendency of, 226.
• Weight of, unknown to the ancients, 228.
• First perceived by Galileo, 228.
• Proved by a crucial instance, 229.
• Equilibrium of, established, 231.
• Dilatation of, by heat, 319.
• Air-pump, discovery of, 230.
• Airy, his experiments in Dolcoath mine, 187.
• Alchemists, advantages derived from, 11.
• Algebra, 19.
• Ampere, his electro-dynamic theory, 202.
• Utility of, 203, 324.
• Analysis of force, 86.
• Of motion, 87.
• Of complex phenomena, 88.
• Anaxagoras, philosophy of, 107.
• Animal electricity, 337.
• Arago, M., his experiment with a magnetic needle and a plate of copper, 157.
• Archimedes, his practical application of science, 72.
• His knowledge of hydrostatics, 231.
• Arfwedson, his discovery of lithia, 158.
• Aristotle, his knowledge of natural history, 109.
• His works condemned, and subsequently studied with avidity, 111.
• His philosophy overturned by the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, 113.
• Arithmetic, 19.
• Art, empirical and scientific, differences between, 71.
• Remarks on the language, terms, or signs, used in treating of it, 70.
• Assurances, life, utility and abuses of, 58.
• Astronomy, cause of the slow progress of our knowledge of, 78.
• Theory and practical observations distinct in, 132.
• An extensive acquaintance with science and every branch of knowledge necessary to make a perfect observer in, 132.
• Five primary planets added to our system, 274.
• Positions, figures, and dimensions of all the planetary orbits now well known, 275.
• Atomic theory, 305.
• Advantage of, 306.
• Atomic weights of chemical elements, 306.
• Attraction, capillary, or capillarity, investigated by Laplace and Young, 234.
• Bacon, celebrated in England for his knowledge of science, 72.
• Benefits conferred on Natural Philosophy by him, 104.
• His Novum Organum, 105.
• His reform in philosophy proves the paramount importance of induction, 114.
• His prerogative of facts, 181.
• Illustrated by the fracture of a crystallized substance, 183.
• His collective instances, 184.
• Importance of, 185.
• His experiment on the weight of bodies, 186.
• Travelling instances of, frontier instances of, 188.
• His difference between liquids and aëriform fluids, 233.
• Bartolin, Erasmus, first discovers the phenomena exhibited by doubly refracting crystals, 254.
• Beccher, phlogistic doctrines of, 300.
• Bergmann, his advancement in crystallography, 239.
• Bernoulli, experiments of, in hydrodynamical science, 181.
• Biot, his hypothesis of a rotatory motion of the particles of light about their axes, 262.
• Black, Dr., his discovery of latent heat, 322.
• Bode, his curious law observed in the progression of the magnitudes of the several planetary orbits, 308.
• Bodies, natural constitution of, 221.
• Division of, into crystallized and uncrystallized, 242.
• Bones, dry, a magazine of nutriment, 65.
• Borda, his invention for subdivision, 128.
• Botany, general utility of, 345.
• Boyle, Robert, his enthusiasm in the pursuit of science, 115.
• His improvement on the air-pump, 230.
• Brain, hypothesis of its being an electric pile, 343.
• Bramah’s press, principle and utility of, 233.
• Brewster, Dr., his improvement on lenses for lighthouses, 56.
• His researches prove that the phenomena exhibited by polarized light, in its transmission through crystals, afford a certain indication of the most important points relating to the structure of crystals themselves, 263.
• Cabot, Sebastian, his discovery of the variation of the needle, 327.
• Cagnard, Baron de la Tour, utility of his experiments, 234.
• Causes and consequences directors of the will of man, 6.
• Causes, proximate, discovery of, called by Newton veræ causæ, 144.
• Celestial mechanics, 265.
• Chaldean records, 265.
• Chemistry furnishes causes of sudden action, also fulminating compositions, 62.
• Analogy of the complex phenomena of, with those of physics, 92.
• Benefits arising from the analysis of, 94.
• Axioms of, analogous to those of geometry, 95.
• Many of the new elements of, detected in the investigation of residual phenomena, 158.
• The most general law of, 209.
• Illustration of, 210.
• Between fifty and sixty elements in, 211.
• Objects of, 296.
• General heads of the principal improvements in, 302.
• Remarks on those general heads, 304.
• Chemistry, Stahlian, cause of the mistakes and confusions of, 123.
• Chladni, experiments of, in dynamical science, 181.
