EDUCATION OF DAUGHTERS--DR. WOLLASTON--DR. YOUNG--THE HERSCHELS.
When we returned to Hanover Square, I devoted my morning hours, as
usual, to domestic affairs; but now my children occupied a good deal of
my time. Although still very young, I thought it advisable for them to
acquire foreign languages; so I engaged a French nursery-maid, that they
might never suffer what I had done from ignorance of modern languages. I
besides gave them instruction in such things as I was capable of
teaching, and which were suited to their age.
It was a great amusement to Somerville and myself to arrange the
minerals we had collected during our journey. Our cabinet was now very
rich. Some of our specimens we had bought; our friends had given us
duplicates of those they possessed; and George Finlayson, who was with
our troops in Ceylon, and who had devoted all his spare time to the
study of the natural productions of the country, sent us a valuable
collection of crystals of sapphire, ruby, oriental topaz, amethyst, &c.,
&c. Somerville used to analyze minerals with the blowpipe, which I never
did. One evening, when he was so occupied, I was playing the piano, when
suddenly I fainted; he was very much startled, as neither I nor any of
our family had ever done such a thing. When I recovered, I said it was
the smell of garlic that had made me ill. The truth was, the mineral
contained arsenic, and I was poisoned for the time by the fumes.
At this time we formed an acquaintance with Dr. Wollaston, which soon
became a lasting friendship. He was gentlemanly, a cheerful companion,
and a philosopher; he was also of agreeable appearance, having a
remarkably fine, intellectual head. He was essentially a chemist, and
discovered palladium; but there were few branches of science with which
he was not more or less acquainted. He made experiments to discover
imponderable matter; I believe, with regard to the ethereal medium. Mr.
Brand, of the Royal Institution, enraged him by sending so strong a
current of electricity through a machine he had made to prove
electro-magnetic rotation, as to destroy it. His characteristic was
extreme accuracy, which particularly fitted him for giving that
precision to the science of crystallography which it had not hitherto
attained. By the invention of the goniometer which bears his name, he
was enabled to measure the angle formed by the faces of a crystal by
means of the reflected images of bright objects seen in them. We bought
a goniometer, and Dr. Wollaston, who often dined with us, taught
Somerville and me how to use it, by measuring the angles of many of our
crystals during the evening. I learnt a great deal on a variety of
subjects besides crystallography from Dr. Wollaston, who, at his death,
left me a collection of models of the forms of all the natural crystals
then known.
Though still occasionally occupied with the mineral productions of the
earth, I became far more interested in the formation of the earth
itself. Geologists had excited public attention, and had shocked the
clergy and the more scrupulous of the laity by proving beyond a doubt
that the formation of the globe extended through enormous periods of
time. The contest was even more keen then than it is at the present time
about the various races of prehistoric men. It lasted very long, too;
for after I had published my work on Physical Geography, I was preached
against by name in York Cathedral. Our friend, Dr. Buckland, committed
himself by taking the clerical view in his "Bridgewater Treatise;" but
facts are such stubborn things that he was obliged to join the
geologists at last. He and Mrs. Buckland invited Somerville and me to
spend a week with them in Christchurch College, Oxford. Mr. and Mrs.
Murchison were their guests at the same time. Mr. Murchison (now Sir
Roderick) was then rising rapidly to the pre-eminence he now holds as a
geologist. We spent every day in seeing some of the numerous objects of
interest in that celebrated university, venerable for its antiquity,
historical records, and noble architecture.
Somerville and I used frequently to spend the evening with Captain and
Mrs. Kater. Dr. Wollaston, Dr. Young, and others were generally of the
party; sometimes we had music, for Captain and Mrs. Kater sang very
prettily. All kinds of scientific subjects were discussed, experiments
tried and astronomical observations made in a little garden in front of
the house. One evening we had been trying the power of a telescope in
separating double stars till about two in the morning; on our way home
we saw a light in Dr. Young's window, and when Somerville rang the bell,
down came the doctor himself in his dressing-gown, and said, "Come in; I
have something curious to show you." Astronomical signs are frequently
found on ancient Egyptian monuments, and were supposed to have been
employed by the priests to record dates. Now Dr. Young had received a
papyrus from Egypt, sent to him by Mr. Salt, who had found it in a
mummy-case; and that very evening he had proved it to be a horoscope of
the age of the Ptolemies, and had determined the date from the
configuration of the heavens at the time of its construction. Dr. Young
had already made himself famous by the interpretation of hieroglyphic
characters on a stone which had been brought to the British Museum from
Rosetta in Egypt. On that stone there is an inscription in
Hieroglyphics, the sacred symbolic language of the early Egyptians;
another in the Enchorial or spoken language of that most ancient people,
and a mutilated inscription in Greek. By the aid of some fragments of
papyri Dr. Young discovered that the Enchorial language is alphabetical,
and that nine of its letters correspond with ours; moreover, he
discovered such a relation between the Enchorial and the hieroglyphic
inscription that he interpreted the latter and published his discoveries
in the years 1815 and 1816.
