diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 13 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 79249-0.txt | 1353 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 79249-h/79249-h.htm | 2051 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 79249-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 958481 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 1 |
6 files changed, 3429 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f57f44 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text +*.htm text +*.html text +*.png binary +*.jpg binary +*.svg text +*.pdf binary +*.bmp binary +*.zip binary +*.midi binary +*.mp3 binary diff --git a/79249-0.txt b/79249-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d08eb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/79249-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1353 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79249 *** + +Transcriber’s notes: + +The text of this e-book has been preserved in its original form +apart from correction of three typographic flaws: asistance → +assistance, äorta → aorta, Booksellers → booksellers. The spelling +of superintendence/superintendance varies in this manner. + +Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Superscript text is +indicated by a caret mark preceding the relevant text, e.g. 2^{c} + +New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the +public domain. + + + + + MEMOIR + + OF THE + + LIFE + + OF + + THOMAS YOUNG, M.D. F.R.S. + + FOREIGN ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, ETC. ETC. + + WITH + + A CATALOGUE + + OF HIS + + WORKS AND ESSAYS. + + +LONDON: + +JOHN & ARTHUR ARCH, CORNHILL. + +MDCCCXXXI. + + +LONDON: + +PRINTED BY J. L. COX, GREAT QUEEN STREET, + +Lincoln’s-Inn Fields. + + + + +MEMOIR, + +&c. &c. + +The following slight Memoir of the Life of the late Dr. Young was drawn +up, from some short memoranda of his own writing in the possession of +a near connexion, by one who had the advantage of long and intimate +acquaintance with that distinguished scholar and philosopher; but who, +never having been engaged in the pursuits of accurate science, feels +himself incompetent to give more than an imperfect sketch, which he +trusts to see filled up hereafter by an abler hand. + +Dr. Thomas Young, a man eminently distinguished in more departments +of literature and science than any other individual of his age and +country, was born at Milverton in Somersetshire, the 13th of June, +1773. He was the eldest of ten children of Mr. Thomas Young of that +place, and his mother was a niece of Doctor Richard Brocklesby, a +physician of eminence in the metropolis, who was well known both from +his connexion with the first literary societies, and with the highest +political circles of the times in which he lived. + +His parents were both of them of the society of Quakers, and of the +strictest of a sect, whose fundamental principle it is, that the +perception of what is right or wrong, to its minutest ramifications, is +to be looked for in the immediate influence of a Supreme intelligence, +and that therefore the individual is to act upon this, lead where it +may, and compromise nothing. To the best of these early impressions he +was accustomed in after-life to attribute, in some degree, the power +he so eminently possessed of an imperturbable resolution to effect any +object on which he was engaged, which he brought to bear on every thing +he undertook, and by which he was enabled to work out his own education +almost from infancy, with little comparative assistance or direction +from others. + +From a very early period Dr. Young was chiefly an inmate in the +family of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Robert Davies, of Minehead; +a gentleman who amidst mercantile avocations, though no very deep or +accurate scholar, had cultivated a taste for classical literature, +which it was his earnest endeavour to impress upon the mind of his +grandson. It is stated that whilst domesticated with him, he had learnt +to read with fluency when he was two years old, and that soon after +this, in the intervals of his attendance on a village schoolmistress, +he was made to commit to memory a number of English poems, and even +some Latin ones, the words of which he retained without difficulty, +although at the time unacquainted with their meaning. + +Before he was six years old, he attended the seminary of a dissenting +minister, and went afterwards to a school at Bristol, where he remained +about a year and a half, and where the deficiency of the instructor +appears to have advanced the studies of the pupil, as he here first +became his own teacher, and had by himself studied the last pages of +the books used, before he had reached the middle under the eye of the +master. + +His father had a neighbour, a man of great ingenuity, by profession a +land surveyor and land steward; and in his office, during his holidays, +he was indulged with the use of mathematical and philosophical +instruments, together with the perusal of three volumes of a Dictionary +of Arts and Sciences, which he also found there. These were to him +sources of instruction and delight of which he seemed never to weary, +and which, thus accidentally thrown in his way, had probably no small +influence on the issues of his future life. + +In 1782, he was sent to the school of a Mr. Thompson, at Compton, in +Dorsetshire, of whom he was always accustomed to speak with great +respect, as a person of an enlarged and liberal mind; and who, +possessed of a moderate and miscellaneous library, permitted and +encouraged his scholars to turn it to their profit; the principle which +he adopted in the course of his instructions, being to allow them a +certain degree of discretion in the employment of their time. + +Here Young went through the ordinary course of Greek and Latin +Classics, together with the elementary parts of the Mathematics; and +by rising earlier and sitting up later than his companions, with the +assistance of a schoolfellow who had some French and Italian books, +he rendered himself tolerably familiar with those languages. He had +acquired, in his visits to his father’s neighbour, the art of land +surveying, and the amusement of his walks was to measure heights with a +quadrant. + +The next study he undertook was Botany, and for the sake of examining +the plants which he gathered, he attempted the construction of a +microscope from the descriptions of Benjamin Martin. This led him to +Optics; but in order to make his microscope, he found it necessary to +procure a lathe. Every thing then gave way to a passion for turning, +and science was forgotten for the acquirement of manual dexterity; +until falling upon a demonstration in Martin which exhibited some +fluxional symbols, he was never satisfied till he had read and mastered +a short introduction to the doctrine of Fluxions. + +Mr. Thompson had left in his way a Hebrew Bible. He began by enabling +himself to read a few chapters, and was soon absorbed in the study +of the principal Oriental languages. At the age of fourteen, when he +quitted Mr. Thompson’s school, he was thus more or less versed in +Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Hebrew, Persic, and Arabic; and in +forming the characters of those languages, he had already acquired +much of the beauty and accuracy of penmanship which was afterwards so +remarkable in his copies of Greek compositions, as well as of those +subjects connected with the literature of ancient Egypt. + +In 1787, the friends of Dr. Young were beginning to think seriously of +the line in life which might be most advantageously taken by a youth of +such extraordinary promise. When at the house of one of his relations +he accidentally met a connexion of Mr. David Barclay, of Youngsbury, +in Hertfordshire, who was then wishing to form an arrangement for +the education of his grandson, and through the intervention of Sir +William Watson, it was agreed that Dr. Young and the grandson of Mr. +Barclay should pursue their studies together, under a private tutor, +in Mr. Barclay’s house. The tutor who was engaged, found a situation +of greater permanence, and never came; so that two boys being left +together, whose ages differed only about a year and a half, Young, then +little more than fourteen, took upon himself, provisionally, the office +of preceptor. They were afterwards joined by a gentleman who was then +in progress of perfecting himself in the higher branches of classical +attainment, of somewhat maturer years, and who has since been known to +the world as the author of the “Calligraphia Græca.” But Dr. Young did +not relinquish the task which he had previously undertaken, and already +far advanced beyond the limits of ordinary scholastic attainment, was +the principal director of the studies of the whole party. + +When about the age of fourteen, he was attacked by symptoms of what +was feared to be incipient consumption. But under the attendance of +his uncle Dr. Brocklesby, and Baron Dimsdale, he recovered his health, +without suffering any ultimate inconvenience, and was enabled for the +most part, to pursue his labours through the whole duration of his +indisposition, merely relieving his attention by what, to him, stood in +the place of repose—a course of Greek reading in such authors as amused +the weariness of his confinement. + +In the five years between 1787 and 1792, residing during the summers +in Hertfordshire, and for some months of the winter in London, with +no other assistance than that of a few occasional masters in the +latter place, he had rendered himself singularly familiar with the +great poets and philosophers of antiquity, keeping ample notes of his +daily studies. Of the various and conflicting opinions of the ancient +philosophers he had drawn up a most admirable analysis; and as his +reading was not merely the gaining words and phrases, and the minuter +distinctions of dialects, but was invariably also directed to what was +the end and object of the works he laboured through, it is probable +that the train of thought into which he was led in this analysis, was +not without its effect, in somewhat mitigating his attachment to the +peculiar views of the sect amongst whom he had been born. + +He had acquired a great facility in writing Latin. He composed Greek +verses which stood the test of the criticism of the first scholars of +the day, and read a good deal of the higher mathematics. His amusements +were the studies of botany and zoology, and to entomology in particular +he at that time gave great attention. + +In the winters of 1790 and 1791, having prepared himself by previous +reading, he attended the lectures of Dr. Higgins in chemistry, and +began to make some simple experiments of his own on a small scale. +But he was afterwards accustomed to say, that at no period of his +life was he particularly fond of repeating experiments, or even of +very frequently attempting to originate new ones; considering that, +however necessary to the advancement of science, they demanded a great +sacrifice of time, and that when the fact was once established, that +time was better employed in considering the purposes to which it might +be applied, or the principles which it might tend to elucidate. + +His uncle Dr. Brocklesby had at this time desired to receive from him +a regular report of his literary and scientific pursuits, intending +to take upon himself the supervision of his further education for the +practice of physic, which was the line he recommended him to adopt; and +having communicated some of his Greek translations to Mr. Burke and Mr. +Windham, with both of whom Dr. Brocklesby had lived in intimacy, an +acquaintance with these two distinguished persons ensued; in the course +of which, Mr. Burke was so greatly struck with the reach of his talents +and the extent of his acquirements, more particularly by his great +and accurate knowledge of the Greek language, that Dr. Young may be +considered as in no small degree indebted to the good offices of that +eminent statesman, for the extent of interest which his uncle took from +this period in his future settlement in life. + +It may probably be considered that it was in these years that his +character received its developement. He was never known to relax in +any object which he had once undertaken. During the whole term of +these five years, he never was seen by any one, on any occasion, to be +ruffled in his temper. Whatever he determined on, he did. He had little +faith in any peculiar aptitude being implanted by nature for any given +pursuits. His favourite maxim was, that whatever one man had done, +another might do; that the original difference between human intellects +was much less than it was generally supposed to be; that strenuous and +persevering attention would accomplish almost any thing; and at this +season, in the confidence of youth and consciousness of his own powers, +he considered nothing which had been compassed by others beyond his +reach to achieve, nor was there any thing which he thought worthy to be +attempted, which he was not resolved to master. + +This self-conducted education, in the privacy of a singularly regular +family, was not however without its disadvantages. The acquisitions he +was thus making in seclusion were great, but he was not in the way of +gaining that which is acquired insensibly in the conflict of equals in +the commerce of the world—the facility of communicating knowledge in +the form that shall be most immediately comprehended by others, and +the tact in putting it forth, that shall render its value immediately +appreciated. It was in 1791 that he made his first communications to +the press, through the Monthly Review and the Gentleman’s Magazine, +being Greek criticism, chemical theories, and remarks on botany and +entomology. + +Towards the end of 1792, Dr. Young established himself in lodgings in +Westminster, in which he resided about two years, for the purpose of +pursuing his medical studies, attending the lectures of Baillie and +Cruickshank in the Hunterian school of anatomy; and he was during that +period amongst the most diligent of the pupils of St. Bartholomew’s +Hospital. + +In 1793, he made a tour in the west of England, principally with a view +of studying the mineralogy of Cornwall; and about this time having +been introduced to the acquaintance of Charles Duke of Richmond, who +had long been a friend of his uncle’s, and was then Master-General +of the Ordnance, he was offered by his Grace the situation of +assistant-secretary in his house. He felt that this was an opportunity +for entering into public life which might lead to advantage and +distinction. Mr. Burke and Mr. Windham recommended him rather to +proceed to Cambridge and study the law; but after some consideration of +these conflicting proposals, he determined to adhere to the pursuits of +science, and to proceed to the practice of physic, as most congenial +both to his predilections and his habits, and to which the position +occupied by his uncle appeared to offer a natural introduction. + +In this year he gave to the Royal Society his Observations on Vision, +and his Theory of the Muscularity of the Crystalline Lens of the +Eye, which became the subject of much discussion, and John Hunter +immediately laid claim to having previously made the discovery. Dr. +Young was soon afterwards elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, when +he had just completed his twenty-first year. + +In the autumn of 1794 he went to Edinburgh, and there attended the +lectures of Doctors Black, Munro, and Gregory. He pursued every branch +of study in that university with his accustomed intensity, but made the +physical sciences more peculiarly the objects of his research. He now +separated himself from the Society of Quakers, and amidst his medical, +scientific, and classical labours, he determined on cultivating some of +those arts in which he considered that his early education had left +him deficient. But every thing, be its nature what it might, was with +him a science; whatever he followed, he followed scientifically. He +was extremely fond of music, and of the science of music he rendered +himself a master. He had at all times great personal activity, and in +youth he delighted in its exercise. But perhaps it may provoke a smile, +though too characteristic an anecdote to omit, that in instructing +himself in the figure of a minuet, he made it the subject of a +mathematical diagram. + +Towards the close of 1795 he went to the university of Gottingen, +where he took his doctor’s degree. His extraordinary attainments, +and the almost incredible industry with which he pursued his studies +in all their variety, excited the wonder of the laborious school in +which he had now placed himself. He found their academical library +peculiarly rich in works of reference; and in composing his inaugural +dissertation, “De Corporis Humani Viribus Conservatricibus,” he left +few volumes unconsulted which had any connexion with the subject on +which he was treating. + +In all periods of his life Dr. Young was entirely exempt from those +dissipations into which young persons unhappily very generally fall, +and here, as at Edinburgh, he diversified his graver studies by +cultivating skill in bodily exercises. He took lessons in horsemanship, +in which he always had great pleasure, and practised under various +masters all sorts of feats of personal agility, in which he excelled to +an extraordinary degree. + +The victories of the French at this time prevented him from visiting +Italy, which he had intended to do previously to his return to England; +and unwilling to be deficient in any species of knowledge, he proceeded +to Dresden; where he spent some time for the purpose of studying the +works of Italian art in the galleries of that city, and to compare what +he saw with that which he had learnt of them from the Lectures of the +professors of Gottingen. Before returning home, he completed his stay +on the Continent by a short visit to Berlin. + +Dr. Young, during his residence in Germany, had gained a very general +and accurate acquaintance with the language and literature of that +country, which he kept up throughout his life; but he remarked that he +found in Germany a love of new inventions, singularly, and somewhat +pedantically, combined with the habit of systematizing older ones, and +giving an importance to things in themselves trifling, which in his +case rather confirmed an original habit of dwelling on minutiæ more +than his subsequent experience led him to think was advantageous. + +In consequence of some new regulations of the College of Physicians, +which had taken place during his residence abroad, he found himself +precluded from immediately practising as a licentiate in London; he +therefore entered himself as a fellow-commoner in Emanuel College, +Cambridge, of which Dr. Farmer was then master, who was an intimate +friend of his uncle’s. He here proceeded to take his regular degrees in +physic in that university, pursuing, during his residence, the various +studies in which he was engaged; but finding no rival in the variety of +his knowledge, and few competitors in most of its branches, he lived +with those most highly gifted, discussing subjects of science with the +professors, but not attending any of the public lectures, considering +that they were in their nature intended for a junior class of students, +and relating to branches of knowledge with which he had already made +himself acquainted. + +Dr. Brocklesby died in December 1797, when the larger part of his +fortune was inherited by his nephew, Mr. Beeby; the remainder, with +his house, his books, and his pictures, was left to Dr. Young. He now +found himself in circumstances of independence, surrounded by a circle +of academical friends and associates, and formed many friendships +in distinguished and