• Chlorine, disinfectant powers of, 56.
• Clarke, Dr., his experiments on the arseniate and phosphate of soda, 170.
• His success in producing a new phosphate of soda, 171.
• Climate, change of, in large tracts of the globe, alleged cause of, 145.
• Coals, power of a bushel of, properly consumed, 59.
• Quantity consumed in London, 60.
• Cohesion, an ultimate phenomenon, 90.
• Cold, qualities of, 318.
• Compass, mariner’s, 55.
• Condensation, a source of heat, 313.
• Conduction of heat, laws of, 205.
• Copernicus, effect of his discoveries on the Aristotelian philosophy, 113.
• Objections to his astronomical doctrines, 269.
• Crystallography, laws of, 123, 239.
• A determinate figure supposed to be common to all the particles of a crystal, 242.
• D’Alembert, his improvements in hydrodynamics, 236.
• Dalton, his announcement of the atomic theory, 305.
• His examination of gases and vapours, 319.
• Davy, Sir H., brings the voltaic pile to bear upon the earths and alkalies, 339.
• Deduction, utility of, 174.
• De l’Isle, Romé, his study of crystalline bodies, 239.
• Dew, causes of, investigated, 159.
• Effects of, on different substances, 160.
• Objects capable of contracting it, 161.
• A cloudless sky favourable to its production, 162.
• General proximate cause of, 163.
• Drummond, lieutenant, his improvement on lenses for lamps of lighthouses, 56.
• Dynamics, importance of, 96, 223.
• Earth, the orbit of,—diminution of its eccentricity round the sun, 147.
• Economy, political, 73.
• Egypt, great pyramid of, height, weight, and ground occupied by it, 60.
• Accuracy of the astronomical records of, 265.
• Elasticity, an ultimate phenomenon, 90.
• Electricity may be the cause of magnetism, 93.
• Universality of, 329.
• Effects of, 330.
• Activity of, 331.
• Equilibrium of, 332.
• Productive of chemical decomposition, 338.
• Empirical laws, 178.
• Evils resulting from, 179.
• Encke, professor, his prediction of the return of the comet so many times in succession, 156.
• Englefield, sir H., his analysis of a solar beam, 314.
• Equilibrium maintained by force, 222.
• Erman, professor, his opinion of the effects of the voltaic circuit, 340.
• Euler, his improvement on Newton’s theory of sound, 247.
• Experience, source of our knowledge of nature’s laws, 76.
• Experiment, a means of acquiring experience, 76.
• Utility of, 151.
• Facts, the observation of, 118.
• Faujas de St. Fond, imaginary craters of, 131.
• Fluids, laws of the motion of, 181.
• Compressibility of, 225.
• Consideration of the motions of, more complicated than that of equilibrium, 235.
• Force, analysis of, 86.
• The cause of motion, 149.
• Phenomena of, 221.
• Molecular forces, 245.
• Fourier, baron, his opinion that the celestial regions have a temperature, independent of the sun, not greatly inferior to that at which quicksilver congeals, 157.
• His analysis of the laws of conduction and radiation of heat, 317.
• Franklin, Dr., his experiments on electricity, 332.
• Fresnel, M., his mathematical explanation of the phenomena of double refraction, 32.
• His improvement on lenses for lamps of lighthouses, 56.
• His opinions on the nature of light, 207.
• His experiments on the interference of polarized light, 261.
• His theory of polarization, 262.
• Friction, a source of heat, 313.
• Galileo, celebrity of, for his knowledge of science, 72.
• His exposition of the Aristotelian philosophy, 110.
• His refutation of Aristotle’s dogmas respecting motion, his persecution in consequence of it, 113.
• His knowledge of the accelerating power of gravity, 168.
• His knowledge of the weight of the atmosphere, 228.
• Galvani, utility of his discoveries in electricity, 335.
• His application of it to animals, 336.
• Gay-Lussac, his examination of gases and vapours, 319.
• Generalization, inductive, 1, 90.
• Geology, 281.
• Its rank as a science, 287.
• Geometry, axioms of, an appeal to experience, not corporeal, but mental, 95.
• Gilbert, Dr., of Colchester, his knowledge of magnetism and electricity, 112.
• Gravitation, law of, a physical axiom of a very high and universal kind, 98.
• Influence of, decreases in the inverse ratio of the square of the distance, 123.
• Greece, philosophers of, their extraordinary success in abstract reasoning, and their careless consideration of external nature, 105.