M. Champollion, who had been on the same pursuit, examined the fine
collection of papyri in the museum at Turin, and afterwards went to
Egypt to pursue his studies on hieroglyphics, to our knowledge of which
he contributed greatly. It is to be regretted that one who had brought
that branch of science to such perfection should have been so
ungenerous as to ignore the assistance he had received from the
researches of Dr. Young. When the Royal Institution was first
established, Dr. Young lectured on natural philosophy. He proved the
undulatory theory of light by direct experiment, but as it depended upon
the hypothesis of an ethereal medium, it was not received in England,
the more so as it was contrary to Newton's theory. The French _savants_
afterwards did Young ample justice. The existence of the ethereal medium
is now all but proved, since part of the corona surrounding the moon
during a total solar eclipse is polarized--a phenomenon depending on
matter. Young's Lectures, which had been published, were a mine of
riches to me. He was of a Quaker family; but although he left the
Society of Friends at an early age, he retained their formal precision
of manner to the last. He was of a kindly disposition, and his wife and
her sisters, with whom I was intimate, were much attached to him. Dr.
Young was an elegant and critical scholar at a very early age; he was an
astronomer, a mathematician, and there were few branches of science in
which he was not versed. When young, his Quaker habits did not prevent
him from taking lessons in music and dancing. I have heard him accompany
his sister-in-law with the flute, while she played the piano. When not
more than sixteen years of age he was so remarkable for steadiness and
acquirements that he was engaged more as a companion than tutor to young
Hudson Gurney, who was nearly of his own age. One spring morning Young
came to breakfast in a bright green coat, and said in explanation of his
somewhat eccentric costume for one who had been a Quaker, that it was
suitable to the season. One day, on returning from their ride Gurney,
leaped his horse over the stable-yard gate. Young, trying to do the
same, was thrown; he got up, mounted, and made a second attempt with no
better success; the third time he kept his seat, then quietly
dismounting, he said, "What one man can do, another may."
* * * * *
One bright morning Dr. Wollaston came to pay us a visit in Hanover
Square, saying, "I have discovered seven dark lines crossing the solar
spectrum, which I wish to show you;" then, closing the window-shutters
so as to leave only a narrow line of light, he put a small glass prism
into my hand, telling me how to hold it. I saw them distinctly. I was
among the first, if not the very first, to whom he showed these lines,
which were the origin of the most wonderful series of cosmical
discoveries, and have proved that many of the substances of our globe
are also constituents of the sun, the stars, and even of the nebulæ.
Dr. Wollaston gave me the little prism, which is doubly valuable, being
of glass manufactured at Munich by Fraunhofer, whose table of dark lines
has now become the standard of comparison in that marvellous science,
the work of many illustrious men, brought to perfection by Bunsen and
Kirchhoff.
* * * * *
Sir William Herschel had discovered that what appeared to be single
stars were frequently two stars in such close approximation that it
required a very high telescopic power to see them separately, and that
in many of these one star was revolving in an orbit round the other. Sir
James South established an observatory at Campden Hill, near Kensington,
where he and Sir John Herschel united in observing the double stars and
binary systems with the view of affording further data for improving our
knowledge of their movements. In each two observations are requisite,
namely, the distance between the two stars, and the angle of position,
that is, the angle which the meridian, or a parallel to the equator
makes with the lines joining the two stars. These observations were made
by adjusting a micrometer to a very powerful telescope, and were data
sufficient for the determination of the orbit of the revolving star,
should it be a binary system. I have given an account of this in the
"Connexion of the Physical Sciences," so I shall only mention here that
in one or two of the binary systems the revolving star has been seen to
make more than one revolution, and that the periodical times and the
elliptical elements of a great many other orbits have been calculated,
though they are more than 200,000 times farther from the sun than we
are.
