BOOK I

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

OF

ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM

[Illustration: _St. Augustine._ “_La Cité de Dieu._”

_from a manuscript in the Musée de Chantilly._]

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

OF

ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM

CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED

RESEARCHES INTO THE DOMAIN OF THE

EARLY SCIENCES, ESPECIALLY FROM THE PERIOD OF

THE REVIVAL OF SCHOLASTICISM, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND OTHER

ACCOUNTS OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS

THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE AGES

COMPILED BY

PAUL FLEURY MOTTELAY, Ph.D.

AUTHOR OF

“GILBERT OF COLCHESTER,” “THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY,” ETC.

WITH INTRODUCTION BY THE LATE

PROF. SILVANUS P. THOMPSON, D.Sc., F.R.S.

AND FOREWORD BY

SIR R. T. GLAZEBROOK, K.C.B., D.Sc., F.R.S.

“Historia, quoquo modo scripta delectat.”--_Pliny._

“Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.”--_Virgil._

“Il importe beaucoup de connaître l’histoire de la science à

laquelle on s’attache.”--_Éloge de Boerhaave._

“It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read in

the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most

completely assimilated when it is found in its nascent state. Every

student of science should, in fact, be an antiquary in his

subject.”--_J. Clerk Maxwell._

“Les tâtonnements de nos prédécesseurs nous apprennent à marcher

avec plus de sûreté, et l’on ne sait jamais mieux conduire la

science en avant que lorsqu’on sait le chemin qu’elle a parcouru

jusqu’à nous.”--_J. P. Rossignol._

WITH FRONTISPIECE AND PLATES

[Illustration]

LONDON

CHARLES GRIFFIN & COMPANY LIMITED

12 EXETER STREET, STRAND, W.C. 2

1922

[_All rights reserved._]

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,

BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

[Illustration:

PORTRAIT OF

THE AUTHOR

TAKEN FOR

A PASSPORT TO FRANCE

A FEW WEEKS

BEFORE HIS DEATH]

FOREWORD

BY

SIR RICHARD T. GLAZEBROOK, K.C.B., D.Sc., F.R.S.

_Past President of the Institute of Electrical Engineers

and late Director of the National Physical Laboratory_

This splendid volume has a tragic story. Dedicated to Lord Kelvin,

it opens with an introduction by Silvanus Thompson and a preface by

the distinguished author who himself passed from us before the book

containing the fruit of many years of toil was ready for issue.

And what toil! A Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism

covering 4458 years, from 2637 B.C., when Hoang-Ti, Emperor

of China, is said to have directed the pursuit of his troops after a

rebellious subject by the aid of the compass, up to Christmas Day,

A.D. 1821, when Faraday first caused a wire carrying a current

to rotate in a magnetic field.

The early centuries are passed over quickly. Homer’s name occurs with

quotations from the _Odyssey_:

“In wondrous ships self-mov’d, instinct with mind,

No helm secures their course, no pilot guides;

Like men intelligent, they plough the tides.”

Does this mean that the Greeks knew of the compass? The author is

doubtful.

Thales, 600–580 B.C., the discoverer of frictional electricity,

follows. The Crusaders wrote of the magnet. A facsimile page is given

of Vincent de Beauvais’ _Speculum Naturale_, and Gauthier d’Espinois,

who lived about A.D. 1250, sang to his mistress:

“Tout autresi (ainsi) comme l’aimant deçoit (detourne)

L’aigulette pas force de vertu

A ma dame tot le mont (monde) retennue

Qui sa beauté connoit et aperçoit.”

And when one passes to more recent years, there is not a name one knows

omitted from the list. There are also many included who all contributed

in some way to the growth of natural knowledge, but who can only be

known to the few, the very few, who have burrowed in past records

scattered far and wide with the perseverance, the patience, and the

skill of Dr. Mottelay.

And he has discovered interesting facts without number, and at the same

time has supported his case with full references to original works. To

the question, How can I find out what--some unknown writer--has written

about Electricity? there can in future be but one answer: Look him

up in Dr. Mottelay’s _Bibliographical History_. Our debt to the

author is no small one; our regrets that he is not here to be gratified

by the reception his book must meet with are deep and sincere.

The Great War delayed the issue of the book. The public are indebted

to Messrs. C. Griffin & Co., Ltd., for bringing out a work of the kind

under the difficulties which all scientific publications have met with

since 1918, and Dr. Mottelay realized to the full the value of the

assistance they gave him. I trust with confidence that electricians

throughout the world (for the interest of the book is world-wide) will

not be slow to show their appreciation of the work of all those who

have combined to render them so marked a service.

R. T. GLAZEBROOK.

TO

THE REVERED MEMORY

OF

LORD KELVIN

PREFACE

The present work is the definitive edition of my “Chronological History

of Magnetism, Electricity and the Telegraph,” which had tentative

publication (1891–1892) serially in four leading technological

Journals, viz. “Engineering” of London, “The Electrical World” of New

York, “La Lumière Electrique” of Paris, and “L’Industrie Moderne” of

Brussels.

Since the time of that first publication, it has received a most

thorough revision of the original text, for correction of faults of

form, or of substance, suggested by learned critics conversant with the

history of electricity and magnetism; and there have been added a very

large number of new entries besides exhaustive notices of the work done

by Peregrinus, Gilbert, Oersted, Faraday and other great pathfinders,

also biographical and bibliographical notices of all the prominent

ancient writers mentioned in the original compilation.

This bibliography commences B.C. 2637--conclusively shown

to be the earliest date at which history notes anything resembling

the application of the magnetic influence--and it ends with Michael

Faraday, esteemed by Tyndall to be “the greatest experimental

philosopher the world has ever seen,” and who is held “to have

done more for the development of electrical science than any other

investigator.” Thus is the chronological series shown to cover 4458

years, being purposely made to terminate at A.D. 1820–1821

(Oersted, Ampère, Arago, Faraday, etc.), the culminating period when,

through the splendid discovery of electro-magnetism, the two immense

groups of phenomena were first linked together.

Besides the matter distinctly involved in the title of the new work,

it has been deemed advisable to note in this History all the most

important forms of the optical telegraph, or semeiograph. Many of the

ancient and historical methods for communicating intelligence swiftly

at great distances are noticed in their chronological order: doubtless,

this will prove to the generality of readers no less interesting than

the vast multitude of curious facts pertaining to the direct line of

researches. An exhaustive cross-entry Index of Selected Names and

Subjects, embracing fuller titles and much additional data that could

not well be entered into the body of the work, will, for the first

time, make this mass of historical data readily accessible.