• Their general character, 106.
• Philosophy of, 108.
• Grimaldi, a jesuit of Bologna, his discovery of diffraction, or inflection of light, 252.
• Guinea and feather experiment, 168.
• Gunpowder, invention of, 55.
• A mechanical agent, 62.
• Haarlem lake, draining of, 61.
• Harmony, sense of, 248.
• Head, captain, anecdote of, 84.
• Heat, 193.
• Radiation and conduction of, 205.
• One of the chief agents in chemistry, 310.
• Our ignorance of the nature of, 310.
• Abuse of the sense of the term, 311.
• The general heads under which it is studied, 312.
• Its most obvious sources, 312.
• Animal heat, to what process referable, 313.
• Radiation and conduction of, 314.
• Solar heat differs from terrestrial fires, or hot bodies, 315.
• Principal effects of, 317.
• The antagonist to mutual attraction, 322.
• Latent heat, 322.
• Specific heat, 323.
• Herschel, sir William, his analysis of a solar beam, 314.
• Hipparchus, his catalogue of stars, 276.
• Holland drained of water by windmills, 61.
• Hooke almost the rival of Newton, 116.
• Huel Towan, steam-engine at, 59.
• Huyghens, his doctrine of light, 207.
• Ascertains the laws of double refraction, 254.
• Hydrostatics, first step towards a knowledge of, made by Archimedes, 231.
• Law of the equal pressure of liquids, 232.
• General applicability of, 232.
• Hypothesis, not to be deterred from framing them, 196.
• Conditions on which they should be framed, 197.
• Illustrated by the laws of gravitation, 198.
• Use and abuse of, 204.
• Induction, different ways of carrying it on, 102.
• Steps by which it is arrived at on a legitimate and extensive scale, 118.
• First stage of, 144.
• Verification of, 164.
• Instanced in astronomy, 166.
• Must be followed into all its consequences, and applied to all those cases which seem even remotely to bear upon the subject of enquiry, 173.
• Nature of the inductions by which quantitative laws are arrived at, 176.
• Necessity of induction embracing a series of cases which absolutely include the whole scale of variation of which the quantities in question admit, 177.
• Induced electricity, 333.
• Inertia, 223.
• Iodine, discovery of, 50.
• Efficacy of, in curing goître, 51.
• Isomorphism, law of, 170.
• Kepler, effect of his discoveries on the Aristotelian philosophy, 113.
• Nature of his laws of the planetary system, 178.
• Proofs of the Newtonian system, 179.
• Knowledge, physical facts illustrative of the utility of, 45.
• Diffusion of, how to take advantage of in the investigation of nature, 138.
• Lagrange, his improvements on Newton’s theory of sound, 247.
• His astronomical researches, 275.
• Lamp, safety, 55.
• Laplace, his explanation of the residual velocity of sound and confirmation of the general law of the developement of heat by compression, 172.
• His astronomical research, 275.
• His experiments on the dilatation of bodies by heat, 319.
• His study of specific heat, 323.
• Latent heat, 323.
• Laws, inductive, 171.
• General, 198.
• How applicable, 199.
• Illustrated by the planetary system, 201.
• Empirical laws, 178.
• Lavoisier, his improvements in chemical science, 302.
• Experiments on dilatation of bodies by heat, 319.
• His investigation on specific heat, 323.
• Light, refraction of, 30.
• Double refraction of, 31.
• Polarization of, 254.
• Light and vision, ignorance of the ancients respecting, 249.
• Lighthouse, 56.
• Lightning, how to judge philosophically of it, 120.
• Returning stroke of, 121.
• Liquids, cohesion, attraction and repulsion of the particles of, 227.
• Differ from aëriform fluids by their cohesion, 233.
• The Florentine experiment on; experiments by Canton, Perkins, Oërsted, and others on, 235.
• Obscurity of the laws of dilatation of, 320.
• Linnæus, his knowledge of crystalline substances, 239.
• Logic, 19.
• Lyell’s Principles of Geology, extract from, 146.
• Magnetism may be caused by electricity, 93.
• Offers a “glaring instance” of polarity, 326.
• Experiments illustrative of, 327.
• Malus, a French officer of engineers, discovers the polarization of light, 132, 258.
• Man, regarded as a creature of instinct, 1.
• Of reason and speculation, 3.
• His will determined by causes and consequences, 6.
• Advantages to, from the study of science, 7.