highly cultivated society, which he continued to +prize and to enjoy through life. + +He had, during his residence at Cambridge, given some papers to the +Royal Society and had amused himself by contributing several essays +on philosophical and other subjects to some periodical publications; +a part of these he afterwards reprinted, but considered others of a +lighter texture than would bear the criticism of severer experience. + +When his necessary residence at college was completed, Dr. Young +settled himself as a physician in London, in Welbeck-street, where he +continued to reside during twenty-five years. It was not long, however, +before he accepted the situation of Professor of Natural Philosophy in +the Royal Institution, where he was for two years colleague as lecturer +with Sir Humphrey Davy. The first volume of the Journals of the Royal +Institution and a part of the second were edited, and for the most +part composed by him. He gave two Bakerian lectures on the subjects +of Light and Colours to the Royal Society, and in 1802 he published +a Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Natural and Experimental +Philosophy, with mathematical demonstrations of the most important +theorems in mechanics and optics; and containing the first publication +of his discovery of the general law of the Interference of Light, +being the application of a principle which has since been universally +appreciated as one of the greatest discoveries since the time of +Newton, and which has subsequently changed the whole face of Optical +science. + +As a lecturer at the Royal Institution, Dr. Young was apt, in no small +degree, to pass the capacities of his audience, who at this conjuncture +were led to their attendance more as a matter of fashion, than from +a love of research, and who for the most part had little previous +knowledge. His style was compressed and laconic; he went into the +depths of science, and indeed gave more matter than it would perhaps +have been possible for persons really scientific to have followed at +the moment without considerable difficulty. + +In the summer of 1802 Dr. Young accompanied the present Duke of +Richmond and his brother, Lord George Lennox, in his medical capacity, +to Rouen in Normandy, with their tutor, Mr. Vincent; and in an +excursion from thence to Paris, was first present at the discussions of +the National Institute of France, at that time attended by Napoleon; +where he made the acquaintance of several leading members of that +distinguished body, into which he himself was eventually elected. On +his return he was constituted foreign secretary to the Royal Society, +an office which he held during life, being long their senior officer, +and always one of the leading, and most efficient members of their +council. + +In 1804, Dr. Young married Miss Eliza Maxwell, daughter of James +Primrose Maxwell, Esq., of Cavendish-square, who has lived to lament +his loss, after an union which was attended with uninterrupted +happiness. + +At this time he resigned his office as lecturer to the Royal +Institution, it being thought by his friends that his holding it +longer would be likely to interfere with his success as a medical +practitioner. This view, as regarding his continuance in a situation +which would appear to the public to be anomalous to his profession, and +hardly compatible with its duties, was probably a just one. But in +settling in married life Dr. Young carried a deference to the supposed +feelings of the world towards those physicians who distinguished +themselves in lines of research not obviously connected with their +calling, to an excess which, in a man of his extraordinary talents +and attainments, was certainly to be lamented, and possibly even with +reference to those objects proposed to be compassed by it. + +His resolution at that juncture was to confine himself for the most +part to medical pursuits, and to make himself known to the public +in no other character. But he had resolved on that which to him was +impossible. He never slackened either in his literary or philosophical +researches. He was always aiding, and always willing to be the +counsellor of any one engaged in similar investigations. He was living +in the first circles of London, amongst all who were most eminent. +The nature of his habitual avocations was necessarily well known; and +therefore in putting forth his non-medical papers, separately and +anonymously, he was making a fruitless as well as voluntary sacrifice +of the general celebrity to which he was entitled; and shrinking as +it were from the cumulative reputation which he must otherwise have +enjoyed, he waived, in some degree, the advantage which is given by a +great name towards the pursuit even of professional success. + +In 1807 however, Dr. Young published his “Course of Lectures on Natural +Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts,” in two volumes quarto. This +elaborate work he stated to have been the result of the unremitting +application of five years; two having been given to the composition of +the original lectures, and three more to the compilation of the mass +of references in the second volume, to all those works to which the +student might advantageously have recourse who wished to pursue any +more minute enquiry; and to incorporating at the same time with the +Lectures, as at first given, such results as might require insertion. + +The booksellers engaged in this publication failed at the moment of +its coming out, which greatly injured the immediate sale of the work; +but it was a mine to which every one has since resorted, and contained +the original hints of more things since claimed as discoveries, than +can perhaps be found in a single production of any known author. For +some years, indeed, it seemed hardly to have made its way to general +use in England, but it was so appreciated by the philosophers of the +Continent, that one of the men most distinguished for science in Europe +has been known to say, that if his library were on fire, and he could +save only one book from the conflagration, it should be the Lectures of +Dr. Young. + +For sixteen successive years from the period of his marriage, Dr. Young +passed his winters in London and his summers at Worthing, having been +in 1810 appointed physician to St. George’s Hospital. In his profession +his published labours would prove him to have been of the most learned +of scientific physicians, and his judgment and acuteness were equally +great: but in the practice of medicine Dr. Young was not one of those +who were likely to win the most extended occupation amongst the +multitude. He was averse to some of the ordinary methods by which it +is acquired. He never affected an assurance which he did not feel, and +had perhaps rather a tendency to fear the injurious effects which might +eventually result from the application of powerful remedies, than to +any overweening confidence in their immediate efficacy. His treatises +bear the same impress. That on Consumption, is a most striking instance +of his assiduity in collecting all recorded facts, and his abstinence +in drawing inferences from isolated cases, or putting forth that which +he did not feel was established with certainty. Possibly he herein was +an example, that increase of knowledge does not tend to increase of +confidence, and that those whose acquirements are the greatest, meet in +the progress of their investigations with most that leads to distrust. +However it might be, his practice, though respectable, was never very +extensive. + +Dr. Young afterwards published a “Syllabus of Lectures on the Elements +of the Medical Sciences,” as delivered by him at the Middlesex +Hospital, and his “Introduction to Medical literature, including a +System of Practical Nosology”—the latter a work of great labour, +forming like his Natural Philosophy, a text book of the highest +practical utility, and accompanied by a mass of references, which, +to industry and perseverance less than his, it should seem almost +impossible to have accumulated. + +The Lectures, like every thing which proceeded from Dr. Young, were, +even in his own estimation, too full of matter and too much compressed +to be conveniently followed by the hearer in a course of oral +instruction. Indeed, in all things he was rather too apt to presume a +knowledge in other persons which they did not possess, and consequently +to fail in his estimate of how much of explanation was needed in +communicating the results of science to those who were comparatively +ignorant. + +To the larger of these works he prefixed a “Preliminary Essay on the +Study of Physic;” in which he gives a singular picture of what, in +his opinion, is required to constitute a well-educated physician; +enumerating nearly every possible quality of which man could wish, but +of which few could hope, the attainment. + +Dr. Young contributed to the Quarterly Review a variety of articles, +literary and scientific. He first engaged, at the suggestion of Mr. +George Ellis, one of his most intimate and most valued friends, to +furnish those on medical subjects to that work. But his communications +soon branched into other lines, many of them connected with the higher +departments of science, and containing the results of some of his most +laboured researches. The Review of Adelung’s Mithridates, Vol. X. +October 1813, is perhaps the most remarkable, not only from the immense +knowledge it displays of the structure of almost all languages, but as +having been the composition which first led him to the investigation of +the lost literature of ancient Egypt. + +In the year 1814, Sir William Rouse Boughton had brought with him +from Egypt some fragments of Papyri, which he put into the hands +of Dr. Young; the fragment of the Rosetta stone having been about +this time deposited in the British Museum, and a correct copy of its +three inscriptions having been engraved and circulated by the Society +of Antiquaries. Dr. Young first proceeded to examine the enchorial +inscription, and afterwards the sacred characters, and after a minute +comparison of these documents, he was enabled to attach some “Remarks +on Egyptian Papyri, and on the inscription of Rosetta,” containing +an _interpretation of the principal parts of both the Egyptian +inscriptions on the pillar_; to a paper of Sir William Boughton’s, +which was published by the Society of Antiquaries in 1815, in the +eighteenth volume of the Archæologia. + +Dr. Young now found he had discovered a key to the lost literature of +ancient Egypt. He had occupied himself, though without deriving from it +the assistance he had at first expected, in the study of the Coptic and +Thebaic version of the Scriptures; but having satisfied himself of the +nature and origin of the enchorial character, he produced the result +to the world anonymously in the Museum Criticum of Cambridge, part +the sixth, published in 1815; being then determined to prosecute the +discovery, but at the same time abstaining from claiming it in a more +substantive form, from the resolution he had previously taken to be +known only as a medical author. + +The labour he bestowed on these investigations, and the minuteness and +accuracy with which he copied the papyri, and compared the materials +which came into his hands, would be nearly incredible to those who had +not access to him whilst employed on this pursuit. + +In 1816, he printed and circulated two additional Letters relating +to his hieroglyphical discoveries, and the inscription of Rosetta; +the first addressed to the Archduke John of Austria, who had recently +been in this country, the other to M. Akerblad. These letters announce +the progress of the discovery of the relation between the Egyptian +characters and hieroglyphics, forming the basis on which Dr. Young +continued his enquiries, as well as of the system afterwards carried +further in its details by M. Champollion, whose attention had long +been directed to similar studies, and in which he has since so greatly +distinguished himself. The letters were _first published_ when +_re-printed_ in the seventh number of the Museum Criticum in 1821; +and were, with the former letters in that work, beyond all question +or dispute, the earliest announcement of the discovery of a key to a +character which had remained uninterpreted for ages. + +In the same year he agreed with Mr. M^{c}Vey Napier to furnish various +articles to the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, conducted +under the superintendance of that gentleman; and in this work, under +the head “EGYPT,” he first brought out the whole results of his +discoveries in a perfect and concentrated form. + +To the Supplement of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Dr. Young furnished +sixty-three articles, scientific, biographical, and literary; the +signature by which they are marked, being two consecutive letters +of the sentence “_Fortunam ex aliis_.” His adoption of such a motto +appears to have been caused by his considering at this period of his +life, that he had not succeeded to his wish or expectation in the +profession which he had chosen, and that he had reason to complain +of some injustice, in that the extent and utility of his labours in +science, after having been fully appreciated by the philosophers of +the Continent, had not appeared to have met with the same acceptance +amongst his own countrymen. But this feeling, as it was transitory, so +it should seem that it was hardly well-founded. By those competent to +form a judgment, he was known to stand at the head both of the letters +and of the science of England; but from the time of his quitting +the professorship of the Royal Institution, all his philosophical +and literary tracts, with the exception of his Lectures and his +communications to the Royal Society, were scattered through so many and +such diverging channels of publication, as well as branched into such +varied lines, that they never were within the reach of any one class of +readers, nor ever in the aggregate came before the public as proceeding +from him; to which may be added, that the slightest reference to his +non-professional works will shew him, in these years, to have used +expressions studiously to conceal himself. + +Of Dr. Young’s philosophical articles in the Supplement to the +Encyclopædia Britannica, some of which contain the results of his most +elaborate investigations, the writer of the present memoir is not +competent to speak. Many of his biographical sketches are admirably +given; but he would refer to the Life of PORSON, not only as being +in itself a most masterly production, but as containing a very +interesting indication of some of Dr. Young’s opinions, both on the +value of classical studies, and on the mechanism of the human mind; and +he would instance the dissertation on “LANGUAGES” as containing the +stupendous collections he had made for the subject, when led to it by +reviewing Adelung’s Mithridates for the Quarterly Review. + +Early in 1817, Dr. Young having occasion to visit a patient in Paris, +was greatly pleased with his reception in the scientific circles of +that metropolis. With the Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, Messrs. Arage, +Cuvier, Biot, and Guy Lussac, he had made previous acquaintance in this +country. He found himself happy in renewing his intercourse with these +very eminent men, and after his return to London, he went back to Paris +for a few weeks in the summer of the same year. + +In 1818, he was appointed by a commission under the Privy Seal, +together with Sir Joseph Banks, Sir George Clerk, Mr. Davies Gilbert, +Dr. Woollaston, and Captain Kater, a commissioner for taking into +consideration the state of the weights and measures employed throughout +Great Britain. Dr. Young acted as secretary at the meetings of this +Board, and to the three Reports which were laid before Parliament he +furnished both the scientific calculations, and the attached account +of the various measures customarily in use. It seems right to state, +that in pursuing these investigations it was his opinion, that however +theoretically desirable it might be, that all weights and measures +should be reducible to a common standard of scientific accuracy, yet +that, practically, the least possible disturbance of that to which +people had long been habituated was the point to be looked to, and on +this ground he was extremely averse to unnecessary changes. + +Towards the end of the year 1818, Dr. Young was appointed secretary +to the Board of Longitude, with the charge of the supervision of the +Nautical Almanack, under a new Act of Parliament brought in by Mr. +Croker and Mr. Davies Gilbert; having in the first instance been +nominated in the Act as one of the Commissioners, without his previous +knowledge. This appointment was to him a very desirable one, though the +labour in which it involved him was great, as his anxiety to increase +his medical practice henceforth ceased, and it made that the business +of his life which had always been his inclination. + +He now discontinued his residence at Worthing, and devoted the summer +to a hasty tour into Italy, an object which he always had in view. In +about five months he visited all the most remarkable Italian cities, +and amongst other objects of interest, gave the first place to the +examination of the Egyptian monuments preserved in that country. He +returned to England by Switzerland and the Rhine. + +From the year 1820 to the end of his life, Dr. Young continued to +furnish a variety of astronomical and nautical collections to Brande’s +Philosophical Journal, the greater part of which were original, and +others which were translated were accompanied by his own comments. + +In 1821, he published anonymously an “Elementary Illustration of the +Celestial Mechanics of La Place, with some additions relating to the +motion of Waves and of Sound, and to the cohesion of Fluids.” This +volume, and the article “Tides,” in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia +Britannica, were considered by him to have contained the most fortunate +of the results of his mathematical labours. He proceeds in his own +course and manner of investigation, and uses his own processes, and +the great reach of mind displayed in these works seems universally +acknowledged; but whether he have sufficiently established all the +points which he considered himself to have proved, remains matter of +dispute amongst those best qualified to judge. They were spoken of in +the highest terms of praise by Mr. Davies Gilbert from the Chair of +the Royal Society; but there are some amongst the most distinguished +of surviving English philosophers, who still think that his theory of +the Tides rests too exclusively on analogies, and that many of the +elements of the computation are too much out of human reach to render +the boldness of the original thought susceptible of being subjected to +the severity of mathematical deduction. + +Dr. Young as a mathematician was of an elder school, and was possibly +somewhat prejudiced against the system now obtaining, both amongst the +continental and the English philosophers; as he thought the powers of +intellect exercised by a preceding race of mathematicians, were in no +small danger of being lost or weakened by the substitution of processes +in their nature mechanical. + +The next year he went again to Paris, and in 1823 he published his +“Account of some recent Discoveries in Hieroglyphical Literature and +Egyptian Antiquities,” in which he gave his own original alphabet, his +translations from papyri, and the extensions which that alphabet had +received from M. Champollion. This was the first non-professional +publication since 1804, to which he had prefixed his name, and made +open claim to his discoveries; having, as stated in his Preface, now +attained his fiftieth year, and having at last determined to throw off +the shackles by which he had hitherto considered himself to be bound by +the etiquette of a medical practitioner. + +At this time he attempted to form a society of about fifty subscribers, +for the lithography of a collection of plates of Egyptian antiquities, +subservient to the study of hieroglyphical literature. This work was, +however, entirely carried on by Dr. Young, and was afterwards made over +to the Royal Society of Literature, and continued during the remainder +of his life, to be executed under his supervision. + +In 1824, he made an excursion to Spa and to Holland; and on his return +undertook the medical responsibility and mathematical direction of +a society for life insurance. This was established at a moment when +a mania for joint stock companies was springing up in England, and +which at the time was supposed to offer great pecuniary advantages; +but Dr. Young’s most scrupulous regard to what he supposed the +strictest justice, never forsook him: he declined all participation +in the speculation, and confined himself to the performance of the +duties which he undertook. The connexion however with this company +led him into new lines of research, in which he took great interest. +He contributed to the Royal Society a “Formula for expressing the +Decrement of Human Life,” in a letter addressed to Sir Edward Hyde +East, which was published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1826; +and a “Practical Application of the Doctrine of Chances,” to Brande’s +Philosophical Journal for October in the same year; whilst he had a +singular satisfaction in witnessing the prosperity of the concern in +the department under his direction. + +The year before this he removed from Welbeck-street to a house which +he had built in Park Square in the Regent’s Park, where he continued +to reside during the remainder of his life, and where, in a situation +to which he was extremely attached, he led the life of a philosopher, +surrounded by every domestic comfort, and enjoying the pleasures of an +extensive and cultivated society, who knew how to appreciate him. He +expressed himself as having now attained all the main objects which he +had looked forward to in life as the subject either of his hopes or his +wishes. This end being, to use his own words, “the pursuit of such fame +as he valued, or of such acquirements as he might think to deserve it.” + +In 1827, Dr. Young was elected one of the eight foreign members of the +Royal Institute of France, and was much gratified, not only by the +honour conferred, but by being associated with so many distinguished +persons, with whom he had long been in habits of correspondence and of +friendship. + +His health had hitherto, with the exception of the consumptive tendency +which had visited him in youth, been uninterrupted by a day’s serious +illness, and no person would have appeared as giving a promise of +greater longevity; but in 1828 there was a perceptible diminution of +strength. In that summer he went to Geneva, and appeared to suffer what +was to him an unusual degree of fatigue on great bodily exertion, and +his friends from that time could not help remarking symptoms of age +which appeared to be on the increase, and which contrasted strongly +with the singular freedom from complaint which he had hitherto enjoyed. + +During the time that Dr. Young was abroad, the general state of the +finances of the country had been submitted to the examination of a +Committee of the House of Commons. Amongst other things, some of +the severer economists had brought under their consideration the +construction and utility of the Board of Longitude as being under the +direction of the Admiralty, and as giving an allowance of a hundred +pounds a year to certain professors of the two universities, whose +attendance was not often called for. The committee did not consist +of members who were much acquainted with science; not one scientific +person was examined before them. The amount of saving by the abolition +of the only salaries which the government of England held forth for the +encouragement of science, little if at all exceeded £500 a year; and +though many projects which might not prove of utility were referred +by Government to this Board, yet the sums actually expended through +them on such as they might conceive to be useful, had been extremely +limited. But on the recommendation of this committee a bill was passed +abolishing the Board, at the same time permitting the Admiralty to +retain the officer entrusted with the calculations of the Nautical +Almanack. + +Dr. Young continued to execute these duties; but this singular, and +as it should seem ill-advised proceeding, caused great heart-burnings +and discontent in the scientific bodies, amongst those who considered +themselves or their friends treated unhandsomely as well as +illiberally, in the manner in which their services had been dispensed +with; and the assistance of men of science was soon found to be so +indispensable to many departments connected with the Admiralty, that a +new council of three members, consisting of Dr. Young, Captain Sabine, +and Mr. Farraday, was appointed for the performance of the duties which +had before devolved upon the Board. + +The discussions incident to this subject, and the various reports which +Dr. Young had in consequence to draw up, together involved him in more +labour than the situation of his health rendered him competent to +perform without injury, and exacerbated a complaint which it afterwards +appeared must have been long in progress, but which now was bringing +him rapidly to a state of extreme debility. + +He had from the month of February 1829, suffered from what he +considered repeated attacks of asthma, and though he said little of +it, as unwilling to alarm those about him, was evidently uneasy at the +situation of his health. This gradually deteriorated. He had in the +beginning of April great difficulty in breathing, with some discharge +of blood habitually from the lungs, and was in a state of great +weakness. His friends and physicians, Doctors Nevinson and Chambers, +considered that there was something extremely wrong in the action of +the heart, as well as that the lungs were very seriously affected. + +Though thus under the pressure of severe illness, nothing could be +more striking than the entire calmness and composure of his mind, or +could surpass the kindness of his affections to all around him. He +said that he had completed all the works on which he was engaged, with +the exception of the rudiments of an Egyptian Dictionary, which he had +brought near to its completion, and which he was extremely anxious to +be able to finish. It was then in the hands of the lithographers, and +he not only continued to give directions concerning it, but laboured +at it with a pencil when, confined to his bed, he was unable to hold a +pen. To a friend who expostulated with him on the danger of fatiguing +himself, he replied it was no fatigue, but a great amusement to him; +that it was a work which if he should live it would be a satisfaction +to him to have finished, but that if it were otherwise, which seemed +most probable, as he had never witnessed a complaint which appeared to +make more rapid progress, it would still be a great satisfaction to him +never to have spent an idle day in his life. + +His last anxiety concerning the proceedings of one or two persons who +had made him the object of reiterated attacks, in consequences of being +dissatisfied with the arrangements of the Nautical Almanack, was, that +nothing should go forth on his part to increase irritation, and when +papers were sent him which went to enumerate and to prove the errors, +into which these individuals had fallen, his desire was that they +should be suppressed. + +In the very last stage of his complaint, in the last lengthened +interview with the writer of the present memoir, his perfect +self-possession was displayed in the most remarkable manner. After some +information concerning his affairs, and some instructions concerning +the hieroglyphical papers in his hands, he said that, perfectly aware +of his situation, he had taken the sacraments of the church on the day +preceding; that whether he should ever partially recover, or whether +he were rapidly taken off, he could patiently and contentedly await +the issue: that he thought he had exerted his faculties through life +as far as they were capable of, but that for the last eight years he +had been careful of straining them to more than he thought they could +compass without injury; that he had settled all his concerns; that if +his health had been continued to him, he might have looked forward to +the prolongation of much that was to be enjoyed; but that though he was +in no other suffering than that of great oppression and weakness, still +that if life were continued in the state he then was of inability to +any of his accustomed employments, he could hardly wish it to be long +protracted. + +His illness continued with some slight variations, but he was gradually +sinking into greater and greater weakness till the morning of the 10th +of May, when he expired without a struggle, having hardly completed +his fifty-sixth year. The disease proved to be an ossification of the +aorta, which must have been in progress for many years, and every +appearance indicated an advance of age, not brought on probably by the +natural courses of time, nor even by constitutional formation, but by +unwearied and incessant labour of the mind from the earliest days of +infancy. His remains were deposited in the Vault of his wife’s family, +in the Church of Farnborough in Kent. + +To delineate adequately the character of Dr. Young would require an +ability in some proportion to his own, and must be ill supplied by one +incompetent to judge of the talents of a man, who as a physician, a +linguist, an antiquary, a mathematician, scholar, and philosopher, in +their most difficult and abstruse investigations, has added to almost +every department of human knowledge that which will be remembered to +aftertimes—“who,” as was justly observed by Mr. Davies Gilbert, in +his eloquent address to the Royal Society, over which he so worthily +presided, “came into the world with a confidence in his own talents +growing out of an expectation of excellence entertained in common +by all his friends, which expectation was more than realized in the +progress of his future life. The multiplied objects which he pursued +were carried to such an extent, that each might have been supposed to +have exclusively occupied the full powers of his mind; knowledge in +the abstract, the most enlarged generalizations and the most minute +and intricate details, were equally affected by him; but he had most +pleasure in that which appeared to be most difficult of investigation.” +The president added, that “the example is only to be followed by those +of equal capacity and equal perseverance; and rather recommends the +concentration of research within the limits of some defined portion of +science, than the endeavour to embrace the whole.” + +Dr. Young’s opinion was, that it was probably most advantageous to +mankind, that the researches of some inquirers should be concentrated +within a given compass, but that others should pass more rapidly +through a wider range—that the faculties of the mind were more +exercised, and probably rendered stronger, by going beyond the +rudiments, and overcoming the great elementary difficulties, of a +variety of studies, than by employing the same number of hours in +any one pursuit—that the doctrine of the division of labour, however +applicable to material product, was not so to intellect, and that it +went to reduce the dignity of man in the scale of rational existences. +He thought it so impossible to foresee the capabilities of improvement +in any science, so much of accident having led to the most important +discoveries, that no man could say what might be the comparative +advantage of any one study rather than of another; and though he would +scarcely have recommended the plan of his own as the model of those of +others, he still was satisfied in the course which he had pursued. + +It has been said, that the powers of imagination were the only ones of +which he was destitute. From the highly poetical cast of some of his +early Greek translations, this is at least doubtful. It might, perhaps, +have been said more justly, that he never cultivated the talent of +throwing a brilliancy on objects which he had not ascertained to +belong to them. Dr. Young was emphatically a man of truth. The truth, +the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, was the end at which he +aimed in all his investigations, and he could not bear, in the most +common conversation, the slightest degree of exaggeration, or even of +colouring. Now, all exercise of what is ordinarily called imagination, +is the figuring forth something which, either in kind or in degree, is +not in truth existent; and whether originally gifted with this faculty, +or otherwise. Dr. Young would, on principle, have abstained from its +indulgence. + +To sum up the whole with that which passes all acquirement, Dr. +Young was a man in all the relations of life, upright, kind-hearted, +blameless. His domestic virtues were as exemplary as his talents +were great. He was entirely free from either envy or jealousy, and +the assistance which he gave to others engaged in the same lines of +research with himself, was constant and unbounded. His morality through +life had been pure, though unostentatious. His religious sentiments +were by himself stated to be liberal, though orthodox. He had +extensively studied the Scriptures, of which the precepts were deeply +impressed upon his mind from his earliest years; and he evidenced the +faith which he professed, in an unbending course of usefulness and +rectitude. + + + + +A + +CATALOGUE + +OF THE + +WORKS AND ESSAYS + +OF THE LATE + +DR. YOUNG. + +(Found in his own Hand-Writing, to 1827.) + + + + +A + +CATALOGUE, + +&c. + +1. A short Note on Gum Ladanum, with a verbal Criticism on Longinus, +signed with his initials, and inserted in the Monthly Review for +1791, seems to have been his first appearance before the Public. The +criticism was admitted by Dr. Burney to be correct. + +2. In the Gentleman’s Magazine for April 1792, Observations on the +Manufacture of Iron: an attempt to remove some objections to Dr. +Crawford’s theory of Heat, which had been advanced by Dr. Beddoes. + +3. Entomological Remarks; Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1792: on the +habits of Spiders; on a passage of Aristotle, with an illustration of +the Fabrician System; and a plate of the mouth of an insect. + +4. Observations on Vision: Philosophical Transactions, 1793, p. 169, +explaining the accommodation of the Eye, from a muscular power in +the crystalline lens—a theory not altogether new, but immediately +afterwards claimed by John Hunter, as a discovery of his own. + +5. Contributions to Hodgkin’s Calligraphia Græca, 4to. London, 1794; +including Lear’s Curses in Iambics. + +6. Description of an Opercularia. Linnæan Transactions, Vol. III. p. +30. London 1797: read in 1794. The Opercularia, Aspera of Gaertner, +called by Persoon, Cryptospermum Youngii, from the name here suggested. + +7. Some Notes and an Epigram, in Dalzel’s Collectanea Græca, 8vo. +Edinburgh, 1795. + +8. De Corporis Humani viribus oonservatricibus, Dissertatio, 8vo. +Gottingen, 1796: an Inaugural Dissertation, collected from a +multiplicity of authors. + +9. Translation of Lichtenstein on the Genus Mantis. Linnæan +Transactions, Vol. VI. p. 1.: read in 1797. + +10. The Leptologist. British Magazine, 1800: a series of Essays on +Grammar, Criticism, Geometry, Paintings, Manners, Riches, Exercises, +Medicine, and Music; some of them reprinted afterwards. + +11. 12. There is also an account of the French Calendar and Measures, +and an Essay on the Morals of the Germans. + +13. Experiments and Enquiries respecting Sound and Light. Philosophical +Transactions, 1800, p. 106: the vibrations of the air observed by means +of smoke; those of strings counted, and their orbits observed with a +microscope; their harmonics suppressed at pleasure. + +14. A Bakerian Lecture on the Mechanism of the Eye. Philosophical +Transactions, 1801, p. 23: describing a new Optometer, and shewing that +the eye retains its power of accommodation under water; measuring also +the dispersive power of the eye. (Dr. Y. remarks, that he “afterwards +found that his own eye lost almost the whole of its power of +accommodation soon after fifty, remaining fixed at its greatest focal +distance.”) + +15. A Letter respecting Sound and Light. Nicholson’s Journal, August +1801, in answer to Professor Robison, of Edinburgh. + +16. A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Natural and Experimental +Philosophy; 8vo. London, 1802: presenting a Mathematical Demonstration +of the most important Theorems in Mechanics and in Optics; and +containing the first publication of the general law of the INTERFERENCE +OF LIGHT, which has been considered as the happiest result of all the +Author’s efforts. It was not till the year 1827, that the importance of +this law could be said to be fully admitted in England: it was in that +year that the Council of the Royal Society, adjudged Count Rumford’s +Medal to M. Fresnel, for having applied it, with some modifications, to +the most intricate phenomena of polarized light. + +17. A Bakerian Lecture on the Theory of Light and Colours; Phil. Trans. +1802, p. 12, developing the law of Interference, and entering into all +the details of the theory to which it leads; dwelling, at the same +time, upon the difficult points, with somewhat more of candour than +might have been consistent with his object, had he been anxious to +obtain proselytes. + +18. An Account of some Cases of the Production of Colours, p. 387, +containing a simpler statement of some applications of the same law, +intended to exhibit the facts in a more concentrated form. + +19. A Reply to Mr. Gough’s Remarks. Nicholson, November 1802, p. 1. +This Letter, together with some subsequent Correspondence, relates +principally to the coalescence or composition of Sounds, affording an +analogy to the interference of Light. + +20. Journals of the Royal Institution, 8vo. London, 1802–3. A first +volume, and part of a second, were edited, and chiefly written, by Dr. +Young. + +21. Experiments and Calculations relative to Physical Optics. +Phil. Trans. 1804, p. 1. Another Bakerian Lecture, continuing the +demonstration and the application of the law of Interference. + +22. A Reply to the Animadversions of the Edinburgh Reviewers, 8vo. +1804:—a defence of the Papers printed in the Transactions against two +articles supposed to have been written by Mr. Brougham. + +23. To an Imperial Review, which was an unsuccessful speculation of +some booksellers in 1804, he contributed several medical and some +other miscellaneous articles. The works that he reviewed were, _Dumas +Phisiologie_, Darwin’s Temple of Nature, Blackburn on Scarlet Fever, +Percival’s Medical Ethics, Fothergill’s Tic Douloureux, Crichton’s +Table, Nisbet’s Watering Places, Rowley on Madness, _Hutton’s Ozanum_, +Buchan on Sea-Bathing, _Robison’s Astronomy_, Winterbottom’s Sierra +Leone, Macgregor’s Medical Sketches, Wilson’s Philosophy of Physic, +Richerand’s Physiology, and Joyce’s Scientific Dialogues. + +24. An Essay on the Cohesion of Fluids. Phil. Trans. 