To bar controversies and partisan discussion as to the relative

merits of different discoverers and inventors, concerning which

authorities are at variance, it has been thought best to quote all

of the weightiest known authorities under the respective heads and

dates of the several claimants. To the would-be historian and to the

delving student, this will certainly appear the better course. A case

in point, and it is no uncommon one, attaches to the invention of the

mariner’s compass, where that instrument and its original employment in

navigation are credited with equal assurance to China, Iceland, France,

England and Italy, by equally eminent historians and scientists. And,

as nearly all, except the very earliest, discoveries of any high

importance have already been traced to their respective origins by many

authors, additional data have been gathered and quoted wherever such

data seemed deserving of more than the ordinary notices previously

accorded them in print, or where the peculiar nature of the discovery,

or the identity of its author, merited authentication to preclude doubt

or controversy.

The unusual number of cumulative references purposely given throughout

many entries (the most important of which were originally set in

italics) cannot be seriously objected to, as they afford ready means

for making searches through different accessible channels, covering

various phases of a subject, and they facilitate the verification of

all extracts and of all quoted passages. They likewise effectually

offset the likelihood of misprints necessarily attaching to many of

the authorities which are cited from, and which often can be found

solely in, rare early publications or in more or less unintelligible

manuscripts. Only those who have had to make important searches through

such can appreciate the difficulties which continually beset the

investigator. Many of the older serials likewise prove quite unreliable

and disappointing, either through wrong pagination or irregular and

sometimes conflicting dates of publication, as well as through the

rearrangement or redistribution of parts or series, at various periods

and in different volumes. This is the case, more particularly, with “Le

Journal des Savants” and with “The Philosophical Transactions,” as it

is also with many technical serial publications of various countries

which are referred to in the following pages.

In the Preface to his “Experimental Researches,” the great Faraday

justly remarked that: “The date of a scientific paper containing any

pretensions to discovery is frequently a matter of serious importance,

and it is a great misfortune that there are many most valuable

communications, essential to the history and progress of science, with

respect to which this point cannot now be ascertained. This arises

from the circumstance of the papers having no dates attached to them

individually, and of the Journals in which they appear having such as

are inaccurate, _i. e._ dates of a period earlier than that of

publication.”

Of the afore-named serials, the very important “Philosophical

Transactions” have doubtless been most frequently alluded to herein,

both in their original and abridged forms, and, for that reason, the

assistance of representatives of the Royal Society has been sought in

order to give a proper account to date, showing the difficulties which

have throughout been encountered by its many successive editors. It

will be seen, at pages 546–547, that there were numerous irregularities

in the publication of the unabridged series from the initial date of

1665, only seven numbers having been issued from 1679 to 1682, whilst

neither numbers nor volumes appeared between 1688 and 1690, and that,

through lax editing, various numbers were often, during subsequent

years, assigned to volumes differently designated. In the many abridged

reports, irregularities are still greater, as shown at pages 547–548.

During 1721, Motte edited “an abridgment, 1700–1720, in three volumes

which was very incorrect” (“Dict. Nat. Biog.,” Vol. XXXIX. p. 194).

The six volumes of 1720–1732 also appeared in two volumes, published

1733. The two volumes of 1719–1733 contained an “Index to the previous

seven volumes” by different authors. This was made up by John Martyn,

who published in five volumes an abridgment of the Transactions for

1719–1750, which he had previously issued in three sets of two volumes

each. Mr. Samuel H. Scudder’s remarks as to various discrepancies are

worthy of notice. He says (“Cat. of Scient. Serials,” 1879, p. 27) that

“the Philosophical Transactions Abridged have been very irregularly

issued. The first five volumes went through several editions (from

five to two, according to the volume) between 1705 and 1781; the

later volumes through only one, 1734–1756.” He adds: “There is a

strange discrepancy here, the fourth edition of the first volume being

sometimes dated 1731, sometimes 1781, and sometimes 1782, whilst the

fifth edition of volumes one to three is dated 1749; the eighth volume

is again sometimes dated 1734, sometimes 1747.”

Were I to indite an _apologia_ for the present work, I could

not hope to express it more happily than does Mr. J. J. Fahie in the

preface to his “History of Wireless Telegraphy, 1838–1899”; or, I might

adopt the words of two of the most learned French authors of the day:

“Si je donne ces détails, nouveaux, ou peu connus, c’est qu’il est

toujours intéressant de remonter à l’origine et au développement

successif des inventions.” (M. Berthelot, in the “Comptes Rendus.”)

“S’il n’y a pas beaucoup de gens qu’elles intéressent, il y en a

qu’elles intéressent beaucoup. À ceux-ci, nous avons, en rédigeant ces

notes, eu l’intention et l’espérance de venir quelquefois en aide. Tout

catalogue a des points obscurs, même les meilleurs.... L’office propre,

le devoir de la critique, est de rechercher si ces points obscurs ne

pourraient pas être éclairés par quelque lumière. Il est vrai qu’elle

y perd souvent sa peine. Mais cela ne doît jamais la décourager.” (M.

Hauréau, in “Le Journal des Savants.”)

I am especially thankful for the warm encouragement which I have

received, on all sides, since the original work appeared in serial

form. This History has been frequently called for, and I regret that

I have been hitherto prevented from bringing it out earlier in its

present desirable book form. This is the more to be regretted as it

long ago received the practical endorsement of the _doyen_ of

the electrical profession, Lord Kelvin (formerly styled Sir William

Thomson), to whom it is dedicated. Leave to do this was obtained

through a mutual friend in such a cordial manner that I cannot refrain

from giving the correspondence attaching thereto:

_Westminster Chambers,

London, S.W.,

January 4, 1894._

“DEAR MOTTELAY,

“I duly received yours of the 21st ... but the point on which

I feel guilty is your _dedication_.... I have now started

the matter by writing to Lord Kelvin fully on the subject, and

I hope, within a week, to get his reply, which I shall at once

send to you--he cannot possibly wish to decline the honour....

“I remain,

“Yours very truly,

“LATIMER CLARK.”

_Westminster Chambers,

London, S.W.,

January 13, 1894._

“DEAR MOTTELAY,

“Lord Kelvin’s letter is so nice a one that I send you the

original, otherwise I should have liked it as an autograph for

my library. I shall be glad to hear that it has duly reached

you....

“Yours very truly,

“LATIMER CLARK.”

_The University,

Glasgow,

January 11, 1894._

“DEAR CLARK,

“Your letter of the 4th should have been answered sooner, but

for my absence from home at the time it came.

“Will you tell Mr. Mottelay that I shall feel honoured by

his dedicating his “Chronological History of Electricity and

Magnetism” to me, and express to him my thanks for his kind

proposal to do so.

“Yours very truly,

“KELVIN.”

I desire to record my great indebtedness to Dr. Silvanus P. Thompson,

D.Sc., F.R.S., for the interest he has throughout manifested in, and

the material aid he has given to, the improvement and development of

the present work. Especial acknowledgment is made of Dr. Thompson’s

personal revision of the articles on Petrus Peregrinus (at A.D. 1269),

on William Gilbert (at A.D. 1600), and on Michael Faraday (at A.D.

1821). With all of these authors, he has become very prominently

identified through the several special publications concerning them,

which have been issued by him at different periods, and all of which

are herein noticed in their proper order.

