Britain's Heritage of Science

Front Cover
Constable & Company, Limited, 1917 - 334 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 28 - That the quantity of heat capable of increasing the temperature of a pound of water (weighed in vacuo, and taken at between 55° and 60°) by 1° Fahr.
Page 30 - It is impossible by means of inanimate material agency to derive mechanical effect from any portion of matter by cooling it below the temperature of the coldest of the surrounding objects.
Page 215 - Thus Harvey sought for Truth in Truth's own Book, The Creatures, which by God himself was writ; And wisely thought 'twas fit, Not to read Comments only upon it, But on th
Page 268 - During the three years which I spent at Cambridge my time was wasted, as far as the academical studies were concerned, as completely as at Edinburgh and at school.
Page 32 - Within a finite period of time past, the earth must have been, and within a finite period of time to come. the earth must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at present constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which are impossible under the laws to which the known operations going on at present in the material world are subject.
Page 275 - None have fought better, and none have been more fortunate, than Charles Darwin. He found a great truth trodden underfoot, reviled by bigots, and ridiculed by all the world ; he lived long enough to see it, chiefly by his own efforts, irrefragably established in science, inseparably incorporated with the common thoughts of men, and only hated and feared by those who would revile, but dare not.
Page 55 - I deduced that the forces which keep the Planets in their orbs must [be] reciprocally as the squares of their distances from the centers about which they revolve; and thereby compared the force requisite to keep the Moon in her orb with the force of gravity at the surface of the earth, and found them answer pretty nearly.
Page 290 - British fleets the boundless ocean awe ; And noble Boyle, not less in nature seen, Than his great brother read in states and men. The circling streams, once thought but pools, of blood (Whether life's fuel, or the body's food) From dark oblivion Harvey's name shall save; While Ent keeps all the honour that he gave.
Page 109 - I consider it fortunate that I was left much to myself when a child, and put upon no particular plan of study, and that I enjoyed much idleness at Mr. Coryton's school. I perhaps owe to these circumstances the little talents that I have, and their peculiar application. What I am I have made myself; I say this without vanity, and in pure simplicity of heart...
Page 55 - ... about which they revolve: and thereby compared the force requisite to keep the moon in her orb with the force of gravity at the surface of the earth, and found them answer pretty nearly. All this was in the two plague years of 1665 and 1666, for in those days I was in the prime of my age for invention, and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since.

Bibliographic information