After Sir John Herschel was married, we paid him a visit at Slough;
fortunately, the sky was clear, and Sir John had the kindness to show me
many nebulæ and clusters of stars which I had never seen to such
advantage as in his 20 ft. telescope. I shall never forget the glorious
appearance of Jupiter as he entered the field of that instrument.
For years the British nation was kept in a state of excitement by the
Arctic voyages of our undaunted seamen in quest of a north-west passage
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The idea was not new, for a
direct way to our Eastern possessions had been long desired. On this
occasion the impulse was given by William Scoresby, captain of a whaler,
who had sailed on the east coast of Greenland as high as the 80th
parallel of latitude, and for two successive seasons had found that the
sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen was free of ice for 18,000 square
miles--a circumstance which had not occurred before in the memory of
man. Scoresby was of rare genius, well versed in science, and of strict
probity. When he published this discovery, the Admiralty, in the year
1818, sent off two expeditions, one under the command of Captains
Franklin and Buchan to the east of Greenland, and another under Captains
Ross and Parry to Baffin's Bay. Such was the beginning of a series of
noble adventures, now the province of history.
I had an early passion for everything relating to the sea, and when my
father was at home I never tired asking him questions about his voyages
and the dangers to which he had been exposed. Now, when I knew something
of nautical science, I entered with enthusiasm into the spirit of these
Arctic voyages; nor was my husband less interested. We read Scoresby's
whaling voyages with great delight, and we made the acquaintance of all
the officers who had been on these northern expeditions.
Sir Edward Parry, who had brought us minerals and seeds of plants from
Melville Island, invited us to see the ships prepared for his third
voyage, and three years' residence in the Arctic seas. It is impossible
to describe how perfectly everything was arranged: experience had taught
them what was necessary for such an expedition. On this occasion I put
in practice my lessons in cookery by making a large quantity of orange
marmalade for the voyage. When, after three years, the ships returned,
we were informed that the name of Somerville had been given to an island
so far to the north that it was all but perpetually covered with ice and
snow. Notwithstanding the sameness which naturally prevails in the
narratives of these voyages, they are invested with a romantic interest
by the daring bravery displayed, and by the appalling difficulties
overcome. The noble endeavour of Lady Franklin to save her gallant
husband, and the solitary voyage of Sir Leopold McClintock in a small
yacht in search of his lost friend, form the touching and sad
termination to a very glorious period of maritime adventure. More than
fifty years after these events I renewed my acquaintance with Lady
Franklin. She and her niece came to see me at Spezia on their way to
Dalmatia. She had circumnavigated the globe with her husband when he was
governor in Australia. After his loss she and her niece had gone round
the world a second time, and she assured me that although they went to
Japan and China (less known at that time than they are now), they never
experienced any difficulty. Seeing ladies travelling alone, people were
always willing to help them. The French sent a Polar expedition under
Captain Gaimard in the years 1838 and 1839; and the United States of
North America took an active part in Arctic exploration. Whether Dr.
Kane's discovery of an open polar ocean will ever be verified is
problematical; at all events, the deplorable fate of Sir John Franklin
has put a stop to the chance of it for the present; yet it is a great
geographical question which we should all like to see decided.
Captain Sabine, of the Artillery (now General Sir Edward Sabine,
President of the Royal Society), was appointed to accompany the first
expedition under Captains Ross and Parry on account of his high
scientific acquirements. The observations made during the series of
Arctic voyages on the magnetism of the earth, combined with an enormous
mass of observations made by numerous observers in all parts of the
globe by sea and by land, have enabled Sir Edward Sabine, after a labour
of nearly fifty years, to complete his marvellous system of terrestrial
magnetism in both hemispheres. During that long period a friendship has
lasted between Sir Edward and me. He has uniformly sent me copies of all
his works; to them I chiefly owe what I know on the subject, and quite
recently I have received his latest and most important publication. Sir
Edward married a lady of talent and scientific acquirements. She
translated "Cosmos" from the German, and assisted and calculated for
her husband in his laborious work.
I do not remember the exact period, but I think it was subsequent to the
Arctic voyages, that the theory was discovered of those tropical
hurricanes which cause such devastation by sea and land. Observations
are now made on barometric pressure, and warnings are sent to our
principal seaports by telegraph, as well as along both sides of the
Channel; but notwithstanding numerous disastrous shipwrecks occur every
winter on our dangerous coasts. They were far more numerous in my
younger days. Life-boats were not then invented; now they are stationed
on almost every coast of Great Britain, and on many continental shores.
The readiness with which they are manned, and the formidable dangers
encountered to save life, show the gallant, noble character of the
sailor.