• His necessity to study the laws of nature illustrated, 66.
• Happiness and the opposite state of man in the aggregate, 67.
• Advantages conferred on, by the augmentation of physical resources, 68.
• Advantages from intellectual resources, 69.
• Mariotte, his law of equilibrium of an elastic fluid recently verified by the Royal Academy of Paris, 231.
• His difference between solar and other heat, 315.
• Matter, indestructibility of; Divided by grinding, 40.
• By fire, 41.
• Dilated by heat, 193.
• Inertia of, 202.
• Polarity of, one of the ultimate phenomena to which the analysis of nature leads us, 245.
• Inherent activity of, 297.
• Causes of the polarity of, 299.
• Imponderable forms of, 310.
• Measure, the standard, difficulty of preserving it unaltered, 128.
• How to be assisted in measurement, 129.
• Our conclusions from, should be conditional, 130.
• Menai Bridge, weight and height of, 60.
• Mechanics, practical, 63.
• Mètre, the French, 126.
• Microscopes, power of, 191.
• Millstones, method of making in France, 48.
• Mind, its transition from the little to the great, and vice versâ, illustrated, 172.
• Mineralogy unknown to the ancients, 79.
• Prejudiced by the rage for nomenclature, 139.
• Benefited by the progress of chemical analysis, 293.
• Minerals, simple, apparent paucity of, 294.
• Difficulty in classing them, 295.
• Mitscherlich, his law of isomorphism, 170.
• His experiments on the expansion of substances by heat, 243.
• Motion, 87.
• Simplicity and precision of the laws of, 179.
• Nature, laws of, 37.
• Immutability of, 42.
• Harmony of, and advantage of studying them, 43.
• Prove the impossibility of attaining the declared object of the alchemist. How they serve mankind generally, 44.
• Illustrated by mining, 45.
• Economy derived from a knowledge of, 65.
• How to be regarded, 100, 101.
• Nature, objects of, an enumeration and nomenclature of, useful in the study of, 135.
• Mechanism of, on too large or too small a scale to be immediately cognisable by our senses, 191.
• Newton, his proof of Galileo’s laws of gravitation by an experiment with a hollow glass pendulum, 160.
• His foundation to hydrodynamical science, 181.
• Fixes the division between statics and dynamics, 223.
• His investigation of the law of equilibrium of elastic fluids, 231.
• His law of hydrostatics, 232.
• His foundation of hydrodynamics 236.
• His analysis of sound, 247.
• Hypothesis of light, 250.
• Examination of a soap-bubble, 252.
• His hypothesis of fits of easy transmission and reflection, 253.
• His combination of mathematical skill with physical research, 271.
• His Principia, 272.
• His successors; his geometry, 273.
• Nomenclature, importance of, to science, 136.
• More a consequence than a cause of extended knowledge, 138.
• Prejudicial to mineralogy, 139.
• Norman, Robert, his discovery of the dip of the needle, 327.
• Numerical precision, necessity of, in science, 122.
• Objects, and their mutual actions, subjects of contemplation, 118.
• Observation, a means of acquiring experience, 76.
• Passive and active, 77.
• Recorded observation, 120.
• Necessity of, to acquire precise physical data, 215.
• Illustrated by the barometer, 216.
• Oërsted, his discoveries in electricity and magnetism, 132.
• Of electro-magnetism, 340.
• Opacity, 189.
• Otto von Guericke of Magdeburgh, his invention of the air-pump, 230.
• Paracelsus, power of his chemical remedies; his use of mercury, opium, and tartar, 112.
• Pascal, his crucial instances proving the weight of air, 229.
• Pendulum, 126.
• Phenomena, analysis of, illustrated by musical sounds, the sensation of taste, 85.
• The ultimate and inward process of nature in the production of, 86.
• Analysis of complex phenomena, 88.
• Ultimate phenomena, 90.
• How the analysis of, is useful, 97.
• A transient phenomenon, how to judge of, 122.
• Method of explaining one when it presents itself, 148.
• How to discover the cause of one, 150.
• Two, or many, theories, maintained as the origin of, in physics, 195.
• Cosmical phenomena, 265.
• Philosophy, natural, unfounded objections to the study of, 7.
• Advantages derivable from the study of, 10.
• Pleasure and happiness, the consequences of the study of, 15.
• Phlogistic doctrines of Beccher and Stahl, 300.
• Physical data, necessity of, 209.
• Great importance of, 211.