1805, p. 71, +containing many of the results which were published as new about +a year afterwards, by La Place. The mathematical reasoning, for +want of mathematical symbols, was not understood, even by tolerable +mathematicians; from a dislike of the affectation of algebraical +formality, which he had observed in some foreign authors, he was led +into something like an affectation of simplicity, which was equally +inconvenient to a scientific reader. + +25. A COURSE OF LECTURES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND THE MECHANICAL ARTS; +two volumes, 4to. London, 1807. This elaborate work was the result of +the unremitting application of five years; two, whilst the Author was +engaged in giving the Lectures at the Royal Institution, and three more +in compiling the mass of references contained in the second volume, and +in incorporating their results, when requisite, with the text of the +first. By means of numerous plates, and by indexes of various kinds, +he had endeavoured to render the book as convenient for occasional +reference, as it was correct for the purposes of methodical study. (The +failure of the booksellers who published this work, at the moment of +its appearance, so greatly injured its sale at the time, that it did +not repay the expenses of the publication; and Dr. Young considered +that his labours were first generally appreciated by the Natural +Philosophers of the Continent.) + +26. Remarks on Looming, or Horizontal Refraction. Nicholson, July +1807, p. 153, supplying some deficiencies in Dr. Wollaston’s Theory, +particularly with regard to the occurrence of actual Reflection. + +27. A Table of Chances, with remarks on Waves. Nicholson, Oct. 1807, p. +116. + +28. A Theory of Covered Ways and Arches. Nicholson, Dec. 1807, p. 24. + +29. Remarks on a Pamphlet of Professor Vince. Nicholson, April 1808, +p. 304; pointing out the mathematical fallacy of the Professor’s +supposed refutation of the hypothesis of Newton respecting the cause of +Gravitation. + +30. Calculation of the rate of Expansion of a supposed Lunar +Atmosphere. Nicholson, June 1808, p. 117. + +31. Determination of the Figure of a gravitating Body. Nicholson, June +1808, p. 208. + +32. Calculation of the Attraction of a Spheroid. Nicholson, August +1808, p. 273. + +33. A Review of Sinclair on Longevity. British Critic. + +34. Abstracts and Criticisms in the “Retrospect,” about 1808 and 1809. + +35. Hydraulic Investigations. Phil. Trans. 1808, p. 164; principally +subservient to an intended Croonian Lecture. + +36. A SYLLABUS OF A COURSE OF LECTURES ON THE ELEMENTS OF THE MEDICAL +SCIENCES; 8vo. London, 1809. These Lectures were delivered for two +seasons at the Middlesex Hospital. (Dr. Young remarks, that “they +were little frequented, on account of the usual miscalculation of the +Lecturer, who gave his audience more information in a given time, than +it was in their power to follow.”) + +37. Computation of the Depression of Mercury in the Barometer. Nich. +March 1809, p. 215. Continuation of the Paper on the Cohesion of +Fluids, Oct. p. 81. + +38. Remarks on the Friction of Wheels, in Buchanan’s Essay on +Wheel-work, 8vo. Glasgow, 1809. + +39. A Croonian Lecture on the Heart and Arteries. Phil. Trans. 1809, +p. 1: attempting to demonstrate, on Mathematical principles, that the +larger arteries can have little or no concern in propelling the blood +by their active muscular powers. + +40. A Numerical Table of Elective Attractions. Phil. Trans. 1809, p. +148: with remarks on the sequences of double decompositions, shewing +that if numerical expressions of electric attractions are possible, +their effects in double decompositions may be compendiously expressed +by tables of sequences only. + +41. A Memoria Technica for Elective Attractions, in a few Latin +hexameters. Nich. April, 1809. + +42. Account of the Pharmacopeia Londinensis, in Cumberland’s London +Review, 1810. + +43. To the earlier Volumes of the _Quarterly Review_ he contributed +a variety of Articles, which frequently, according to the custom +of modern times, contained more of original research than of +immediate criticism. To Vol. I. La Place, Action Capillaire. Vol. II. +Haslam, Pinel, Cox, and Arnold, on Insanity; La Place, Refraction +Extraordinaire. Vol. III. _Herculanensia_; Jones on the Gout; _Memoires +d’Arcueil_. Vol. VI. Cuthbert on the Tides. Vol. VIII. Davy’s +Chemical Philosophy. Vol. IX. Blackall on Dropsies. Vol. X. ADELUNG’S +MITHRIDATES; Göthe on Colours. Vol. XI. _Malus. Biot. Seebeck and +Brewster, on Light_; Bancroft on Dying; Davy’s Agricultural Chemistry; +Adams on Ectropium. Vol. XIII. _Wells on Dew_. Vol. XIV. Jamieson and +Townsend on Languages; Pym and Fellowes on Yellow Fever, an article +printed, but not published in the Work. Vol. XIX. p. 411. _Restoration +and Translation of the Inscription on the Sphynx._ + +44. Berzelius on Definite Proportions, from the German, appeared in +several successive numbers of the Philosophical Magazine, from January +1813 to April 1814. + +45. A Theory of the Tides. Nicholson, July–Aug. 1813. + +46. AN INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL LITERATURE, INCLUDING A SYSTEM OF +PRACTICAL NOSOLOGY, 8vo. London, 1813: a work of considerable labour, +though far less arduous than the “Natural Philosophy.” The Appendix +contains an abstract of Berzelius’s Animal Chemistry, from the Swedish. +To a second edition, published in 1828, were added the References to +later Journals, and an Essay on Palpitations, which first appeared in +the fifth Volume of the Medical Transactions of the College of London. + +47. Remarks on the Employment of Oblique Riders, and on other +Alterations in the construction of Ships. Phil. Trans. 1814, p. 303; +the substance of a Report before presented to the Board of Admiralty, +relating to Sir Robert Sepping’s Improvements, with some additional +illustrations. + +48. An Investigation of the Thrust of soft Substances. Hutton’a +Mathematical Dictionary, Edition 2, 1815. Article, Pressure. + +49. A PRACTICAL AND HISTORICAL TREATISE ON CONSUMPTIVE DISEASES: 8vo. +London, 1815; being a condensed abstract of every thing recorded +to have been said or done, with regard to Consumption. Particular +circumstances had pressed the publication of this Work within nine +months after it had been commenced. + +50. In the eighteenth Volume of the Archæologia, London, 1815, appeared +some _Remarks on Egyptian Papyri_, and on the INSCRIPTION OF ROSETTA, +annexed to a communication made by Sir William Edward Rouse Boughton, +Bart. They contain an interpretation of the principal parts of both the +Egyptian Inscriptions on the Pillar found at Rosetta, AND CONSEQUENTLY +A KEY TO THE LOST LITERATURE OF ANCIENT EGYPT; though, for professional +reasons, the discovery was made public with as little parade as +possible. + +51. Extracts of Letters and Papers relating to the Egyptian Inscription +of Rosetta, in the Museum Criticum of Cambridge, Part VI. 8vo. 1815; a +Correspondence with MM. Silvestre de Sacy, and Akerblad. + +52. An Investigation of the Pressure sustained by the fixed supports +of flexible Substances. Phil. Mag. Sep. 1813, applied to the Hoops of +Casks, and to Dock Gates. + +53. An Algebraical Expression of the Values of Lives. Phil. Mag. Jan. +1816, with a Diagram. + +54. Account of some Thebaic Manuscripts, written on leather. Legh’s +Narrative, 4to. London, 1816. + +55. Additional Letters relating to the Inscription of Rosetta; the +first addressed to the Archduke John, who had lately been in England; +the second to M. Akerblad, Museum Criticum VII. _The Letters were +printed and distributed in_ 1816; _the Journal was not published till_ +1821. THEY ANNOUNCE THE DISCOVERY OF THE RELATION BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT +KINDS OF EGYPTIAN LETTERS, OR CHARACTERS—the basis on which the system +of M. Champollion was afterwards erected. + +56. Letters of Canova, and two Memoirs of Visconti, translated from the +French and Italian. 8vo. London. 1816. A volume of 200 pages, which +was completed in twelve days; together with remarks on an error of +Delambre, which was afterwards confuted more at large by Mr. Cadell. + +57. It was in 1816, that Dr. Young complied, with an application made +to him by Mr. M^{c}Vey Napier, to write some articles for a Supplement +to the Encyclopædia Britannica, conducted under the superintendence of +that gentleman, and completed in 1825. + +The Articles which he furnished were: Atwood — Addendum to Annuities +— Bathing — G. Beccaria — Bloch — Borda — Boulton — Bramah — BRIDGE — +Brisson — Bryant — Camus — _Notes_ on Carpentry — Cavallo — _Cavendish_ +— _Chromatics_ — Cohesion — Condamine — Coulamb — Dolland — Dolomieu — +Duhamel — EGYPT — Fermat — Fluents — F. Fontana — G. Fontana — J. R. +Forster — J. G. A. Forster — Fourcroy — Frisi — Guyton de Morveau — +Herculaneum — Hydraulics — Ingehousz — Lagrange — La Lande — Lambert +— LANGUAGES — Lemmonier — Luc — Malus — Maskelyne — Mason — Mechain +— Messier — Orme — Pallas — Pauw — PORSON — Preservers of Life — +Road-making — _Robison_ — Rush — _Steam-Engine_ — Tennant — Thomson — +Count Rumford — TIDES — Tooke — Wakefield — Watson — Weights and +Measures — Polarization by Arago, translated, with _Notes_, In all, +about sixty-three articles, each marked with two different letters. +(These were two consecutive letters of the sentence “Fortunam ex +aliis;” the _u_ in _fortunam_ being sometimes printed as a _v_.) + +58. Remarks on some Theorems relating to the Pendulum. Phil. Trans. +1818, p. 95, in a Letter to Captain Kater. + +59. Translation of some Greek Inscriptions. Light’s Travels. 4to. +London, 1818. + +60. Specimen of a Greek Manuscript in the possession of the Earl of +Mountmorris, 1819. Archæologia, vol. XIX. This may possibly have been +a pawnbroker’s account: another piece nearly resembling it was sent by +Mr. Salt to the British Museum. + +61. Remarks on the Probabilities of Error in Physical Experiments, and +on the Density of the Earth, considered especially with regard to +the reduction of Experiments on the Pendulum. Phil. Trans. 1819, p. +70, computing the density of the earth, upon the supposition of the +commpression of a homogeneous elastic substance only. + +62. Dr. Young edited the Nautical Almanac, from the year 1819, for the +remainder of his life. + +63. Remarks on Laplace’s latest Computation of the Density and +Figure of the Earth. Brando’s Journal, April 1820; determining the +Ellipticity, on the supposition of a compressed elastic substance. + +64. Dr. Young furnished quarterly, for many years, to Brande’s +Philosophical Journal, about twenty pages of Astronomical and Nautical +Collections, beginning in 1820; the greater part either original or +translated by himself. + +65. Appendix to the second edition of Belzoni’s Travels, 4to. London, +1821. + +66. ELEMENTARY ILLUSTRATION OF THE CELESTIAL MECHANICS OF LAPLACE, 8vo. +London, 1821; with some additions relating to the motions of Waves, and +of Sound, and to the cohesion of Fluids. (This volume, and the article +“Tides,” in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Dr. Young +considered as together containing the most fortunate of the results of +his mathematical labours.) + +67. AN ACCOUNT OF SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES IN HIEROGLYPHICAL LITERATURE +AND EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES, including the author’s original Alphabet, as +extended by M. Champollion, 8vo. London, 1823; with a translation of +some Greek Manuscripts on Papyrus, the most remarkable of which was Mr. +Grey’s “Antigraph” of an Egyptian original then lying on his table; the +discovery of which singular coincidence was the immediate cause of the +publication of the volume. + +68. Hieroglyphics, collected by the Egyptian Society, folio. London, +1823—a collection of Plates of Egyptian Antiquities subservient to the +study of Hieroglyphical Literature, lithographized at the expense of +about fifty subscribers, but not at that time publicly sold. The second +number, plates 16 to 40, contains nearly all that was known of the +interpretation of the Hieroglyphics, the evidence for each word being +exhibited in a comparative Index. + +(This work was entirely carried on by Dr. Young; but the subscriptions +not being adequate to the expenses, it was afterwards made over to the +Royal Society of Literature, he undertaking to continue the supervision +as before.) + +69. A finite and exact Expression for the Refraction of an Atmosphere +nearly resembling that of the Garth. Phil. Trans. 1824, p. 159; a +computation derived from an optical hypothesis not exactly agreeing +with the probable height of the physical atmosphere, but affording +correct results. + +70. Remarks on Spohn and Seyffarth. Brande’s Phil. Journal, Oct. 1826, +in a Letter addressed to the Baron William Von Humboldt. + +71. A Formula for expressing the Decrement of Human Life; in a Letter +addressed to Sir Edward Hyde East, Bart. Phil. Trans. 1826, intended +to render the interpolation from the best observations more regular: +it is followed by a correction of Dr. Price’s mistake, rejecting the +periodical payments of annuities. + +72. Practical Application of the Doctrine of Chances, as it regards +the subdivision of Risks. Brande’s Phil. Journ. Oct. 1826; shewing the +Limitations under which Speculations on Probabilities may be conducted +with prudence. + +73. Remarks on Mr. Peyron’s Account of the Egyptian Papyrus. Brande’s +Phil. Journ. Jan. 1827—the great Greek Papyrus of Turin: in which Mr. +Grey’s three contracts are cited and explained,—not two of them only, +as had been supposed by Mr. Peyron. + +_The following Articles, of a later date than those contained in the +above Catalogue, are known to have been written by Dr. Young._ + +74. Hieroglyphical Fragments. Brande’s Philosophical Journal, +April–June, 1827.—Hieroglyphical Fragments; with some Remarks +on English Grammar: in a Letter to Baron William Von Humboldt. +Brande’s Phil. Journal, July–September, 1827.—Hieroglyphical +Fragments, illustrative of Inscriptions preserved in the British +Museum; with some Remarks on M. Champollion’s Opinions: in a +Letter to the Cavalier San Quintino. Brande’s Phil. Journal, +October–December, 1827.—Hieroglyphical Fragments. Brande’s Phil. +Journal, January–March, 1828. + +75. A Letter to M. Arago, relating to M. Champollion’s Discoveries: +dated, Geneva, July 1828. Inserted in the Classical Journal, No. 75. + +76. Comparison of different Tables of Mortality. Brande’s Phil. +Journal, December 1828. + +77. Letter to Mr. Bailey, April 1829. + +78. A Translation of Fresnel’s Elementary View of the Undulatory Theory +of Light. In various Numbers of Brande’s Phil. Journal; commenced in +January 1827, and concluded in April 1829. + +79. Dr. Young left also—Rudiments of an Egyptian Dictionary in the +ancient Enchorial Character; containing all the Words of which the +Sense has been ascertained. Intended as an Appendix to Mr. Tattam’s +Coptic Grammar. + +(This Work was under the hands of the Lithographer at the time of his +death.) + + + + +LONDON: + +Printed by J. L. Cox, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s-Inn Fields. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79249 *** diff --git a/79249-h/79249-h.htm b/79249-h/79249-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78b8ad0 --- /dev/null +++ b/79249-h/79249-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2051 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no,date=no,address=no,email=no,url=no"> + <title> + Memoir of the Life of Thomas Young | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + line-height: 1.3em; + text-indent: 1.25em; +} + +h1,h2 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h1 span.t1 { + display: block; + letter-spacing: 0.3em; + line-height: 1.5em; +} + +h1 span.t2 { + display: block; + font-size: 50%; + margin-top: 1.5em; + margin-bottom: 1.5em; +} + +h1 span.t3 { + display: block; + font-size: 95%; + letter-spacing: .25em; +} + +h1 span.t4 { + display: block; + font-size: 95%; + margin-bottom: 1em; + letter-spacing: .05em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; +} + +h2 span.t5 { + display: block; + font-size: 60%; + word-spacing: 0.3em; +} + +h2 span.t6 { + display: block; + margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; +} + +h2 span.t7 { + display: block; + letter-spacing: 0.3em; + word-spacing: 0.3em; + margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; +} + +h2 span.t8 { + display: block; + margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; +} + +h2 span.t9 { + display: block; + font-size: 50%; +} + +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +.x-ebookmaker h2 {page-break-before: always;} +.x-ebookmaker h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {page-break-after: avoid;} + + +h2 span.title { /*use for second-line chapter title beneath 'Chapter X' */ + display: block; + font-size: 75%; + font-weight: normal; + letter-spacing: 0.05em; + padding-top: 1em; +} + +div.chapter { + page-break-before: always; +} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; + margin-top: 5em; +} + +div.tp1 { + display: block; + font-size: 75%; + margin-top: -1em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + word-spacing: 0.4em; + line-height: 1.8em; + letter-spacing: 0.1em; +} + +div.tp2 { + display: block; + font-size: 75%; + word-spacing: 0.4em; +} + +div.tp3 { + display: block; + font-size: 120%; + margin-top: 1.5em; + margin-bottom: 1.5em; + word-spacing: 0.4em; + letter-spacing: 0.2em; +} + +div.tp4 { + display: block; + font-size: 140%; + margin-top: 1.5em; + margin-bottom: 3em; + word-spacing: 0.3em; + letter-spacing: 0.2em; +} + + +/* Horizontal rules */ +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.r10 { + width: 10%; + margin-left: 45%; + margin-right: 45%; +} + +hr.r30 { + width: 30%; + margin-left: 35%; + margin-right: 35%; +} + +hr.chap { + width: 65%; + margin-left: 17.5%; + margin-right: 17.5%; +} + +.x-ebookmaker hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} + +.subhd { + text-indent: -1.25em; + margin-left: 1.25em; + margin-top: 1.5em; +} + +.mtb05em { + margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; +} + +.mtb1em { + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; +} + +.fs70 {font-size: 70%;} + +.fs75 {font-size: 75%;} + +.fs80 {font-size: 80%;} + +.fs90 {font-size: 90%;} + +.fs95 {font-size: 95%;} + +.fs100 {font-size: 100%;} + +.fs140 {font-size: 140%;} + +.center { + text-align: center; +} + +.smcap { + font-variant: small-caps; +} + +.ls01em { + letter-spacing: .1em; +} + +.ws03em { + word-spacing: .3em; +} + +sup { + vertical-align: baseline; + font-size: 80%; + position: relative; + top: -0.4em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker sup { + font-size: 75%; + vertical-align: top; + line-height: 0.8; +} + + +/* Page numbering and hyperlinks */ +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: 11px; + font-weight: normal; + font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0em; + color: #585858; +} + +span[title].pagenum:after { + content: attr(title); +} + +a[name] { + position:absolute; /* Fix Opera bug */ +} + +a:link { + color: black; + text-decoration: underline; +} + +a:link:hover { + background: aqua; +} + + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote { + background-color: #F2F2F2; + color: black; + font-size:smaller; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + + + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79249 ***</div> + +<main> + +<div class="transnote"> +<p><b><a id="Transcribers_notes"></a>Transcriber’s notes</b>:</p> + +<p>The text of this e-book has been preserved in its original form +apart from correction of three typographic flaws: asistance → +assistance, äorta → aorta, Booksellers → booksellers. The spelling +of superintendence/superintendance varies in this manner.</p> + +<p>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to +the public domain. +</div> + +<div class="titlepage"> +<h1> +<span class="t1">MEMOIR</span> + +<span class="t2">OF THE</span> + +<span class="t3">LIFE</span> + +<span class="t2">OF</span> + +<span class="t4">THOMAS YOUNG, M.D. F.R.S.</span> +</h1> + + +<div class="tp1">FOREIGN ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE,<br>ETC. ETC.