Thanks are likewise due, and are also by me hereby tendered, more

particularly to Dr. Elihu Thomson, of the Massachusetts Institute

of Technology; to Dr. J. A. Fleming, M.A., F.R.S.; to Mr. W. D.

Weaver, late Editor of the “Electrical World”; to Mr. Wm. J. Hammer,

representative of Mr. Thomas A. Edison; to Mr. A. Hastings White,

assistant-librarian, Royal Society, London; to Messrs. Charles Spon

and Louis H. Walter, M.A.; to Messieurs Henri Omont, Bibliothèque

Nationale; Paul Marais, Bibliothèque Mazarine; Henri Martin,

Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal; Amédée Boinet, Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève;

Messieurs Plon Nourrit et Cie; as well as to Professors C. F.

Brackett, William Hallock and Edward L. Nichols, of the Universities

of Princeton, Columbia and Cornell; also to Sir Arthur Schuster, Sir

Edwin Durning-Lawrence, Dr. Robert L. Mond, and Dr. Horace F. Parshall,

for many valuable suggestions and other aid given by all of them at

different periods to the material benefit of this compilation.

It is scarcely necessary adding that, notwithstanding the great care

given to the preparation of this very extensive Bibliography, and

to its difficult “proof” reading, errors will undoubtedly present

themselves. It is, however, hoped these will not prove of material

importance. Such mistakes as are of a typographical nature can easily

be recognized and in due time remedied; those, however, resulting from

the conflict of authorities are more difficult to trace, and I shall

greatly appreciate their being pointed out to me, with the view to

improving future editions.

P. FLEURY MOTTELAY.

INTRODUCTION

Anyone who enters on the perilous paths of Bibliography realizes,

sooner or later, the truth that “of the making of books there is no

end.” But there was a beginning: and if the Bibliography of Electricity

promises to stretch onward into the future in endless line, at least

its backward reach might seem to be finite in date. Nevertheless, the

student of the early periods of book production, when the science of

electricity was literally in that “infancy” from which in our time it

has emerged, is continually finding that there are early works of which

he was unaware, and of which even our best libraries are destitute.

He finds, as he progresses backward, toward the origins of things, in

how many points our ancestors in the domain of electric science had

anticipated the discoveries of later date. He finds that, again and

again, by some rare stroke of insight, the great minds that had devoted

themselves to the research of phenomena had seen--it may be, with dim

or imperfect glimpses--many of the things which are commonly regarded

as quite modern. The pioneer, unbiased by the views of contemporary

philosophers, unhampered by the load of textbook tradition, often sees

further than the professed researcher who comes after him.

The art of scientific discovery--for it is an art--can be attained in

but one way, the way of attainment in all arts, namely, by practising

it. In the practice of art, the aspirant may at least learn something

that all the textbooks cannot drill out of him, and which will help him

in his practice, by the careful examination of the actual ways in which

the discoveries of science, now facts of history, were actually made.

But, to do this, he must throw overboard for a time the systematic

textbooks, he must abandon the logical expositions which embody, at

second hand, or at third hand, the antecedent discoveries, and he must

go to the original sources, the writings and records of the discoverers

themselves, and learn from them how they set to work. The modern

compendious handbooks in which the results of hundreds of workers have

been boiled down, as it were, to a uniform consistency, is exactly the

intellectual pabulum which he must eschew. Let him read Faraday, not

through the eyes of Maxwell or of Tyndall, but in his own words in the

immortal pages of the “Experimental Researches,” with their wealth of

petty detail and their apparent vagueness of speculation. Let him

read Ohm’s own account of the law of the circuit, not some modern

watered-down version. Let him turn over the pages of Franklin’s letters

to Collinson, as his observations dropped red-hot out of the crucible

of his endeavours. Let him read Stephen Gray’s charming experiments in

the old-world diction that befitted a pensioner of the Charterhouse.

Let him go back to old Gilbert, who had talked with Drake and Sir

Walter Raleigh in the flesh, who had discussed magnetism with Fra Paolo

Sarpi and had experimented on the dip of the needle with Robert Norman.

Gilbert’s account of his own experiments is for the would-be scientific

discoverer worth a hundredfold the Novum Organon of the overpraised

Francis Bacon. Nay, let him go back to Peter Peregrinus, the

soldier-pioneer, and see how he experimented with floating lodestones

before he penned his account of the pivoted magnet--the earliest known

instrument that can rightly be called a mariner’s compass. Not until he

has thus become a bit of an antiquary will he have fully understood how

the discoveries of old were made. And, in precisely the same spirit of

quest, though with the wealth of modern appliances at his command, must

he go to work, if new discoveries are to be made by him.

But, for all this, he needs a guide to tell him what are the records

of the original pioneers, by what names their works are called, and

where they can be found. Such a guide doubtless exists to some extent

in the mere catalogues of electrical literature, such as the catalogue

of the Ronalds’ Library at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, in

London; or, more fully, even, in the new Catalogue of the Latimer Clark

Library, now known as the Wheeler Collection, at the American Institute

of Electrical Engineers, in New York. The Chronological History of

Electricity which Mr. P. F. Mottelay contributed, week by week, to the

columns of the “Electrical World” and of “Engineering” in the years

1891–1892, was the beginning of an attempt to provide an even more

complete analysis of the earlier literature of the subject. But these

are only the beginnings.

In the “Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism,” which

Mr. Mottelay is now giving to the world, a far more exhaustive and

detailed account is rendered of the earlier workers and writers in our

dual science. He has particularly worked up all important electrical

channels, and in the more extended articles, some of which it has

been the writer’s privilege to peruse in advance, there are presented

valuable monographs dealing with particular workers who each in his own

day made notable contributions to the advance of the science.

To all who would tread in their paths, and add something to the

ever-widening domain of electrical discovery, this Bibliographical

History may be commended, not only for what it contains, but for the

appreciative spirit in which it brings before the reader the work of

those men who made the science what it is.

Pioneers; O Pioneers!

SILVANUS P. THOMPSON.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

FOREWORD BY SIR R. T. GLAZEBROOK, K.C.B., D.SC., F.R.S.

PREFACE vii

INTRODUCTION, BY PROF. SILVANUS P. THOMPSON, D.SC., F.R.S. xiii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix

CHRONOLOGICAL SECTION, B.C. 2637 TO A.D. 1821 1

APPENDIX I

ACCOUNTS OF EARLY WRITERS, NAVIGATORS AND OTHERS, ALLUDED TO

IN GILBERT’S _DE MAGNETE_ 501

“THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS” 542

APPENDIX II

DISCOVERIES MADE BY WILLIAM GILBERT (DESIGNATED IN _DE MAGNETE_

BY LARGE ASTERISKS) 545

APPENDIX III

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE UNABRIDGED AND ABRIDGED EDITIONS

OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY “PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS”; ALSO,

OF THE “PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE” AND OF THE “JOURNAL

DES SÇAVANS--SAVANTS” 547

APPENDIX IV

NAMES OF ADDITIONAL ELECTRICAL AND MAGNETICAL WORKS, PUBLISHED

UP TO 1800 553

APPENDIX V

MERCATOR’S PROJECTION 559

GENERAL INDEX OF SELECTED AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS 565

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ST. AUGUSTINE _Frontispiece_

“La Cité de Dieu, translatée et exposée par Raoul de

Presles.” Taken from the manuscript in the Musée de

Chantilly, by permission of the executors of Monsieur le

Duc d’Aumale.