• Illustrated by the erection of observatories, 213.
• Necessity of an exact knowledge of, 214.
• More precise than the observations by which we acquire them, 215.
• Physics, axioms of; analysis of, 102.
• Planets, circumjovial, 186.
• Platina, discovery of, 308.
• Pliny, his knowledge of quartz and diamond, 239.
• Pneumatics, 228.
• Political economy, 73.
• Prejudices of opinion and sense, 80.
• Conditions on which such are injurious, 81.
• Illustrated by the division of the rays of light, by the moon at the horizon, and by ventriloquism, 82.
• By the transition of the hand from heat to cold, 83.
• Prevost, M., his theory of heat, 316.
• His theory of reciprocal interchanges, a proof of the radiation of cold, 318.
• Printing, the art of, 193.
• Performed by steam, 194.
• Probabilities, doctrine of, 217.
• Illustrated by shooting at a wafer, 218.
• Prout, Dr., his opinion of the atomic weights, 307.
• Pyrometry, 319.
• Pythagoras, philosophy of, 107.
• Quinine, sulphate of, comparative comfort and health resulting from the use of, 56.
• Radiation of heat, laws of, 205.
• Repulsion in fluids and solids, 227.
• Rules, general, for guiding and facilitating our search among a great mass of assembled facts, 151.
• Rumford, count, experiments of, on gunpowder, 62.
• Savart, M., his experiments on solids, 243.
• His researches on sound, 249.
• Science, abstract, a preparation for the study of physics, 19.
• Not indispensable to the study of physical laws, 25.
• Instances illustrative of, 27.
• Science, physical, nature and objects, immediate and collateral, as regarded in itself and in its application to the practical purposes of life, and its influence on society, 35.
• State of, previous to the age of Galileo and Bacon, 104.
• Causes of the rapid advance of, compared with the progress at an earlier period, 347.
• Science, natural, cause and effect, the ultimate relations of, 76.
• Sciences and Arts, remarks on the language, terms, or signs used in treating of them, 70.
• Receive an impulse by the Baconian philosophy, 114.
• Sensation, cause of, 91.
• Senses, inadequate to give us direct information for the exact comparison of quantity, 124.
• Substitutes for the inefficiency of, 125.
• Seringapatam, method of breaking blocks from the quarries of, 47.
• Shells found in rocks at a great height above the sea, supposed cause of, 145.
• Smeaton, his experiments on bodies dilated by heat, 319.
• Solids, transparent, exhibit periodical colours when exposed to polarized light, 99.
• Influence of, on the Mind, 101.
• Solids in general, nature of, 236.
• Constitution of, complicated, 237.
• Toughness of, distinct from hardness; tenacity of, 238.
• Become liquefied by the addition of heat, 321.
• Sounds, musical, illustrative of the analysis of phenomena, 85.
• Means of having a knowledge of, 89.
• Propagation of, through the air, 246.
• Newton’s analysis of, 247.
• Standard measurement, necessity of, 125.
• Laws of nature used as such, illustrated by the rotation of the earth, 126.
• Substances all subject to dilatation by the addition of heat, 243.
• Sun, the character of the heat of, 315.
• Thales, philosophy of, 107.
• Theories, how to estimate the value of, 204.
• Best arrived at by the consideration of general laws, 208.
• Explanatory of the phenomena of nature; on what their application ought to be grounded, 209.
• Thomson, Dr., his opinion of the atomic weights, 307.
• Thermometer, air, 319.
• Thermo-electricity, 341.
• Time, division of, 126, 127.
• Torricelli, pupil of Galileo, his experiments proving the weight of atmosphere, 229.
• Torpedo, shock of, 341, 342.
• Ulugh Begh, his catalogue of stars, 277.
• Vaccination, success of, as a preventive to small-pox, 52.
• Vision and light, ignorance of the ancients respecting, 249.
• Volta, his discoveries in electricity, 335.
• Electric pile of, 337.
• Voltaic circuit, 338.
• Water, effects of the power of, 61.
• Whewell, his experiments, 187.
• Wells, Dr., his theory of dew, 163.
• Wind, effects of the power of, 61.
• Wire steel, magnetized masks of, used by needle-makers, 57.
• Wollaston, Dr., his verification of the laws of double refraction in Iceland spar, 258.
• His invention of the goniometer, 292.
• World, the materials of the, 290.
• Young, Dr., his experiments on the interference of the rays of light, 260.
• Zoology, fossil, 344.