</div> + +<div class="tp2">WITH</div> + +<div class="tp3">A CATALOGUE</div> + +<div class="tp2">OF HIS</div> + +<div class="tp4">WORKS AND ESSAYS.</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="r30 x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> + +<div class="center"> +<div class="fs100 ls01em">LONDON:</div> + +<div class="fs90 ls01em ws03em mtb1em">JOHN & ARTHUR ARCH, CORNHILL.</div> + +<div class="fs70">MDCCCXXXI.</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="center"> + +<div class="fs80 ls01em">LONDON:</div> + +<div class="fs75 mtb05em">PRINTED BY J. L. COX, GREAT QUEEN STREET,</div> + +<div class="fs75">Lincoln’s-Inn Fields.</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="MEMOIR"> + MEMOIR,<br> + <span class="title">&c. &c.</span> + </h2> +</div> + + + +<p>The following slight Memoir of the Life of the +late Dr. Young was drawn up, from some short +memoranda of his own writing in the possession +of a near connexion, by one who had the advantage +of long and intimate acquaintance with that +distinguished scholar and philosopher; but who, +never having been engaged in the pursuits of accurate +science, feels himself incompetent to give more +than an imperfect sketch, which he trusts to see +filled up hereafter by an abler hand.</p> + +<p>Dr. Thomas Young, a man eminently distinguished +in more departments of literature and +science than any other individual of his age and +country, was born at Milverton in Somersetshire, +the 13th of June, 1773. He was the eldest of +ten children of Mr. Thomas Young of that place, +and his mother was a niece of Doctor Richard +Brocklesby, a physician of eminence in the metropolis, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span>who was well known both from his connexion +with the first literary societies, and with the +highest political circles of the times in which +he lived.</p> + +<p>His parents were both of them of the society +of Quakers, and of the strictest of a sect, whose +fundamental principle it is, that the perception +of what is right or wrong, to its minutest ramifications, +is to be looked for in the immediate influence +of a Supreme intelligence, and that therefore +the individual is to act upon this, lead where +it may, and compromise nothing. To the best of +these early impressions he was accustomed in +after-life to attribute, in some degree, the power he so +eminently possessed of an imperturbable resolution +to effect any object on which he was engaged, +which he brought to bear on every thing +he undertook, and by which he was enabled to +work out his own education almost from infancy, +with little comparative assistance or direction +from others.</p> + +<p>From a very early period Dr. Young was chiefly +an inmate in the family of his maternal grandfather, +Mr. Robert Davies, of Minehead; a gentleman +who amidst mercantile avocations, though +no very deep or accurate scholar, had cultivated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span>a taste for classical literature, which it +was his earnest endeavour to impress upon the +mind of his grandson. It is stated that whilst +domesticated with him, he had learnt to read with +fluency when he was two years old, and that soon +after this, in the intervals of his attendance on a village +schoolmistress, he was made to commit to memory +a number of English poems, and even some +Latin ones, the words of which he retained without +difficulty, although at the time unacquainted with +their meaning.</p> + +<p>Before he was six years old, he attended the +seminary of a dissenting minister, and went afterwards +to a school at Bristol, where he remained +about a year and a half, and where the deficiency +of the instructor appears to have advanced the +studies of the pupil, as he here first became his +own teacher, and had by himself studied the last +pages of the books used, before he had reached +the middle under the eye of the master.</p> + +<p>His father had a neighbour, a man of great +ingenuity, by profession a land surveyor and land +steward; and in his office, during his holidays, +he was indulged with the use of mathematical +and philosophical instruments, together +with the perusal of three volumes of a Dictionary +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span>of Arts and Sciences, which he also found there. +These were to him sources of instruction and +delight of which he seemed never to weary, +and which, thus accidentally thrown in his way, +had probably no small influence on the issues of +his future life.</p> + +<p>In 1782, he was sent to the school of a Mr. +Thompson, at Compton, in Dorsetshire, of whom +he was always accustomed to speak with great +respect, as a person of an enlarged and liberal +mind; and who, possessed of a moderate and +miscellaneous library, permitted and encouraged +his scholars to turn it to their profit; the principle +which he adopted in the course of his +instructions, being to allow them a certain degree +of discretion in the employment of their time.</p> + +<p>Here Young went through the ordinary course +of Greek and Latin Classics, together with the elementary +parts of the Mathematics; and by rising +earlier and sitting up later than his companions, +with the assistance of a schoolfellow who had some +French and Italian books, he rendered himself +tolerably familiar with those languages. He had +acquired, in his visits to his father’s neighbour, the +art of land surveying, and the amusement of his +walks was to measure heights with a quadrant.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span></p> + +<p>The next study he undertook was Botany, and +for the sake of examining the plants which he gathered, +he attempted the construction of a microscope +from the descriptions of Benjamin Martin. +This led him to Optics; but in order to make his +microscope, he found it necessary to procure a lathe. +Every thing then gave way to a passion for +turning, and science was forgotten for the acquirement +of manual dexterity; until falling upon a +demonstration in Martin which exhibited some +fluxional symbols, he was never satisfied till he +had read and mastered a short introduction to the +doctrine of Fluxions.</p> + +<p>Mr. Thompson had left in his way a Hebrew +Bible. He began by enabling himself to read a +few chapters, and was soon absorbed in the study +of the principal Oriental languages. At the age +of fourteen, when he quitted Mr. Thompson’s +school, he was thus more or less versed in Greek, +Latin, French, Italian, Hebrew, Persic, and +Arabic; and in forming the characters of those +languages, he had already acquired much of +the beauty and accuracy of penmanship which +was afterwards so remarkable in his copies of +Greek compositions, as well as of those subjects +connected with the literature of ancient Egypt.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span></p> + +<p>In 1787, the friends of Dr. Young were beginning +to think seriously of the line in life which +might be most advantageously taken by a youth +of such extraordinary promise. When at the +house of one of his relations he accidentally met +a connexion of Mr. David Barclay, of Youngsbury, +in Hertfordshire, who was then wishing +to form an arrangement for the education of his +grandson, and through the intervention of Sir +William Watson, it was agreed that Dr. Young +and the grandson of Mr. Barclay should pursue +their studies together, under a private tutor, in +Mr. Barclay’s house. The tutor who was engaged, +found a situation of greater permanence, and never +came; so that two boys being left together, whose +ages differed only about a year and a half, Young, +then little more than fourteen, took upon himself, +provisionally, the office of preceptor. They were +afterwards joined by a gentleman who was then +in progress of perfecting himself in the higher +branches of classical attainment, of somewhat +maturer years, and who has since been known +to the world as the author of the “Calligraphia +Græca.” But Dr. Young did not relinquish the +task which he had previously undertaken, and +already far advanced beyond the limits of ordinary +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span>scholastic attainment, was the principal +director of the studies of the whole party.</p> + +<p>When about the age of fourteen, he was attacked +by symptoms of what was feared to be +incipient consumption. But under the attendance +of his uncle Dr. Brocklesby, and Baron +Dimsdale, he recovered his health, without suffering +any ultimate inconvenience, and was enabled +for the most part, to pursue his labours through the +whole duration of his indisposition, merely relieving +his attention by what, to him, stood in the +place of repose—a course of Greek reading in such +authors as amused the weariness of his confinement.</p> + +<p>In the five years between 1787 and 1792, residing +during the summers in Hertfordshire, and +for some months of the winter in London, with +no other assistance than that of a few occasional +masters in the latter place, he had rendered himself +singularly familiar with the great poets and +philosophers of antiquity, keeping ample notes +of his daily studies. Of the various and conflicting +opinions of the ancient philosophers he had +drawn up a most admirable analysis; and as his +reading was not merely the gaining words and +phrases, and the minuter distinctions of dialects, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span>but was invariably also directed to what was the +end and object of the works he laboured through, +it is probable that the train of thought into which +he was led in this analysis, was not without its +effect, in somewhat mitigating his attachment to +the peculiar views of the sect amongst whom he +had been born.</p> + +<p>He had acquired a great facility in writing Latin. +He composed Greek verses which stood the test of +the criticism of the first scholars of the day, and read +a good deal of the higher mathematics. His amusements +were the studies of botany and zoology, and +to entomology in particular he at that time gave +great attention.</p> + +<p>In the winters of 1790 and 1791, having prepared +himself by previous reading, he attended +the lectures of Dr. Higgins in chemistry, and +began to make some simple experiments of his +own on a small scale. But he was afterwards +accustomed to say, that at no period of his life was +he particularly fond of repeating experiments, or +even of very frequently attempting to originate +new ones; considering that, however necessary +to the advancement of science, they demanded a +great sacrifice of time, and that when the fact was +once established, that time was better employed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span>in considering the purposes to which it might be +applied, or the principles which it might tend to +elucidate.</p> + +<p>His uncle Dr. Brocklesby had at this time desired +to receive from him a regular report of his +literary and scientific pursuits, intending to take +upon himself the supervision of his further education +for the practice of physic, which was the line +he recommended him to adopt; and having communicated +some of his Greek translations to Mr. +Burke and Mr. Windham, with both of whom Dr. +Brocklesby had lived in intimacy, an acquaintance +with these two distinguished persons ensued; in the +course of which, Mr. Burke was so greatly struck +with the reach of his talents and the extent of his +acquirements, more particularly by his great and +accurate knowledge of the Greek language, that +Dr. Young may be considered as in no small degree +indebted to the good offices of that eminent +statesman, for the extent of interest which his +uncle took from this period in his future settlement +in life.</p> + +<p>It may probably be considered that it was in +these years that his character received its developement. +He was never known to relax in any +object which he had once undertaken. During the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>whole term of these five years, he never was seen +by any one, on any occasion, to be ruffled in his +temper. Whatever he determined on, he did. He +had little faith in any peculiar aptitude being +implanted by nature for any given pursuits. His +favourite maxim was, that whatever one man had +done, another might do; that the original difference +between human intellects was much less +than it was generally supposed to be; that +strenuous and persevering attention would accomplish +almost any thing; and at this season, in the +confidence of youth and consciousness of his own +powers, he considered nothing which had been +compassed by others beyond his reach to achieve, +nor was there any thing which he thought worthy +to be attempted, which he was not resolved to +master.</p> + +<p>This self-conducted education, in the privacy of +a singularly regular family, was not however without +its disadvantages. The acquisitions he was +thus making in seclusion were great, but he was +not in the way of gaining that which is acquired +insensibly in the conflict of equals in the commerce +of the world—the facility of communicating knowledge +in the form that shall be most immediately +comprehended by others, and the tact in putting it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span>forth, that shall render its value immediately appreciated. +It was in 1791 that he made his first communications +to the press, through the Monthly Review +and the Gentleman’s Magazine, being Greek criticism, +chemical theories, and remarks on botany +and entomology.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of 1792, Dr. Young established +himself in lodgings in Westminster, in +which he resided about two years, for the purpose +of pursuing his medical studies, attending the +lectures of Baillie and Cruickshank in the Hunterian +school of anatomy; and he was during that +period amongst the most diligent of the pupils of +St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.</p> + +<p>In 1793, he made a tour in the west of England, +principally with a view of studying the mineralogy +of Cornwall; and about this time having been introduced +to the acquaintance of Charles Duke +of Richmond, who had long been a friend of his +uncle’s, and was then Master-General of the Ordnance, +he was offered by his Grace the situation +of assistant-secretary in his house. He felt that +this was an opportunity for entering into public +life which might lead to advantage and distinction. +Mr. Burke and Mr. Windham recommended him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span>rather to proceed to Cambridge and study the +law; but after some consideration of these conflicting +proposals, he determined to adhere to the +pursuits of science, and to proceed to the practice +of physic, as most congenial both to his predilections +and his habits, and to which the position +occupied by his uncle appeared to offer a natural +introduction.</p> + +<p>In this year he gave to the Royal Society his +Observations on Vision, and his Theory of the Muscularity +of the Crystalline Lens of the Eye, which +became the subject of much discussion, and John +Hunter immediately laid claim to having previously +made the discovery. Dr. Young was soon +afterwards elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, +when he had just completed his twenty-first year.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1794 he went to Edinburgh, +and there attended the lectures of Doctors Black, +Munro, and Gregory. He pursued every branch +of study in that university with his accustomed +intensity, but made the physical sciences more +peculiarly the objects of his research. He now +separated himself from the Society of Quakers, +and amidst his medical, scientific, and classical labours, +he determined on cultivating some of those +arts in which he considered that his early education +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span>had left him deficient. But every thing, be its nature +what it might, was with him a science; whatever +he followed, he followed scientifically. He +was extremely fond of music, and of the science of +music he rendered himself a master. He had at +all times great personal activity, and in youth he +delighted in its exercise. But perhaps it may +provoke a smile, though too characteristic an anecdote +to omit, that in instructing himself in the +figure of a minuet, he made it the subject of a +mathematical diagram.</p> + +<p>Towards the close of 1795 he went to the university +of Gottingen, where he took his doctor’s +degree. His extraordinary attainments, and the +almost incredible industry with which he pursued +his studies in all their variety, excited the +wonder of the laborious school in which he had +now placed himself. He found their academical +library peculiarly rich in works of reference; and +in composing his inaugural dissertation, “De +Corporis Humani Viribus Conservatricibus,” he +left few volumes unconsulted which had any connexion +with the subject on which he was treating.</p> + +<p>In all periods of his life Dr. Young was entirely +exempt from those dissipations into which young +persons unhappily very generally fall, and here, as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span>at Edinburgh, he diversified his graver studies by +cultivating skill in bodily exercises. He took lessons +in horsemanship, in which he always had +great pleasure, and practised under various masters +all sorts of feats of personal agility, in which +he excelled to an extraordinary degree.</p> + +<p>The victories of the French at this time prevented +him from visiting Italy, which he had +intended to do previously to his return to England; +and unwilling to be deficient in any species of +knowledge, he proceeded to Dresden; where he +spent some time for the purpose of studying the +works of Italian art in the galleries of that city, and +to compare what he saw with that which he had +learnt of them from the Lectures of the professors +of Gottingen. Before returning home, he completed +his stay on the Continent by a short visit to Berlin.</p> + +<p>Dr. Young, during his residence in Germany, +had gained a very general and accurate acquaintance +with the language and literature of that +country, which he kept up throughout his life; +but he remarked that he found in Germany a love +of new inventions, singularly, and somewhat +pedantically, combined with the habit of systematizing +older ones, and giving an importance +to things in themselves trifling, which in his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span>case rather confirmed an original habit of dwelling +on minutiæ more than his subsequent experience +led him to think was advantageous.</p> + +<p>In consequence of some new regulations of the +College of Physicians, which had taken place +during his residence abroad, he found himself precluded +from immediately practising as a licentiate +in London; he therefore entered himself as a +fellow-commoner in Emanuel College, Cambridge, +of which Dr. Farmer was then master, who was +an intimate friend of his uncle’s. He here proceeded +to take his regular degrees in physic in +that university, pursuing, during his residence, +the various studies in which he was engaged; but +finding no rival in the variety of his knowledge, +and few competitors in most of its branches, he +lived with those most highly gifted, discussing +subjects of science with the professors, but not +attending any of the public lectures, considering +that they were in their nature intended for a junior +class of students, and relating to branches of +knowledge with which he had already made himself +acquainted.</p> + +<p>Dr. Brocklesby died in December 1797, when +the larger part of his fortune was inherited by his +nephew, Mr. Beeby; the remainder, with his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span>house, his books, and his pictures, was left to Dr. +Young. He now found himself in circumstances +of independence, surrounded by a circle of +academical friends and associates, and formed many +friendships in distinguished and highly cultivated +society, which he continued to prize and to enjoy +through life.