_Facing page_

CAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS 11

Page taken from the earliest known edition of the “Naturalis

Historiae” Venetiis, 1469, of which there are only three known

original vellum copies. These now are at Vienna, Ravenna and in

the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.

ARISTOTLE 11

“De Naturali Auscultatione.” Title-page of the Paris 1542

edition. This belonged to Dr. William Gilberd, when at

Cambridge, and is inscribed with his name and with that of

Archdeacon Thomas Drant. (From the library of the late Silvanus

P. Thompson).

GUIOT DE PROVINS 30

“La Bible.” Page 93 _verso_ of MS. Fr., No. 25405, _Variorum

Poëmata_, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

VINCENT DE BEAUVAIS 33

“Speculum Naturale.” Page taken from the (Argentorati) 1473

issue, _la première édition et la plus rare de toutes_. In the

Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.

BRUNETTO LATINI 43

“Li Livres dou Trésor.” Page taken from the XVth Century MS.

(originally copied by Jean du Quesne), No. 191, _Trésor de

Sapience_, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

DANTE ALIGHIERI 44

“La Divina Commedia,” Mantuae 1472, the first page of what is

by many regarded as the oldest edition of the earliest known

poem written in the Italian language. Now in the Bibliothèque

Sainte Geneviève, Paris.

PETRUS PEREGRINUS 46

“Epistola ... de Magnete.” _The earliest known treatise of

experimental science._ Original photographic reproduction

of first page of the almost illegible MS. No. 7378 A; page

67 _recto_ (embraced in a geometrical treatise), now in the

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

PETRUS PEREGRINUS 52

Facsimile of Bodleian MS., No. 7027 (MS. Ashmole No. 1522),

folio 186 _verso_, being Chap. II, Part II, of the “Epistola

... de Magnete,” wherein is described _the earliest known

pivoted compass_.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS _Between_ 64 _and_ 65

Photographic reproduction of his letter, March 21, 1502, to

Nicolo Oderigo, Ambassador to France and to Spain, which was

acquired by the King of Sardinia and presented by him to the

city of Genoa. It is now preserved in the Palace of the Genoese

Municipality.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS _Between_ 64 _and_ 65

Translation of the letter written by him to Nicolo Oderigo,

shown here on opposite plate; made into English by Mr. Geo. A.

Barwick, B.A., of the British Museum. Permission to copy both

the original letter and its translation was given by Messrs. B.

F. Stevens and Brown, London.

CECCO D’ASCOLI 524

Last page of the earliest known edition of his “Acerba,”

Venetia, 1476. Printed nineteen times up to and including the

edition of 1546. Now in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève,

Paris.

LACTANTIUS 524

“De Divinis Institutionibus.” Page taken from the Sublacensi

1465 edition, called by Joannis Vogt _inter rariora

typographiae incunabula rarissimum_. In the Bibliothèque Sainte

Geneviève, Paris.

PEDRO NUÑEZ 530

“Traitte que le docteur P. Nunes fit sur certaines doubtes de

la Navigation.” Page 9 _verso_ of MS. Fr. No. 1338, now in the

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

FROM B.C. 2637 TO A.D. 1821

=B.C. 2637.=--This date has been conclusively shown to be the

earliest one at which history notes anything resembling the application

of the magnetic influence. It is related that, during this sixty-first

year of the reign of Hoang-ti (Yeou-hioung-che, also named Koung-fun

and Hiuen-yuen), the emperor’s troops, who were pursuing the rebellious

prince Tchéyeou (Tchi-yeou), lost their way, as well as the course

of the wind, and likewise the sight of their enemy, during the heavy

fogs prevailing in the plains of Tchou-lou. Seeing which, Hoang-ti

constructed a chariot upon which stood erect a prominent female figure

which indicated the four cardinal points, and which always turned to

the south whatever might be the direction taken by the chariot. Thus he

succeeded in capturing the rebellious prince, who was put to death.

Some say that upon this chariot stood a needle, to denote the four

parts of the world. That, states the French author writing in 1736,

would “indicate the use of the compass, or something very similar to it

... and it is unfortunate that the device has not been explained more

fully.”

REFERENCES.--Du Halde, “Description de la Chine ...,” La Haye,

1736. Vol. I. pp. 270–271; B.C. 2634, Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp.

33, 34, 71, 74, 76, 79, 82; Azuni, “Boussole,” Paris, 1809, pp.

186, 214; Staunton’s “China,” London, 1797, Vol. I. p. 446;

“Encycl. Metrop.,” Vol. III. p. 736; Buffon, “La Terre,” Vol. I.

p. 304; Davis, “The Chinese,” 1844, Vol. III. p. 14; Humboldt,

“Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. V. p. 51, for Ed. Biot in _Comptes Rendus_,

Vol. XIX. 1844, p. 822; Dr. A. T. Thompson, translation of

Salverte’s “Philosophy of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. chap. xi. p.

222 (note), wherein he alludes to Davies’ “Early History of

the Mariner’s Compass”; “British Annual,” 1837; Saillant et

Nyon, “Mémoires concernant l’Histoire,” Paris, 1788, Vol. XIII.

pp. 234–235, giving chronological tables of the history of

China, also p. 227 relative to Hoang-ti; P. Etienne Souciet,

“Observations,” Paris, 1732, Vol. II. pp. 94–95.

Hoang-ti (Hoang, supreme king), third in the “Period of the Five

Emperors” (Claude Augé, “Nouveau Larousse,” Vol. V. p. 134), regarded

as the founder of the Chinese Empire, died at the age of 121, after

reigning 100 years, B.C. 2598. Mailla (Joseph A. M. de Moyriac de)

in his “Histoire ... traduite du Thoung-Kian-Kang-Mou,” Paris, 1777,

Vol. I. p. 28, makes the latter date 2599, as do likewise, Dr. Hœfer

(“Nouvelle Biographie Générale,” Paris, 1858, Vol. XXIV. pp. 817–819)

and Pierre Larousse (“Grand Dict, du XIX^e Siècle,” 1873, Vol. IX. p.

317), but Michaud (“Biogr. Univer.,” 1857, Vol. XIX. pp. 476–477) says

he reigned from 2698 to 2577 B.C., and, in “La Grande Encyclop.,” Vol.

XX. pp. 157–158, we are told that the correct period is 2697–2597 B.C.

(“L’art de vérifier les dates,” Paris, 1819, Vol. IV. p. 8).

