Refutation of a Pamphlet written by the Rev. John Mackey, R.C.P.,[728]
entitled "A method of making a cube double of a cube, founded on the
principles of elementary geometry," wherein his principles are proved
erroneous, and the required solution not yet obtained. By Robert
Murphy.[729] Mallow, 1824, 12mo.
This refutation was the production of an Irish boy of eighteen years old,
self-educated in mathematics, the son of a shoemaker at Mallow. He died in
1843, leaving a name which is well known among mathematicians. His works on
the theory of equations and on electricity, and his papers in the
_Cambridge Transactions_, are all of high genius. The only account of him
which I know of is that which I wrote for the _Supplement_ of the _Penny
Cyclopaedia_. He was thrown by his talents into a good income at Cambridge,
with no social training except penury, and very little intellectual
training except mathematics. He fell into dissipation, and his scientific
career was almost arrested: but he had great good in him, to my knowledge.
A sentence in {350} a letter from the late Dean Peacock[730] to me--giving
some advice about the means of serving Murphy--sets out the old case:
"Murphy is a man whose _special_ education is in advance of his _general_;
and such men are almost always difficult subjects to manage." This article
having been omitted in its proper place, I put it at 1843, the date of
Murphy's death.
A NEW VALUE OF [pi].
The Invisible Universe disclosed; or, the real Plan and Government of
the Universe. By Henry Coleman Johnson, Esq. London, 1843, 8vo.
The book opens abruptly with:
"First demonstration. Concerning the centre: showing that, because the
centre is an innermost point at an equal distance between two extreme
points of a right line, and from every two relative and opposite
intermediate points, it is composed of the two extreme internal points of
each half of the line; each extreme internal point attracting towards
itself all parts of that half to which it belongs...."
Of course the circle is squared: and the circumference is 3-1/21 diameters.