</p> + +<p>He had, during his residence at Cambridge, +given some papers to the Royal Society and had +amused himself by contributing several essays on +philosophical and other subjects to some periodical +publications; a part of these he afterwards reprinted, +but considered others of a lighter texture +than would bear the criticism of severer experience.</p> + +<p>When his necessary residence at college was +completed, Dr. Young settled himself as a physician +in London, in Welbeck-street, where he +continued to reside during twenty-five years. It +was not long, however, before he accepted the +situation of Professor of Natural Philosophy in the +Royal Institution, where he was for two years +colleague as lecturer with Sir Humphrey Davy. +The first volume of the Journals of the Royal Institution +and a part of the second were edited, and +for the most part composed by him. He gave two +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span>Bakerian lectures on the subjects of Light and +Colours to the Royal Society, and in 1802 he published +a Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Natural +and Experimental Philosophy, with mathematical +demonstrations of the most important theorems in +mechanics and optics; and containing the first +publication of his discovery of the general law of +the Interference of Light, being the application of +a principle which has since been universally appreciated +as one of the greatest discoveries since +the time of Newton, and which has subsequently +changed the whole face of Optical science.</p> + +<p>As a lecturer at the Royal Institution, Dr. +Young was apt, in no small degree, to pass +the capacities of his audience, who at this +conjuncture were led to their attendance more +as a matter of fashion, than from a love of research, +and who for the most part had little +previous knowledge. His style was compressed +and laconic; he went into the depths of science, +and indeed gave more matter than it would +perhaps have been possible for persons really +scientific to have followed at the moment without +considerable difficulty.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1802 Dr. Young accompanied +the present Duke of Richmond and his brother, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span>Lord George Lennox, in his medical capacity, to +Rouen in Normandy, with their tutor, Mr. Vincent; +and in an excursion from thence to Paris, was first +present at the discussions of the National Institute +of France, at that time attended by Napoleon; +where he made the acquaintance of several leading +members of that distinguished body, into which +he himself was eventually elected. On his return +he was constituted foreign secretary to the Royal +Society, an office which he held during life, being +long their senior officer, and always one of the +leading, and most efficient members of their +council.</p> + +<p>In 1804, Dr. Young married Miss Eliza Maxwell, +daughter of James Primrose Maxwell, Esq., +of Cavendish-square, who has lived to lament his +loss, after an union which was attended with uninterrupted +happiness.</p> + +<p>At this time he resigned his office as lecturer +to the Royal Institution, it being thought +by his friends that his holding it longer would +be likely to interfere with his success as a medical +practitioner. This view, as regarding his +continuance in a situation which would appear to +the public to be anomalous to his profession, and +hardly compatible with its duties, was probably a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>just one. But in settling in married life Dr. Young +carried a deference to the supposed feelings of the +world towards those physicians who distinguished +themselves in lines of research not obviously connected +with their calling, to an excess which, in a +man of his extraordinary talents and attainments, +was certainly to be lamented, and possibly even +with reference to those objects proposed to be compassed +by it.</p> + +<p>His resolution at that juncture was to confine +himself for the most part to medical pursuits, +and to make himself known to the public in no +other character. But he had resolved on that +which to him was impossible. He never slackened +either in his literary or philosophical researches. +He was always aiding, and always willing to be +the counsellor of any one engaged in similar investigations. +He was living in the first circles of +London, amongst all who were most eminent. The +nature of his habitual avocations was necessarily +well known; and therefore in putting forth his +non-medical papers, separately and anonymously, he +was making a fruitless as well as voluntary sacrifice +of the general celebrity to which he was +entitled; and shrinking as it were from the cumulative +reputation which he must otherwise have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span>enjoyed, he waived, in some degree, the advantage +which is given by a great name towards the pursuit +even of professional success.</p> + +<p>In 1807 however, Dr. Young published his +“Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and +the Mechanical Arts,” in two volumes quarto. +This elaborate work he stated to have been the +result of the unremitting application of five years; +two having been given to the composition of the +original lectures, and three more to the compilation +of the mass of references in the second volume, to +all those works to which the student might advantageously +have recourse who wished to pursue any +more minute enquiry; and to incorporating at the +same time with the Lectures, as at first given, such +results as might require insertion.</p> + +<p>The booksellers engaged in this publication +failed at the moment of its coming out, which +greatly injured the immediate sale of the work; +but it was a mine to which every one has since +resorted, and contained the original hints of more +things since claimed as discoveries, than can +perhaps be found in a single production of any +known author. For some years, indeed, it seemed +hardly to have made its way to general use +in England, but it was so appreciated by the philosophers +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span>of the Continent, that one of the men +most distinguished for science in Europe has been +known to say, that if his library were on fire, +and he could save only one book from the conflagration, +it should be the Lectures of Dr. Young.</p> + +<p>For sixteen successive years from the period of +his marriage, Dr. Young passed his winters in +London and his summers at Worthing, having +been in 1810 appointed physician to St. George’s +Hospital. In his profession his published labours +would prove him to have been of the most learned +of scientific physicians, and his judgment and +acuteness were equally great: but in the practice +of medicine Dr. Young was not one of those +who were likely to win the most extended occupation +amongst the multitude. He was averse to +some of the ordinary methods by which it is acquired. +He never affected an assurance which he +did not feel, and had perhaps rather a tendency to +fear the injurious effects which might eventually result +from the application of powerful remedies, +than to any overweening confidence in their immediate +efficacy. His treatises bear the same impress. +That on Consumption, is a most striking instance +of his assiduity in collecting all recorded facts, and +his abstinence in drawing inferences from isolated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span>cases, or putting forth that which he did not feel +was established with certainty. Possibly he herein +was an example, that increase of knowledge does +not tend to increase of confidence, and that those +whose acquirements are the greatest, meet in the +progress of their investigations with most that leads +to distrust. However it might be, his practice, +though respectable, was never very extensive.</p> + +<p>Dr. Young afterwards published a “Syllabus +of Lectures on the Elements of the Medical +Sciences,” as delivered by him at the Middlesex +Hospital, and his “Introduction to Medical literature, +including a System of Practical Nosology”—the +latter a work of great labour, forming like +his Natural Philosophy, a text book of the highest +practical utility, and accompanied by a mass of +references, which, to industry and perseverance +less than his, it should seem almost impossible to +have accumulated.</p> + +<p>The Lectures, like every thing which proceeded +from Dr. Young, were, even in his own estimation, +too full of matter and too much compressed to be +conveniently followed by the hearer in a course of +oral instruction. Indeed, in all things he was rather +too apt to presume a knowledge in other persons +which they did not possess, and consequently +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span>to fail in his estimate of how much of explanation +was needed in communicating the results of +science to those who were comparatively ignorant.</p> + +<p>To the larger of these works he prefixed a +“Preliminary Essay on the Study of Physic;” in +which he gives a singular picture of what, in his +opinion, is required to constitute a well-educated +physician; enumerating nearly every possible +quality of which man could wish, but of which +few could hope, the attainment.</p> + +<p>Dr. Young contributed to the Quarterly Review +a variety of articles, literary and scientific. He +first engaged, at the suggestion of Mr. George +Ellis, one of his most intimate and most valued +friends, to furnish those on medical subjects to +that work. But his communications soon branched +into other lines, many of them connected with +the higher departments of science, and containing +the results of some of his most laboured researches. +The Review of Adelung’s Mithridates, +Vol. X. October 1813, is perhaps the most remarkable, +not only from the immense knowledge it +displays of the structure of almost all languages, +but as having been the composition which first led +him to the investigation of the lost literature of +ancient Egypt.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span></p> + +<p>In the year 1814, Sir William Rouse Boughton +had brought with him from Egypt some fragments +of Papyri, which he put into the hands of Dr. +Young; the fragment of the Rosetta stone having +been about this time deposited in the British +Museum, and a correct copy of its three inscriptions +having been engraved and circulated by the +Society of Antiquaries. Dr. Young first proceeded +to examine the enchorial inscription, and afterwards +the sacred characters, and after a minute +comparison of these documents, he was enabled to +attach some “Remarks on Egyptian Papyri, and +on the inscription of Rosetta,” containing an <i>interpretation +of the principal parts of both the Egyptian +inscriptions on the pillar</i>; to a paper of Sir William +Boughton’s, which was published by the Society +of Antiquaries in 1815, in the eighteenth volume +of the Archæologia.</p> + +<p>Dr. Young now found he had discovered a key +to the lost literature of ancient Egypt. He had +occupied himself, though without deriving from it +the assistance he had at first expected, in the study +of the Coptic and Thebaic version of the Scriptures; +but having satisfied himself of the nature and +origin of the enchorial character, he produced the +result to the world anonymously in the Museum +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>Criticum of Cambridge, part the sixth, published +in 1815; being then determined to prosecute the +discovery, but at the same time abstaining from +claiming it in a more substantive form, from the +resolution he had previously taken to be known +only as a medical author.</p> + +<p>The labour he bestowed on these investigations, +and the minuteness and accuracy with which he +copied the papyri, and compared the materials +which came into his hands, would be nearly incredible +to those who had not access to him whilst +employed on this pursuit.</p> + +<p>In 1816, he printed and circulated two additional +Letters relating to his hieroglyphical discoveries, +and the inscription of Rosetta; the first +addressed to the Archduke John of Austria, who +had recently been in this country, the other to +M. Akerblad. These letters announce the progress +of the discovery of the relation between the +Egyptian characters and hieroglyphics, forming +the basis on which Dr. Young continued his +enquiries, as well as of the system afterwards +carried further in its details by M. Champollion, +whose attention had long been directed to similar +studies, and in which he has since so greatly distinguished +himself. The letters were <i>first published</i> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span>when <i>re-printed</i> in the seventh number of +the Museum Criticum in 1821; and were, with +the former letters in that work, beyond all question +or dispute, the earliest announcement of the +discovery of a key to a character which had +remained uninterpreted for ages.</p> + +<p>In the same year he agreed with Mr. M<sup>c</sup>Vey +Napier to furnish various articles to the Supplement +to the Encyclopædia Britannica, conducted +under the superintendance of that gentleman; +and in this work, under the head “<span class="smcap">Egypt</span>,” he +first brought out the whole results of his discoveries +in a perfect and concentrated form.</p> + +<p>To the Supplement of the Encyclopædia Britannica, +Dr. Young furnished sixty-three articles, +scientific, biographical, and literary; the signature +by which they are marked, being two consecutive +letters of the sentence “<i>Fortunam ex aliis</i>.” His +adoption of such a motto appears to have been +caused by his considering at this period of his life, +that he had not succeeded to his wish or expectation +in the profession which he had chosen, and +that he had reason to complain of some injustice, +in that the extent and utility of his labours in +science, after having been fully appreciated by the +philosophers of the Continent, had not appeared +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span>to have met with the same acceptance amongst his +own countrymen. But this feeling, as it was +transitory, so it should seem that it was hardly +well-founded. By those competent to form a +judgment, he was known to stand at the head +both of the letters and of the science of England; +but from the time of his quitting the professorship +of the Royal Institution, all his philosophical and +literary tracts, with the exception of his Lectures +and his communications to the Royal Society, were +scattered through so many and such diverging +channels of publication, as well as branched into +such varied lines, that they never were within the +reach of any one class of readers, nor ever in the +aggregate came before the public as proceeding +from him; to which may be added, that the +slightest reference to his non-professional works +will shew him, in these years, to have used +expressions studiously to conceal himself.</p> + +<p>Of Dr. Young’s philosophical articles in the +Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, some +of which contain the results of his most elaborate +investigations, the writer of the present memoir is +not competent to speak. Many of his biographical +sketches are admirably given; but he would +refer to the Life of <span class="smcap">Porson</span>, not only as being in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>itself a most masterly production, but as containing +a very interesting indication of some of Dr. +Young’s opinions, both on the value of classical +studies, and on the mechanism of the human +mind; and he would instance the dissertation on +“<span class="smcap">Languages</span>” as containing the stupendous +collections he had made for the subject, when led +to it by reviewing Adelung’s Mithridates for the +Quarterly Review.</p> + +<p>Early in 1817, Dr. Young having occasion to +visit a patient in Paris, was greatly pleased with +his reception in the scientific circles of that metropolis. +With the Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, +Messrs. Arage, Cuvier, Biot, and Guy Lussac, +he had made previous acquaintance in this country. +He found himself happy in renewing his +intercourse with these very eminent men, and +after his return to London, he went back to Paris +for a few weeks in the summer of the same year.</p> + +<p>In 1818, he was appointed by a commission +under the Privy Seal, together with Sir Joseph +Banks, Sir George Clerk, Mr. Davies Gilbert, +Dr. Woollaston, and Captain Kater, a commissioner +for taking into consideration the state of the +weights and measures employed throughout Great +Britain. Dr. Young acted as secretary at the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span>meetings of this Board, and to the three Reports +which were laid before Parliament he furnished +both the scientific calculations, and the attached +account of the various measures customarily in use. +It seems right to state, that in pursuing these investigations +it was his opinion, that however theoretically +desirable it might be, that all weights +and measures should be reducible to a common +standard of scientific accuracy, yet that, practically, +the least possible disturbance of that to +which people had long been habituated was the +point to be looked to, and on this ground he was +extremely averse to unnecessary changes.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the year 1818, Dr. Young +was appointed secretary to the Board of Longitude, +with the charge of the supervision of the Nautical +Almanack, under a new Act of Parliament brought +in by Mr. Croker and Mr. Davies Gilbert; having +in the first instance been nominated in the Act as +one of the Commissioners, without his previous +knowledge. This appointment was to him a very +desirable one, though the labour in which it involved +him was great, as his anxiety to increase +his medical practice henceforth ceased, and it +made that the business of his life which had +always been his inclination.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span></p> + +<p>He now discontinued his residence at Worthing, +and devoted the summer to a hasty tour into Italy, +an object which he always had in view. In about +five months he visited all the most remarkable +Italian cities, and amongst other objects of interest, +gave the first place to the examination of the +Egyptian monuments preserved in that country. +He returned to England by Switzerland and the +Rhine.</p> + +<p>From the year 1820 to the end of his life, Dr. +Young continued to furnish a variety of astronomical +and nautical collections to Brande’s Philosophical +Journal, the greater part of which were +original, and others which were translated were +accompanied by his own comments.</p> + +<p>In 1821, he published anonymously an “Elementary +Illustration of the Celestial Mechanics of +La Place, with some additions relating to the +motion of Waves and of Sound, and to the cohesion +of Fluids.” This volume, and the article “Tides,” +in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, +were considered by him to have contained the +most fortunate of the results of his mathematical +labours. He proceeds in his own course and manner +of investigation, and uses his own processes, +and the great reach of mind displayed in these +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>works seems universally acknowledged; but whether +he have sufficiently established all the points +which he considered himself to have proved, remains +matter of dispute amongst those best qualified +to judge. They were spoken of in the highest +terms of praise by Mr. Davies Gilbert from the +Chair of the Royal Society; but there are some +amongst the most distinguished of surviving English +philosophers, who still think that his theory +of the Tides rests too exclusively on analogies, +and that many of the elements of the computation +are too much out of human reach to render the +boldness of the original thought susceptible of +being subjected to the severity of mathematical +deduction.