The above-named work of Jean Baptiste Du Halde on China is considered

the most complete account of that vast empire that has appeared in

Europe (“New Gen. Biogr. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. VIII. p. 175). In

any case, remarks Mr. Demetrius C. Boulger (“History of China,” London,

1881, Vol. I. pp. 4–5), it is incontestable that the individuality of

Hoang-ti, who was the successor of “Fo-hi,” the first great Chinese

emperor, is much more tangible than that of any of his predecessors.[1]

By him, it is well recorded that the extensive Chinese territory

(Empire) was divided into ten provinces, or _Chow_, each of which was

subdivided into ten departments, or _Tsee_, and these again into ten

districts, or _Tou_, each of them containing ten towns, or _Ye_.

=B.C. 1110.=--Tcheou-Koung is said to have at this date taught the

use of the needle compass to the envoys from Youa-tchang. “As the

ambassadors sent from Cochin China and Tonquin” (Humboldt, “Cosmos”

Vol. V. p. 51) “were about to take their departure” (which was in

the twenty-second cycle, more than 1040 years B.C.), “Tcheou-Koung

gave them an instrument which upon one side always turned toward the

north and on the opposite side to the south, the better to direct them

upon their homeward voyage.[2] This instrument was called _tchi-nan_

(chariot of the south), and it is still the name given to the compass,

which leads to the belief that Tcheou-Koung invented the latter.” In

his chapter on “The Magnetic Needle,” Humboldt says the apparatus was

called _fse-nan_ (indicator of the south).

Tcheou-Koung (Ki-tan) was Chinese Minister of State under both Von-Vang

(the first emperor of the Tcheou dynasty, who ruled seven years) and

Tsching-Vang (second emperor, who ruled thirty-seven years), and lived

to be 100 years old. He was one of the most learned and most popular

men China has ever known, and is spoken of to this day by the Chinese

“with an admiration bordering upon enthusiasm” (Saillant et Nyon,

“Mémoires concernant l’Histoire,” Paris, 1776, Vol. III. p. 37). The

emperor Tsching-Vang caused Tcheou-Koung’s body to be interred near his

father’s remains, after giving it imperial funeral honours.

REFERENCES.--Du Halde, “Description de la Chine ...,” La Haye,

1736, Vol. I. p. 312; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 81; Azuni,

“Boussole,” pp. 190–191; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” London, 1849, Vol.

II. p. 628, and Vol. V. p. 52.

=B.C. 1084.=--According to Æschylus, the father of the Athenian drama,

Agamemnon employed a line of optical signals to advise his queen

Clytemnestra of the fall of Troy. Robert Browning’s translation,

London, 1877, runs as follows:

“Troia, the Achaioi hold....

Hephaistos--sending a bright blaze from Idé

Beacon did beacon send, from fire the poster,

Hitherward: Idé to the rock Hermaian

Of Lemnos: and a third great torch o’ the island

Zeus’ seat received in turn, the Athoan summit.

And--so upsoaring as to stride sea over,

The strong lamp-voyager, and all for joyance--

Did the gold-glorious splendor, any sun like,

Pass on....”

Anna Swanwick thus renders Æschylus’ “Agamemnon,” London, 1881, p. 13:

“For Priam’s city have the Argives won.

* * * * *

Hephaestos sending forth Idaian fire.

Hither through swift relays of courier flame....”

At page 193 of his “Agamemnon,” London, 1873, E. H. Plumptre refers

to the system of posts or messengers which the Persian kings seem to

have been first to organize, and which impressed the minds of both the

Hebrews (Esther viii. 14) and the Greeks (Herod., viii. 98) by their

regular transmission of the king’s edicts or of special news.

What of the passage from the celebrated patriarch Job (xxxviii. 35):

“Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, ‘Here

we are?’” (original Hebrew, “Behold us”). As has been remarked, this

seems prophetic, when taken in connection with the electric telegraph.

The fire beacons are also alluded to by Plutarch in his Life of Quintus

Sertorius; and Mardonius prepared fire signals to notify Xerxes, then

at Sardis, of the second taking of Athens.

REFERENCES.--“Le Théâtre des Grecs,” P. Brumoy, Paris, 1820,

Vol. II. pp. 124–125; “Penny Encyc.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145;

Knight’s “Mechan. Dict.,” Vol. III. p. 2092.

For a decidedly original explanation of the beacon fires, read the

introduction to “The Agamemnon of Æschylus,” translated by A. W.

Verrall, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, England. See, likewise,

reference to Act of Scottish Parliament, 1455, c. 48, made by Walter

Scott in a note to his “Lay of the Last Minstrel”; “Archeologia,”

London, 1770, Vol. I. pp. i-7.

=B.C. 1068.=--In the obscure age of Codrus, the seventeenth and last

king of Athens, at about the period of the “Return of the Heraclidae”

(descendants of Heracles--Hercules) to the Peloponnesus, the Chinese

had magnetic carriages, upon which the movable arm of the figure of

a man continually pointed to the south, and which it is said served

as a guide by which to find the way across the boundless grass plains

of Tartary. Humboldt states, besides, that, even in the third century

of our era, Chinese vessels navigated the Indian Ocean under the

direction of magnetic needles pointing to the south, and that, at

pages xxxviii-xlii, Vol. I. of his “Asie Centrale,” he has shown what

advantages this means of topographical direction, as well as the early

knowledge and application of the magnetic needle, gave the Chinese

geographers over the Greeks and Romans, to whom, for instance, even

the true direction of the Pyrenees and the Apennines always remained

unknown.

REFERENCES.--Humboldt, “Cosmos,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 173,

also his “Examen Critique de l’histoire de la Géographie,” Vol.

III. p. 36; “Mœurs de Reg. Athen.,” lib. iii. cap. xi. For

Codrus and the Heraclidæ, consult: Chambers’ “Encycl.,” 1889,

Vol. III. p. 329 and Vol. V. 1890, p. 657; “Encycl. Britan.,”

9th ed., Edinburgh, Vol. VI. p. 107 and Vol. XI. p. 92; Hœfer,

“Nouv. Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XI. p. 29.

=B.C. 1033–975.=--Solomon, King of Israel, son of King David and

of Bathsheba, who, “in the Jewish scriptures, has the first place

assigned to him among the wise men of the East,” is believed by many

to have known the use of the compass. The Spanish Jesuit Pineda and

Athanasius Kircher assert the same, and state that Solomon’s subjects

employed it in their navigations. Others, notably Fuller, “Miscel.,”

iv. cap. 19, and Levinus Lemnius, “De Occulta Naturae Miracula,” lib.

iii, have even tried to prove that Solomon was the inventor of the

compass, and that it was in his time used by the Syrians, Sidonians

and Phœnicians, but the contrary has been shown by Henricus Kippingius

in his “Antiq. Rom. de exped. Mar.,” lib. iii. cap. 6, as well as by

Bochart, the geographer, in his “Géo. Sacr.,” lib. i. cap. 38.

REFERENCES.--Venanson, “Boussole,” Naples, 1808, p. 34; Enfield,

“History of Philosophy,” London, 1819, Vol. I. p. 40; Cavallo,

“Magnetism,” 1787, p. 48; Ronalds’ “Catal.,” 1880, articles

“Hirt” and “Michaelis,” pp. 246, 344.

=B.C. 1022.=--At this period the Chinese magnetic cars held a floating

needle, the motions of which were communicated to the figure of a

spirit whose outstretched hand always indicated the south. An account

of these cars is given in the “Szuki” (Shi-ki), or “Historical Memoirs

of Szu-ma-thsian” (Szu-matsien), which were written early in the second

century B.C., and are justly considered the greatest of all Chinese

historical works, containing, as they do, the history of China from the

beginning of the empire to the reign of Hiao-wou-ti, of the Han dynasty.

REFERENCES.--“Les peuples Orientaux,” Léon de Rosny, Paris,

1886, pp. 10, 168, 240; Johnson’s “Encyclopædia,” Vol. I. p.

929; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” Vol. II. 1849, p. 628; Klaproth,

“Boussole,” 1834, p. 79, for further allusion to a passage in

the Thoung-Kian-Kang-Mou, already referred to under date B.C.

2637.

=B.C. 1000–907.=--Homer, the greatest of epic poets, called the

father of Greek poetry, and who, according to Enfield (“History of

Philosophy,” Vol. I. p. 133), flourished before any other poet whose

writings are extant, relates that the loadstone was used by the Greeks

to direct navigation at the time of the siege of Troy.

The latter construction has been placed upon several passages in Homer,

the most important being found in Book VIII of the “Odyssey.”

As this appears to be the first attributed allusion to the compass, it

is deemed worth while to give herein several interpretations of the

original Greek. The selections made are as follows:

“In wond’rous ships, self-mov’d, instinct with mind;

No helm secures their course, no pilot guides;

Like man intelligent, they plough the tides.

* * * * *

Though clouds and darkness veil th’ encumber’d sky,

Fearless thro’ darkness and thro’ clouds they fly.”

Alexander Pope, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1818, p. 135.

“...; for here

In our Phæacian ships no pilots are,

Nor rudders, as in ships of other lands.

Ours know the thoughts and the intents of men.

To them all cities and all fertile coasts

Inhabited by men are known; they cross

The great sea scudding fast, involved in mist

And darkness, with no fear of perishing

Or meeting harm.”

Wm. Cullen Bryant, “The Odyssey of Homer,” Boston, 1875, Vol. I.

p. 174.

“For unto us no pilots appertain,

Rudder nor helm which other barks obey.

These ruled by reason, their own course essay

Sparing men’s mind ...

Sail in a fearless scorn of scathe or overthrow.”

Philip Stanhope Worsley, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1861,

Vol. I. p. 198.

“For all unlike the ships of other men,

Nor helm nor steersman have our country’s barks,

But of themselves they know the thoughts of men;

... and wrapped in gloom and mist

O’er the broad ocean gulfs they hold their course

Fearless of loss and shipwreck....”

Earl of Carnarvon, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1886, p. 201.

“These marvellous ships, endued with human sense, and

anticipating the will of their masters, flit unseen over the

sea.”--“Homer’s Odyssey,” by W. W. Merry and James Riddell,

Oxford, 1886, Vol. I. p. 353, note.

“That our ships in their minds may know it when they bring thee

hither to hand,

Because amidst us Phæacians, our ships no helmsmen steer,

Nor with us is any rudder like other ships must bear,

But our keels know the minds of menfolk, and their will they

understand,

* * * * *

And therewith exceeding swiftly over the sea-gulf do they go,

In the mist and the cloud-rack hidden....”

“The Odyssey of Homer,” translated by Wm. Morris, London, 1887,

p. 145.

The afore-named construction is not, however, alluded to by Matthew

Arnold in his well-known lectures given at Oxford, nor by the Right

Hon. Wm. Ewart Gladstone either in his “Juventus Mundi” or throughout

his very extensive “Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age.”

Sonnini tells us that as this period is about the same as that of the

Chinese chronicles, it can scarcely be doubted that the knowledge of

both the polarity of the needle and of the use of the compass for

navigation date back 3000 years (Buffon, “Terre,” Paris, An. VIII. p.

304).

This ill accords, however, with the views of others who have concluded,

perhaps rightly, that the Greeks, Romans, Tuscans and Phœnicians[3]

were ignorant of the directive property of the magnet, from the fact

that none of the writings, more especially of Theophrastus, Plato,

Aristotle, Lucretius and Pliny, make explicit allusion thereto.

REFERENCES.--Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 51; “Good

Words,” 1874, p. 70; Brumoy, “Théâtre des Grecs,” 1820, Vol. I.

p. 55; Pope’s translation of the “Iliad,” 1738, Vol. I. pp. 14,

20; Schaffner, “Telegraph Manual,” p. 19; also references under

both the A.D. 121 and the A.D. 265–419 dates.

=B.C. 600–580.=--Thales of Miletus, Ionia, one of the “seven wise men

of Greece” (the others being Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobolus

and Periander), founder of the Ionic philosophy, and from whose

school came Socrates, is said to have been the first to observe the

electricity developed by friction in amber.

Thales, Theophrastus, Solinus, Priscian and Pliny, as well as other

writers, Greek and Roman, mention the fact that when a vivifying heat

is applied to amber it will attract straws, dried leaves, and other

light bodies in the same way that a magnet attracts iron (“Photii

Bibliotheca” Rothomagi, 1653, folio, col. 1040–1041, cod. 242).

Robert Boyle (“Philosophical Works,” London, 1738, Vol. I. p. 506, or

London, 1744, Vol. III. p. 647) treats of different hypotheses advanced

to solve the phenomena of electrical attraction, saying: “The first

is that of the learned Nicholas Cabaeus (A.D. 1629), who thinks the

drawing of light bodies by amber ... is caused by the steams which

issue out of such bodies and discuss and expel the neighbouring air

... making small whirlwind.... Another is that of the eminent English

philosopher, Sir Kenelm Digby (A.D. 1644), and embraced by the very

learned Dr. Browne (A.D. 1646) and others, who believed that ... chafed

amber is made to emit certain rays of unctuous steams, which, when they

come to be a little cooled by the external air, are somewhat condensed

... carrying back with them those light bodies to which they happen to

adhere at the time of their retraction.... Pierre Gassendi (A.D. 1632)

thinks the same, and adds that these electrical rays ... get into the

pores of a straw ... and by means of their decussation take the faster

hold of it ... when they shrink back to the amber whence they were

emitted ... Cartesius (Descartes, A.D. 1644) accounts for electrical

attractions by the intervention of certain particles, shaped almost

like small pieces of riband, which he supposes to be formed of this

subtile matter harboured in the pores or crevices of glass.”