</p> + +<p>Dr. Young as a mathematician was of an +elder school, and was possibly somewhat prejudiced +against the system now obtaining, both +amongst the continental and the English philosophers; +as he thought the powers of intellect exercised +by a preceding race of mathematicians, were +in no small danger of being lost or weakened by +the substitution of processes in their nature mechanical.</p> + +<p>The next year he went again to Paris, and in +1823 he published his “Account of some recent +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span>Discoveries in Hieroglyphical Literature and Egyptian +Antiquities,” in which he gave his own original +alphabet, his translations from papyri, and +the extensions which that alphabet had received +from M. Champollion. This was the first +non-professional publication since 1804, to which he had +prefixed his name, and made open claim to his discoveries; +having, as stated in his Preface, now +attained his fiftieth year, and having at last +determined to throw off the shackles by which he had +hitherto considered himself to be bound by the +etiquette of a medical practitioner.</p> + +<p>At this time he attempted to form a society +of about fifty subscribers, for the lithography of +a collection of plates of Egyptian antiquities, +subservient to the study of hieroglyphical literature. +This work was, however, entirely carried +on by Dr. Young, and was afterwards made over +to the Royal Society of Literature, and continued +during the remainder of his life, to be executed +under his supervision.</p> + +<p>In 1824, he made an excursion to Spa and to +Holland; and on his return undertook the medical +responsibility and mathematical direction +of a society for life insurance. This was established +at a moment when a mania for joint stock +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span>companies was springing up in England, and +which at the time was supposed to offer great pecuniary +advantages; but Dr. Young’s most scrupulous +regard to what he supposed the strictest +justice, never forsook him: he declined all participation +in the speculation, and confined himself +to the performance of the duties which he undertook. +The connexion however with this company +led him into new lines of research, in which he +took great interest. He contributed to the Royal +Society a “Formula for expressing the Decrement +of Human Life,” in a letter addressed to Sir +Edward Hyde East, which was published in the Philosophical +Transactions for 1826; and a “Practical +Application of the Doctrine of Chances,” +to Brande’s Philosophical Journal for October in +the same year; whilst he had a singular satisfaction +in witnessing the prosperity of the concern +in the department under his direction.</p> + +<p>The year before this he removed from Welbeck-street +to a house which he had built in Park +Square in the Regent’s Park, where he continued +to reside during the remainder of his life, and +where, in a situation to which he was extremely +attached, he led the life of a philosopher, surrounded +by every domestic comfort, and enjoying +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span>the pleasures of an extensive and cultivated society, +who knew how to appreciate him. He expressed +himself as having now attained all the main objects +which he had looked forward to in life as the subject +either of his hopes or his wishes. This end +being, to use his own words, “the pursuit of such +fame as he valued, or of such acquirements as he +might think to deserve it.”</p> + +<p>In 1827, Dr. Young was elected one of the +eight foreign members of the Royal Institute of +France, and was much gratified, not only by the +honour conferred, but by being associated with so +many distinguished persons, with whom he had +long been in habits of correspondence and of +friendship.</p> + +<p>His health had hitherto, with the exception of +the consumptive tendency which had visited him +in youth, been uninterrupted by a day’s serious +illness, and no person would have appeared as +giving a promise of greater longevity; but in 1828 +there was a perceptible diminution of strength. In +that summer he went to Geneva, and appeared to +suffer what was to him an unusual degree of fatigue +on great bodily exertion, and his friends from that +time could not help remarking symptoms of age +which appeared to be on the increase, and which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span>contrasted strongly with the singular freedom from +complaint which he had hitherto enjoyed.</p> + +<p>During the time that Dr. Young was abroad, the +general state of the finances of the country had +been submitted to the examination of a Committee +of the House of Commons. Amongst other things, +some of the severer economists had brought under +their consideration the construction and utility of +the Board of Longitude as being under the direction +of the Admiralty, and as giving an allowance of a +hundred pounds a year to certain professors of the +two universities, whose attendance was not often +called for. The committee did not consist of members +who were much acquainted with science; not +one scientific person was examined before them. +The amount of saving by the abolition of the only +salaries which the government of England held +forth for the encouragement of science, little if at +all exceeded £500 a year; and though many projects +which might not prove of utility were referred +by Government to this Board, yet the sums actually +expended through them on such as they might +conceive to be useful, had been extremely limited. +But on the recommendation of this committee a +bill was passed abolishing the Board, at the same +time permitting the Admiralty to retain the officer +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span>entrusted with the calculations of the Nautical +Almanack.</p> + +<p>Dr. Young continued to execute these duties; +but this singular, and as it should seem ill-advised +proceeding, caused great heart-burnings and discontent +in the scientific bodies, amongst those +who considered themselves or their friends treated +unhandsomely as well as illiberally, in the manner +in which their services had been dispensed with; +and the assistance of men of science was soon +found to be so indispensable to many departments +connected with the Admiralty, that a new council +of three members, consisting of Dr. Young, Captain +Sabine, and Mr. Farraday, was appointed for +the performance of the duties which had before +devolved upon the Board.</p> + +<p>The discussions incident to this subject, and the +various reports which Dr. Young had in consequence +to draw up, together involved him in more +labour than the situation of his health rendered +him competent to perform without injury, and +exacerbated a complaint which it afterwards appeared +must have been long in progress, but +which now was bringing him rapidly to a state of +extreme debility.</p> + +<p>He had from the month of February 1829, suffered +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span>from what he considered repeated attacks of +asthma, and though he said little of it, as unwilling +to alarm those about him, was evidently uneasy +at the situation of his health. This gradually +deteriorated. He had in the beginning of April +great difficulty in breathing, with some discharge +of blood habitually from the lungs, and was in a +state of great weakness. His friends and physicians, +Doctors Nevinson and Chambers, considered +that there was something extremely wrong +in the action of the heart, as well as that the lungs +were very seriously affected.</p> + +<p>Though thus under the pressure of severe illness, +nothing could be more striking than the +entire calmness and composure of his mind, or +could surpass the kindness of his affections to all +around him. He said that he had completed all +the works on which he was engaged, with the +exception of the rudiments of an Egyptian Dictionary, +which he had brought near to its completion, +and which he was extremely anxious to +be able to finish. It was then in the hands of +the lithographers, and he not only continued to +give directions concerning it, but laboured at it +with a pencil when, confined to his bed, he +was unable to hold a pen. To a friend who +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>expostulated with him on the danger of fatiguing +himself, he replied it was no fatigue, but a great +amusement to him; that it was a work which if +he should live it would be a satisfaction to him to +have finished, but that if it were otherwise, which +seemed most probable, as he had never witnessed +a complaint which appeared to make more rapid +progress, it would still be a great satisfaction to +him never to have spent an idle day in his life.</p> + +<p>His last anxiety concerning the proceedings of +one or two persons who had made him the object +of reiterated attacks, in consequences of being +dissatisfied with the arrangements of the Nautical +Almanack, was, that nothing should go forth on +his part to increase irritation, and when papers +were sent him which went to enumerate and to +prove the errors, into which these individuals had +fallen, his desire was that they should be +suppressed.</p> + +<p>In the very last stage of his complaint, in the last +lengthened interview with the writer of the present +memoir, his perfect self-possession was displayed +in the most remarkable manner. After some information +concerning his affairs, and some instructions +concerning the hieroglyphical papers in his +hands, he said that, perfectly aware of his situation, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>he had taken the sacraments of the church on +the day preceding; that whether he should ever +partially recover, or whether he were rapidly taken +off, he could patiently and contentedly await the +issue: that he thought he had exerted his faculties +through life as far as they were capable of, but +that for the last eight years he had been careful of +straining them to more than he thought they could +compass without injury; that he had settled all +his concerns; that if his health had been continued +to him, he might have looked forward to the +prolongation of much that was to be enjoyed; but +that though he was in no other suffering than that +of great oppression and weakness, still that if life +were continued in the state he then was of inability +to any of his accustomed employments, he could +hardly wish it to be long protracted.</p> + +<p>His illness continued with some slight variations, +but he was gradually sinking into greater and +greater weakness till the morning of the 10th of +May, when he expired without a struggle, having +hardly completed his fifty-sixth year. The disease +proved to be an ossification of the aorta, which must +have been in progress for many years, and every +appearance indicated an advance of age, not +brought on probably by the natural courses of time, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span>nor even by constitutional formation, but by unwearied +and incessant labour of the mind from the +earliest days of infancy. His remains were deposited +in the Vault of his wife’s family, in the +Church of Farnborough in Kent.</p> + +<p>To delineate adequately the character of Dr. +Young would require an ability in some proportion +to his own, and must be ill supplied by one +incompetent to judge of the talents of a man, who +as a physician, a linguist, an antiquary, a mathematician, +scholar, and philosopher, in their most +difficult and abstruse investigations, has added to +almost every department of human knowledge that +which will be remembered to aftertimes—“who,” +as was justly observed by Mr. Davies Gilbert, +in his eloquent address to the Royal Society, +over which he so worthily presided, “came into +the world with a confidence in his own talents +growing out of an expectation of excellence entertained +in common by all his friends, which expectation +was more than realized in the progress of his +future life. The multiplied objects which he pursued +were carried to such an extent, that each +might have been supposed to have exclusively +occupied the full powers of his mind; knowledge +in the abstract, the most enlarged generalizations +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span>and the most minute and intricate details, were +equally affected by him; but he had most pleasure +in that which appeared to be most difficult +of investigation.” The president added, that “the +example is only to be followed by those of equal +capacity and equal perseverance; and rather recommends +the concentration of research within +the limits of some defined portion of science, than +the endeavour to embrace the whole.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Young’s opinion was, that it was probably +most advantageous to mankind, that the researches +of some inquirers should be concentrated within +a given compass, but that others should pass +more rapidly through a wider range—that the +faculties of the mind were more exercised, and +probably rendered stronger, by going beyond the +rudiments, and overcoming the great elementary +difficulties, of a variety of studies, than by employing +the same number of hours in any one pursuit—that +the doctrine of the division of labour, however +applicable to material product, was not so +to intellect, and that it went to reduce the dignity +of man in the scale of rational existences. He +thought it so impossible to foresee the capabilities +of improvement in any science, so much of accident +having led to the most important discoveries, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span>that no man could say what might be the comparative +advantage of any one study rather than +of another; and though he would scarcely have +recommended the plan of his own as the model of +those of others, he still was satisfied in the course +which he had pursued.</p> + +<p>It has been said, that the powers of imagination +were the only ones of which he was destitute. +From the highly poetical cast of some of his early +Greek translations, this is at least doubtful. It +might, perhaps, have been said more justly, that +he never cultivated the talent of throwing a brilliancy +on objects which he had not ascertained to +belong to them. Dr. Young was emphatically a +man of truth. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing +but the truth, was the end at which he aimed +in all his investigations, and he could not bear, +in the most common conversation, the slightest +degree of exaggeration, or even of colouring. Now, +all exercise of what is ordinarily called imagination, +is the figuring forth something which, either +in kind or in degree, is not in truth existent; and +whether originally gifted with this faculty, or otherwise. +Dr. Young would, on principle, have abstained +from its indulgence.</p> + +<p>To sum up the whole with that which passes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span>all acquirement, Dr. Young was a man in all the +relations of life, upright, kind-hearted, blameless. +His domestic virtues were as exemplary as his +talents were great. He was entirely free from +either envy or jealousy, and the assistance which +he gave to others engaged in the same lines of +research with himself, was constant and unbounded. +His morality through life had been pure, +though unostentatious. His religious sentiments +were by himself stated to be liberal, though orthodox. +He had extensively studied the Scriptures, +of which the precepts were deeply impressed +upon his mind from his earliest years; and he +evidenced the faith which he professed, in an +unbending course of usefulness and rectitude.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="center"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="A"> + +<span class="t5">A</span> + +<span class="t6">CATALOGUE</span> + +<span class="t5">OF THE</span> + +<span class="t7">WORKS AND ESSAYS</span> + +<span class="t5">OF THE LATE</span> + +<span class="t8">DR. YOUNG.</span> + +<span class="t9">(<i>Found in his own Hand-Writing, to 1827.</i>)</span> + + </h2> +</div> + +<hr class="r30 x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> + +<div class="center"> +<div class="fs90">A</div> + +<div class="fs140 mtb05em"><b>CATALOGUE,</b></div> + +<div class="fs100">&c.</div> +</div> + +<hr class="r10 x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> + +<div class="fs95"> +<p>1. A short Note on Gum Ladanum, with a verbal Criticism +on Longinus, signed with his initials, and inserted in the Monthly +Review for 1791, seems to have been his first appearance before +the Public. The criticism was admitted by Dr. Burney to be +correct.</p> + +<p>2. In the Gentleman’s Magazine for April 1792, Observations +on the Manufacture of Iron: an attempt to remove some +objections to Dr. Crawford’s theory of Heat, which had been +advanced by Dr. Beddoes.</p> + +<p>3. Entomological Remarks; Gentleman’s Magazine, December +1792: on the habits of Spiders; on a passage of Aristotle, +with an illustration of the Fabrician System; and a plate of the +mouth of an insect.</p> + +<p>4. Observations on Vision: Philosophical Transactions, 1793, +p. 169, explaining the accommodation of the Eye, from a muscular +power in the crystalline lens—a theory not altogether new, +but immediately afterwards claimed by John Hunter, as a discovery +of his own.</p> + +<p>5. Contributions to Hodgkin’s Calligraphia Græca, 4to. +London, 1794; including Lear’s Curses in Iambics.</p> + +<p>6. Description of an Opercularia. Linnæan Transactions, +Vol. III. p. 30. London 1797: read in 1794. The Opercularia, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span>Aspera of Gaertner, called by Persoon, Cryptospermum Youngii, +from the name here suggested.</p> + +<p>7. Some Notes and an Epigram, in Dalzel’s Collectanea +Græca, 8vo. Edinburgh, 1795.</p> + +<p>8. De Corporis Humani viribus oonservatricibus, Dissertatio, +8vo. Gottingen, 1796: an Inaugural Dissertation, collected +from a multiplicity of authors.</p> + +<p>9. Translation of Lichtenstein on the Genus Mantis. Linnæan +Transactions, Vol. VI. p. 1.: read in 1797.</p> + +<p>10. The Leptologist. British Magazine, 1800: a series of +Essays on Grammar, Criticism, Geometry, Paintings, Manners, +Riches, Exercises, Medicine, and Music; some of them reprinted +afterwards.</p> + +<p>11. 12. There is also an account of the French Calendar and +Measures, and an Essay on the Morals of the Germans.</p> + +<p>13. Experiments and Enquiries respecting Sound and Light. +Philosophical Transactions, 1800, p. 106: the vibrations of the +air observed by means of smoke; those of strings counted, and +their orbits observed with a microscope; their harmonics suppressed +at pleasure.</p> + +<p>14. A Bakerian Lecture on the Mechanism of the Eye. +Philosophical Transactions, 1801, p. 23: describing a new +Optometer, and shewing that the eye retains its power of accommodation +under water; measuring also the dispersive power +of the eye. (Dr. Y. remarks, that he “afterwards found that +his own eye lost almost the whole of its power of accommodation +soon after fifty, remaining fixed at its greatest focal distance.”)</p> + +<p>15. A Letter respecting Sound and Light. Nicholson’s +Journal, August 1801, in answer to Professor Robison, of +Edinburgh.