The ancients were acquainted with but two electrical bodies--amber

(_electron_), which has given the denomination of the science; and

_lyncurium_, which is either the tourmaline or the topaz (Dr. Davy,

“Mem. Sir Humphry Davy,” 1836, Vol. I. p. 309). From a recent article

treating of gems, the following is extracted: “The name of the precious

stone inserted in the ring of Gyges has not been handed down to us,

but it is probable that it was the topaz, whose wonders Philostratus

recounts in the Life of Apollonius. An attribute of the sun and of

fire, the ancients called it the _gold magnet_, as it was credited

with the power of attracting that metal, indicating its veins, and

discovering treasures. Heliodorus, in his story of Theagenes and

Caricles, says that the topaz saves from fire all those who wear it,

and that Caricles was preserved by a topaz from the fiery vengeance of

Arsaces, Queen of Ethiopia. This stone was one of the first talismans

that Theagenes possessed in Egypt. The topaz, at present, symbolizes

Christian virtues--faith, justice, temperance, gentleness, clemency.”

REFERENCES.--“Greek Thinkers,” by Theodor Gomperz, translation

of L. Magnus, London 1901, p. 532; Zahn at A.D. 1696; Joannes

Ruellius, “De Natura Stirpium,” 1536, p. 125; Paul Tannery,

“Pour l’Histoire de la Science Hellène,” Paris, 1887, chap. iii.

pp. 52–80; Becquerel, “Traité Expérimental,” Paris, 1834, Vol.

I. p. 33; Pliny, “Natural History,” Bostock and Riley, 1858,

book 37, chap. xii. p. 403; Pline, “Histoire Naturelle,” 1778,

livre 37, chapitre iii.; Lardner, “Lectures,” 1859, Vol. I. p.

104; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. I. p. 182; Poggendorff,

XI. p. 1088; Apuleius, Floridor, p. 361; Plato; Timæus, The

Locrian; “De Anima Mundi ...,” 12, 15; Pauli (Adrian), Dantzig,

1614; Ulysses Aldrovandus, “Musaeum Metallicum,” pp. 411–412;

Aurifabrum (Andreas), “Succini Historia,” ... Königsberg,

1551–1561; and, for the different names given to amber and the

magnet by the ancients, consult, more especially, the numerous

authorities cited by M. Th. Henri Martin (“Mém. présenté à

l’Académie des Inscrip. et Belles Lettres,” première partie,

Vol. VI. pp. 297–329, 391–411, Paris, 1860); J. Matthias

Gessner, “De Electro Veterum” (Com. Soc. Reg. Sc. Gött., Vol.

III for 1753, p. 67); Louis Delaunay, “Minér. des Anciens,” Part

2, p. 125 (Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 540); Philip Jacob Hartmann,

in _Phil. Trans._, Vol. XXI. No. 248, pp. 5, 49, also in

Baddam’s Abridgments, Vol. III, first edition, 1739, pp. 322–366.

=B.C. 600.=--The Etruscans are known to have devoted themselves at

this period to the study of electricity in an especial manner.[4]

They are said to have attracted lightning by shooting arrows of metal

into clouds which threatened thunder. Pliny even asserts that they

had a secret method of not only “drawing it (the lightning) down”

from the clouds, but of afterwards “turning it aside” in any desired

direction. They recognized different sources of lightning, those

coming from the sky (_a sideribus venientia_), which always struck

obliquely, and others from the earth (_infera_, _terrena_), which rose

perpendicularly. The Romans, on the other hand, recognized only two

sorts, those of the day, attributed to Jupiter, and those of the night,

attributed to Summanus (see Vassalli-Eandi at A.D. 1790).

This Vassalli-Eandi--like L. Fromondi--made special study of the very

extensive scientific knowledge displayed by the ancients and, as shown

in his “Conghietture ...” he concluded that they really possessed the

secret of attracting and directing lightning. The above-named extracts

concerning the Etruscans and Romans are made from the subjoined work of

Mme. Blavatsky, wherein the following is likewise given.

Tradition says that Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, was

initiated by the priests of the Etruscan divinities, and instructed by

them in the secret of forcing Jupiter, the Thunderer, to descend upon

earth. Salverte believes that before Franklin discovered his refined

electricity, Numa had experimented with it most successfully, and that

Tullus Hostilius, the successor of Numa, was the first victim of the

dangerous “heavenly guest” recorded in history. Salverte remarks that

Pliny makes use of expressions which seem to indicate two distinct

processes; the one obtained thunder (_impetrare_), the other forced

it to lightning (_cogere_). Tracing back the knowledge of thunder and

lightning possessed by the Etruscan priests, we find that Tarchon,

the founder of the theurgism of the former, desiring to preserve his

house from lightning, surrounded it by a hedge of the white bryony, a

climbing plant which has the property of averting thunderbolts. The

Temple of Juno had its roofs covered with numerous pointed blades of

swords. Ben David, says the author of “Occult Sciences,” has asserted

that Moses (born about 1570 B.C.) possessed some knowledge of the

phenomena of electricity. Prof. Hirt, of Berlin, is of this opinion.

Michaelis remarks that there is no indication that lightning ever

struck the Temple of Jerusalem during a thousand years: that, according

to Josephus, a forest of points, of gold and very sharp, covered the

roof of the temple, and that this roof communicated with the caverns in

the hill by means of pipes in connection with the gilding which covered

all the exterior of the building, in consequence of which the points

would act as conductors. Salverte further asserts that in the days of

Ctesias--Ktesias--India was acquainted with the use of conductors of

lightning. This historian plainly states that iron placed at the bottom

of a fountain, and made in the form of a sword, with the point upward,

possessed, as soon as it was thus fixed in the ground, the property of

averting storms and lightning.

“Ancient India, as described by Ktesias, the Knidian,” J. H. McCrindle,

London, 1882, alludes, p. 68, to iron swords employed to ward off

lightning. Reference is made to the _pantarbe_ at pp. 7–8, 69–70,

and to the _elektron_ (amber) at pp. 20, 21, 23, 51, 52, 70, 86. See

account of Ktesias in “Nouvelle Biogr. Génér.,” Vol. XII. pp. 568–571,

and in “Larousse Dict.,” Vol. V. p. 614.

In his “Observations sur la Physique,” Vols. XXIV. pp. 321–323,

XXV. pp. 297–303, XXVI. pp. 101–107, M. l’Abbé Rosier gives the

correspondence between M. de Michaelis, Professor at Göttingen, and Mr.

Lichtenberg, showing conclusively how the numerous points distributed

over the surface of the roof of the Temple of Solomon effectively

served as lightning conductors. Mr. Lichtenberg in addition shows that

the bell tower located upon a hill at the country seat of Count Orsini

de Rosenberg, was, during a period of several years, so repeatedly

struck by lightning, with great loss of life, that divine service had

to be suspended in the church. The tower was entirely destroyed in 1730

and soon after rebuilt, but it was struck as often as ten times during

one prolonged storm, until finally a fifth successive attack, during

the year 1778, compelled its demolition. For the third time the tower

was reconstructed, and the Count placed a pointed conductor, since

which time no damage has been sustained.