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span></p> + +<p>16. A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Natural and +Experimental Philosophy; 8vo. London, 1802: presenting a +Mathematical Demonstration of the most important Theorems +in Mechanics and in Optics; and containing the first publication +of the general law of the <span class="smcap">Interference of Light</span>, which +has been considered as the happiest result of all the Author’s +efforts. It was not till the year 1827, that the importance of +this law could be said to be fully admitted in England: it was +in that year that the Council of the Royal Society, adjudged +Count Rumford’s Medal to M. Fresnel, for having applied it, with +some modifications, to the most intricate phenomena of polarized +light.</p> + +<p>17. A Bakerian Lecture on the Theory of Light and Colours; +Phil. Trans. 1802, p. 12, developing the law of Interference, and +entering into all the details of the theory to which it leads; +dwelling, at the same time, upon the difficult points, with somewhat +more of candour than might have been consistent with his +object, had he been anxious to obtain proselytes.</p> + +<p>18. An Account of some Cases of the Production of Colours, +p. 387, containing a simpler statement of some applications of +the same law, intended to exhibit the facts in a more concentrated +form.</p> + +<p>19. A Reply to Mr. Gough’s Remarks. Nicholson, November +1802, p. 1. This Letter, together with some subsequent +Correspondence, relates principally to the coalescence or composition +of Sounds, affording an analogy to the interference of +Light.</p> + +<p>20. Journals of the Royal Institution, 8vo. London, 1802–3. +A first volume, and part of a second, were edited, and chiefly +written, by Dr. Young.</p> + +<p>21. Experiments and Calculations relative to Physical Optics. +Phil. Trans. 1804, p. 1. Another Bakerian Lecture, continuing +the demonstration and the application of the law of Interference.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span></p> + +<p>22. A Reply to the Animadversions of the Edinburgh Reviewers, +8vo. 1804:—a defence of the Papers printed in the +Transactions against two articles supposed to have been written +by Mr. Brougham.</p> + +<p>23. To an Imperial Review, which was an unsuccessful +speculation of some booksellers in 1804, he contributed several +medical and some other miscellaneous articles. The works that +he reviewed were, <i>Dumas Phisiologie</i>, Darwin’s Temple of +Nature, Blackburn on Scarlet Fever, Percival’s Medical Ethics, +Fothergill’s Tic Douloureux, Crichton’s Table, Nisbet’s Watering +Places, Rowley on Madness, <i>Hutton’s Ozanum</i>, Buchan on +Sea-Bathing, <i>Robison’s Astronomy</i>, Winterbottom’s Sierra Leone, +Macgregor’s Medical Sketches, Wilson’s Philosophy of Physic, +Richerand’s Physiology, and Joyce’s Scientific Dialogues.</p> + +<p>24. An Essay on the Cohesion of Fluids. Phil. Trans. 1805, +p. 71, containing many of the results which were published as +new about a year afterwards, by La Place. The mathematical +reasoning, for want of mathematical symbols, was not understood, +even by tolerable mathematicians; from a dislike of the +affectation of algebraical formality, which he had observed in +some foreign authors, he was led into something like an affectation +of simplicity, which was equally inconvenient to a scientific +reader.</p> + +<p>25. A <span class="smcap">Course of Lectures of Natural Philosophy +and the Mechanical Arts</span>; two volumes, 4to. London, +1807. This elaborate work was the result of the unremitting +application of five years; two, whilst the Author was engaged in +giving the Lectures at the Royal Institution, and three more in +compiling the mass of references contained in the second volume, +and in incorporating their results, when requisite, with the text +of the first. By means of numerous plates, and by indexes of +various kinds, he had endeavoured to render the book as convenient +for occasional reference, as it was correct for the purposes +of methodical study. (The failure of the booksellers who +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span>published this work, at the moment of its appearance, so greatly injured +its sale at the time, that it did not repay the expenses of +the publication; and Dr. Young considered that his labours +were first generally appreciated by the Natural Philosophers of +the Continent.)</p> + +<p>26. Remarks on Looming, or Horizontal Refraction. Nicholson, +July 1807, p. 153, supplying some deficiencies in Dr. +Wollaston’s Theory, particularly with regard to the occurrence +of actual Reflection.</p> + +<p>27. A Table of Chances, with remarks on Waves. Nicholson, +Oct. 1807, p. 116.</p> + +<p>28. A Theory of Covered Ways and Arches. Nicholson, +Dec. 1807, p. 24.</p> + +<p>29. Remarks on a Pamphlet of Professor Vince. Nicholson, +April 1808, p. 304; pointing out the mathematical fallacy of the +Professor’s supposed refutation of the hypothesis of Newton respecting +the cause of Gravitation.</p> + +<p>30. Calculation of the rate of Expansion of a supposed Lunar +Atmosphere. Nicholson, June 1808, p. 117.</p> + +<p>31. Determination of the Figure of a gravitating Body. +Nicholson, June 1808, p. 208.</p> + +<p>32. Calculation of the Attraction of a Spheroid. Nicholson, +August 1808, p. 273.</p> + +<p>33. A Review of Sinclair on Longevity. British Critic.</p> + +<p>34. Abstracts and Criticisms in the “Retrospect,” about +1808 and 1809.</p> + +<p>35. Hydraulic Investigations. Phil. Trans. 1808, p. 164; +principally subservient to an intended Croonian Lecture.</p> + +<p>36. <span class="smcap">A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on the +Elements of the Medical Sciences</span>; 8vo. London, 1809. +These Lectures were delivered for two seasons at the Middlesex +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>Hospital. (Dr. Young remarks, that “they were little frequented, +on account of the usual miscalculation of the Lecturer, who +gave his audience more information in a given time, than it was +in their power to follow.”)</p> + +<p>37. Computation of the Depression of Mercury in the Barometer. +Nich. March 1809, p. 215. Continuation of the +Paper on the Cohesion of Fluids, Oct. p. 81.</p> + +<p>38. Remarks on the Friction of Wheels, in Buchanan’s Essay +on Wheel-work, 8vo. Glasgow, 1809.</p> + +<p>39. A Croonian Lecture on the Heart and Arteries. Phil. +Trans. 1809, p. 1: attempting to demonstrate, on Mathematical +principles, that the larger arteries can have little or no concern +in propelling the blood by their active muscular powers.</p> + +<p>40. A Numerical Table of Elective Attractions. Phil. Trans. +1809, p. 148: with remarks on the sequences of double decompositions, +shewing that if numerical expressions of electric +attractions are possible, their effects in double decompositions +may be compendiously expressed by tables of sequences only.</p> + +<p>41. A Memoria Technica for Elective Attractions, in a few +Latin hexameters. Nich. April, 1809.</p> + +<p>42. Account of the Pharmacopeia Londinensis, in Cumberland’s +London Review, 1810.</p> + +<p>43. To the earlier Volumes of the <i>Quarterly Review</i> he contributed +a variety of Articles, which frequently, according to +the custom of modern times, contained more of original research +than of immediate criticism. To Vol. I. La Place, Action +Capillaire. Vol. II. Haslam, Pinel, Cox, and Arnold, on +Insanity; La Place, Refraction Extraordinaire. Vol. III. +<i>Herculanensia</i>; Jones on the Gout; <i>Memoires d’Arcueil</i>. Vol. VI. +Cuthbert on the Tides. Vol. VIII. Davy’s Chemical Philosophy. +Vol. IX. Blackall on Dropsies. Vol. X. <span class="smcap">Adelung’s +Mithridates</span>; Göthe on Colours. Vol. XI. <i>Malus. Biot. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>Seebeck and Brewster, on Light</i>; Bancroft on Dying; Davy’s +Agricultural Chemistry; Adams on Ectropium. Vol. XIII. +<i>Wells on Dew</i>. Vol. XIV. Jamieson and Townsend on Languages; +Pym and Fellowes on Yellow Fever, an article +printed, but not published in the Work. Vol. XIX. p. 411. +<i>Restoration and Translation of the Inscription on the Sphynx.</i></p> + +<p>44. Berzelius on Definite Proportions, from the German, +appeared in several successive numbers of the Philosophical +Magazine, from January 1813 to April 1814.</p> + +<p>45. A Theory of the Tides. Nicholson, July–Aug. 1813.</p> + +<p>46. <span class="smcap">An Introduction to Medical Literature, including +a System of Practical Nosology</span>, 8vo. London, 1813: +a work of considerable labour, though far less arduous than the +“Natural Philosophy.” The Appendix contains an abstract of +Berzelius’s Animal Chemistry, from the Swedish. To a second +edition, published in 1828, were added the References to later +Journals, and an Essay on Palpitations, which first appeared in +the fifth Volume of the Medical Transactions of the College of +London.</p> + +<p>47. Remarks on the Employment of Oblique Riders, and on +other Alterations in the construction of Ships. Phil. Trans. +1814, p. 303; the substance of a Report before presented to +the Board of Admiralty, relating to Sir Robert Sepping’s +Improvements, with some additional illustrations.</p> + +<p>48. An Investigation of the Thrust of soft Substances. +Hutton’a Mathematical Dictionary, Edition 2, 1815. Article, +Pressure.</p> + +<p>49. <span class="smcap">A Practical and Historical Treatise on Consumptive +Diseases</span>: 8vo. London, 1815; being a condensed +abstract of every thing recorded to have been said or done, +with regard to Consumption. Particular circumstances had +pressed the publication of this Work within nine months after it +had been commenced.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span></p> + +<p>50. In the eighteenth Volume of the Archæologia, London, +1815, appeared some <i>Remarks on Egyptian Papyri</i>, and on the +<span class="smcap">Inscription of Rosetta</span>, annexed to a communication made +by Sir William Edward Rouse Boughton, Bart. They contain +an interpretation of the principal parts of both the Egyptian +Inscriptions on the Pillar found at Rosetta, <span class="smcap">and consequently +a Key to the lost Literature of ancient Egypt</span>; +though, for professional reasons, the discovery was made public +with as little parade as possible.</p> + +<p>51. Extracts of Letters and Papers relating to the Egyptian +Inscription of Rosetta, in the Museum Criticum of Cambridge, +Part VI. 8vo. 1815; a Correspondence with MM. Silvestre de +Sacy, and Akerblad.</p> + +<p>52. An Investigation of the Pressure sustained by the fixed +supports of flexible Substances. Phil. Mag. Sep. 1813, applied +to the Hoops of Casks, and to Dock Gates.</p> + +<p>53. An Algebraical Expression of the Values of Lives. Phil. +Mag. Jan. 1816, with a Diagram.</p> + +<p>54. Account of some Thebaic Manuscripts, written on +leather. Legh’s Narrative, 4to. London, 1816.</p> + +<p>55. Additional Letters relating to the Inscription of Rosetta; +the first addressed to the Archduke John, who had lately been +in England; the second to M. Akerblad, Museum Criticum +VII. <i>The Letters were printed and distributed in</i> 1816; <i>the +Journal was not published till</i> 1821. <span class="smcap">They announce the +Discovery of the relation between the different +kinds of Egyptian Letters, or Characters</span>—the basis +on which the system of M. Champollion was afterwards erected.</p> + +<p>56. Letters of Canova, and two Memoirs of Visconti, translated +from the French and Italian. 8vo. London. 1816. A +volume of 200 pages, which was completed in twelve days; +together with remarks on an error of Delambre, which was +afterwards confuted more at large by Mr. Cadell.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span></p> + +<p>57. It was in 1816, that Dr. Young complied, with an application +made to him by Mr. M<sup>c</sup>Vey Napier, to write some articles +for a Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, conducted +under the superintendence of that gentleman, and completed in +1825.</p> + +<p>The Articles which he furnished were: Atwood — Addendum to Annuities +— Bathing — G. Beccaria — Bloch — Borda — Boulton — Bramah — +<span class="smcap">Bridge</span> — Brisson — Bryant — Camus — <i>Notes</i> +on Carpentry — Cavallo — <i>Cavendish</i> — <i>Chromatics</i> — Cohesion — +Condamine — Coulamb — Dolland — Dolomieu — Duhamel — <span class="smcap">Egypt</span> +— Fermat — Fluents — F. Fontana — G. Fontana — J. R. Forster — J. G. A. +Forster — Fourcroy — Frisi — Guyton de Morveau — Herculaneum — +Hydraulics — Ingehousz — Lagrange — La Lande — Lambert — <span class="smcap">Languages</span> — +Lemmonier — Luc — Malus — Maskelyne — Mason — Mechain — Messier — Orme — +Pallas — Pauw — <span class="smcap">Porson</span> — Preservers of Life — Road-making — <i>Robison</i> — +Rush — <i>Steam-Engine</i> — Tennant — Thomson — Count Rumford — <span class="smcap">Tides</span> — Tooke — +Wakefield — Watson — Weights and Measures — Polarization by Arago, +translated, with <i>Notes</i>, In all, about sixty-three articles, each +marked with two different letters. (These were two consecutive letters +of the sentence “Fortunam ex aliis;” the <i>u</i> in <i>fortunam</i> being +sometimes printed as a <i>v</i>.)</p> +<p>58. Remarks on some Theorems relating to the Pendulum. +Phil. Trans. 1818, p. 95, in a Letter to Captain Kater.</p> + +<p>59. Translation of some Greek Inscriptions. Light’s Travels. +4to. London, 1818.</p> + +<p>60. Specimen of a Greek Manuscript in the possession of +the Earl of Mountmorris, 1819. Archæologia, vol. XIX. This +may possibly have been a pawnbroker’s account: another piece +nearly resembling it was sent by Mr. Salt to the British Museum.</p> + +<p>61. Remarks on the Probabilities of Error in Physical Experiments, +and on the Density of the Earth, considered +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>especially with regard to the reduction of Experiments on the +Pendulum. Phil. Trans. 1819, p. 70, computing the density of the +earth, upon the supposition of the commpression of a homogeneous +elastic substance only.</p> + +<p>62. Dr. Young edited the Nautical Almanac, from the year +1819, for the remainder of his life.</p> + +<p>63. Remarks on Laplace’s latest Computation of the Density +and Figure of the Earth. Brando’s Journal, April 1820; +determining the Ellipticity, on the supposition of a compressed +elastic substance.</p> + +<p>64. Dr. Young furnished quarterly, for many years, to +Brande’s Philosophical Journal, about twenty pages of +Astronomical and Nautical Collections, beginning in 1820; the +greater part either original or translated by himself.</p> + +<p>65. Appendix to the second edition of Belzoni’s Travels, +4to. London, 1821.</p> + +<p>66. <span class="smcap">Elementary Illustration of the Celestial +Mechanics of Laplace</span>, 8vo. London, 1821; with some additions +relating to the motions of Waves, and of Sound, and to +the cohesion of Fluids. (This volume, and the article “Tides,” +in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Dr. Young +considered as together containing the most fortunate of the +results of his mathematical labours.)</p> + +<p>67. <span class="smcap">An Account of some recent Discoveries in +Hieroglyphical Literature and Egyptian Antiquities</span>, including +the author’s original Alphabet, as extended by M. +Champollion, 8vo. London, 1823; with a translation of some +Greek Manuscripts on Papyrus, the most remarkable of which +was Mr. Grey’s “Antigraph” of an Egyptian original then +lying on his table; the discovery of which singular coincidence +was the immediate cause of the publication of the volume.</p> + +<p>68. Hieroglyphics, collected by the Egyptian Society, folio. +London, 1823—a collection of Plates of Egyptian Antiquities +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>subservient to the study of Hieroglyphical Literature, +lithographized at the expense of about fifty subscribers, but not at +that time publicly sold. The second number, plates 16 to 40, +contains nearly all that was known of the interpretation of the +Hieroglyphics, the evidence for each word being exhibited in a +comparative Index.</p> + +<p>(This work was entirely carried on by Dr. Young; but the +subscriptions not being adequate to the expenses, it was afterwards +made over to the Royal Society of Literature, he undertaking +to continue the supervision as before.)</p> + +<p>69. A finite and exact Expression for the Refraction of an +Atmosphere nearly resembling that of the Garth. Phil. Trans. +1824, p. 159; a computation derived from an optical hypothesis +not exactly agreeing with the probable height of the physical +atmosphere, but affording correct results.</p> + +<p>70. Remarks on Spohn and Seyffarth. Brande’s Phil. Journal, +Oct. 1826, in a Letter addressed to the Baron William Von +Humboldt.</p> + +<p>71. A Formula for expressing the Decrement of Human Life; +in a Letter addressed to Sir Edward Hyde East, Bart. Phil. +Trans. 1826, intended to render the interpolation from the +best observations more regular: it is followed by a correction of +Dr. Price’s mistake, rejecting the periodical payments of +annuities.</p> + +<p>72. Practical Application of the Doctrine of Chances, as it +regards the subdivision of Risks. Brande’s Phil. Journ. Oct. +1826; shewing the Limitations under which Speculations on +Probabilities may be conducted with prudence.</p> + +<p>73. Remarks on Mr. Peyron’s Account of the Egyptian +Papyrus. Brande’s Phil. Journ. Jan. 1827—the great Greek +Papyrus of Turin: in which Mr. Grey’s three contracts are +cited and explained,—not two of them only, as had been supposed +by Mr. Peyron.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span></p> + +<p class="subhd"><i>The following Articles, of a later date than those contained in +the above Catalogue, are known to have been written by Dr. Young.</i></p> + +<p>74. Hieroglyphical Fragments. Brande’s Philosophical Journal, +April–June, 1827.—Hieroglyphical Fragments; with some +Remarks on English Grammar: in a Letter to Baron William +Von Humboldt. Brande’s Phil. Journal, July–September, +1827.—Hieroglyphical Fragments, illustrative of Inscriptions +preserved in the British Museum; with some Remarks on M. +Champollion’s Opinions: in a Letter to the Cavalier San +Quintino. Brande’s Phil. Journal, October–December, 1827.—Hieroglyphical +Fragments. Brande’s Phil. Journal, January–March, +1828.</p> + +<p>75. A Letter to M. Arago, relating to M. Champollion’s +Discoveries: dated, Geneva, July 1828. Inserted in the Classical +Journal, No. 75.</p> + +<p>76. Comparison of different Tables of Mortality. Brande’s +Phil. Journal, December 1828.</p> + +<p>77. Letter to Mr. Bailey, April 1829.</p> + +<p>78. A Translation of Fresnel’s Elementary View of the Undulatory +Theory of Light. In various Numbers of Brande’s Phil. +Journal; commenced in January 1827, and concluded in April +1829.</p> + +<p>79. Dr. Young left also—Rudiments of an Egyptian +Dictionary in the ancient Enchorial Character; containing all the +Words of which the Sense has been ascertained. Intended as +an Appendix to Mr. Tattam’s Coptic Grammar.</p> + +<p>(This Work was under the hands of the Lithographer at the +time of his death.)</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" aria-hidden="true"> +<div class="center"> +<div class="fs80">LONDON:</div> + +<div class="fs70">Printed by J. L. Cox, Great Queen Street,<br> +Lincoln’s-Inn Fields.</div> +</div> + +</main> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79249 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/79249-h/images/cover.jpg b/79249-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..366998f --- /dev/null +++ b/79249-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ddbcd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +[Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook [#79249](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79249) |