REFERENCES.--Mme. Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” 1877, Vol. I. pp.

142, 457, 458, 527, 528, and her references to Ovid, “Fast,”

lib. iii. v. 285–346; Titus Livius, lib. i. cap. 31; Pliny,

“Hist. Nat.,” lib. ii. cap. 53 and lib. xxviii. cap. 2; Lucius

Calp, Piso; Columella, lib. x. v. 346, etc.; La Boissière,

“Notice sur les Travaux de l’Académie du Gard,” part I. pp.

304–314; “Bell. Jud. adv. Roman,” lib. v. cap. 14; “Magas. Sc.

de Göttingen,” 3^e année 5^e cahier; Ktesias, in “India ap.

Photum. Bibl. Cod.,” 72. See also, De La Rive, “Electricity,”

London, 1858, Vol. III, chap. ii. p. 90; “Encycl. Brit.,” 8th

ed., article “Electricity”; Lardner, “Lectures,” II. p. 99;

Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 502–504; Boccalini,

“Parnassus,” Century I. chap. xlvi. alluded to at p. 24, Vol.

I. of Miller’s “Retrospect”; Gouget, “Origin of Laws,” Vol.

III. book 3; Themistius, Oratio 27, p. 337; “Agathias Myrenaeus

de rebus gestis Justiniani,” lib. v. p. 151; Dutens, “Origine

des découvertes ...”; “Gentleman’s Magazine” for July 1785, p.

522; Falconer, “Mem. of Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester,” Vol

III. p. 278; “Sc. Amer.,” No. 7. p. 99; E. Salverte, “Phil. of

Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. chaps. viii. and ix.; “Fraser’s Magazine”

for 1839; H. Martin, Paris, 1865–6; P. F. von Dietrich, Berlin,

1784.

[Illustration: Caius Plinius Secundus. Page taken from

earliest known edition of the Naturalis Historiae Venetiis

1469, of which there are only three known original vellum

copies. These are now at Vienna, Ravenna and in the

Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.]

[Illustration: Title page of Aristotle’s “De Naturali

Auscultatione,” Paris 1542. The property of Dr. William

Gilberd, when at Cambridge, inscribed with his name and

that of Archdeacon Thomas Drant. (From the Library of Dr.

Silvanus. P. Thompson.)]

=B.C. 588.=--The earliest reliable record of messages transmitted

by the _sign of fire_ is to be found in the book of Jeremiah, vi.

1: “O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the

midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign

of fire in Beth-haccerem; for evil appeareth out of the north and

great destruction.”

REFERENCES.--Turnbull, “Electro-magnetic Telegraph,” 1853, p.

17; Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. III. p. 2092; Penny and other

Encyclopædias.

=B.C. 341.=--Aristotle, Greek philosopher, says (“Hist. of

Anim.,” IX. 37) that the electrical _torpedo_ causes or produces

a torpor upon those fishes it is about to seize, and, having by that

means got them into its mouth, feeds upon them. The _torpedo_ is

likewise alluded to, notably by (Claudius) Plutarch, the celebrated

Greek moralist, by Dioscorides, Pedacius, Greek botanist, referred to

in Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps. i, ii, and xiv; by Galen,

illustrious Roman physician, who is also frequently alluded to in “De

Magnete,” and by Claudius Claudian, Latin poet, who flourished at

the commencement of the fifth century. Oppian describes (“Oppian’s

Halieuticks of the nature of fishes and fishing of the ancients in five

books,” lib. ii. v. 56, etc., also lib. iii. v. 149) the organs by

which the animal produces the above effect, and Pliny (“Nat. Hist.,”

Book 32, chap. i) says: “This fish, if touched by a rod or spear, at

a distance paralyzes the strongest muscles, and binds and arrests the

feet, however swift.”

“The very crampe-fish _tarped_, knoweth her owne force and power,

and being herself not benummed, is able to astonish others” (Holland

“Plinie,” Book IX. chap. xlii.).

“We, here, and in no other place, met with that extraordinary fish

called the _torpedo_, or numbing fish, which is in shape very like

the fiddle fish, and is not to be known from it but by a brown circular

spot about the bigness of a crown-piece near the centre of its back”

(Ausonius, “Voyages,” Book II. chap. xii.).

REFERENCES.--“Encycl. Metr.,” IV. p. 41; “Encycl. Brit.,”

article “Electricity”; Jos. Wm. Moss, “A Manual of Classical

Biography,” London, 1837, Vol. I. pp. 105–186, for all the

Aristotle’s treatises, also Commentaries and Translations;

Jourdain (Charles et Amable), “Recherches ... traductions

latines d’Aristotle,” Paris, 1843; Fahie, “Hist. of Elec.

Teleg.,” p. 170; “Sci. Amer.,” No. 457, pp. 7301, 7302;

“Aristotle,” by Geo. Grote, London, 1872; Humboldt, “Cosmos,”

1859–1860, Vols. I and II _passim_, Vol. III. pp. 13–15, 29–30,

124; “Journal des Savants,” for Feb. 1861, March and May 1872,

also for Feb., May and Sept. 1893.

Aristotle is alluded to in Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” at Book I.

chaps. i. ii. vii. xv. xvi. xvii.; Book II. chaps. i.[5] iii.

iv.; Book V. chap. xii.; Book VI, chaps. iii. v. vi.

=B.C. 341.=--Æneas, the tactician, believed to be the same Æneas

of Stymphale alluded to by Xenophon, invented a singular method of

telegraphing phrases commonly used, especially in war. These were

written upon exactly similar oblong boards placed at the dispatching

and receiving stations, where they stood upon floats in vessels of

water. At a given signal the water was allowed to flow out of the

vessel at each station, and, when the desired phrase on the board had

reached the level of the vessel, another signal was made so that the

outflow could be stopped and the desired signal read at the receiving

station.

REFERENCES.--Laurencin, “Le Télégraphe,” Chap. I; “Penny

Encycl.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145; “Michaud Bio.,” Paris, 1855, Vol.

XII. pp. 459–460.

=B.C. 337–330.=--From the well-known work by Mme. Blavatsky (“Isis

Unveiled,” New York, 1877) the following curious extracts are made

regarding “The Ether or Astral Light” (Vol. I. chap. v. pp. 125–162):

“There has been an infinite confusion of names to express one and

the same thing, amongst others, the Hermes-fire, the lightning of

Cybelè, the nerve-aura and the fluid of the magnetists, the od of

Reichenbach, the fire-globe, or meteor-_cat_ of Babinet, the physic

force of Sergeant Cox and Mr. Crookes, the atmospheric magnetism of

some naturalists, galvanism, and finally, electricity, which are but

various names for many different manifestations or effects of the same

all-pervading causes--the Greek Archeus....” Only in connection with

these _discoveries_ (Edison’s Force and Graham Bell’s Telephone, which

may unsettle, if not utterly upset all our ideas of the imponderable

fluids) we may perhaps well remind our readers of the many hints to be

found in the ancient histories as to a certain secret in the possession

of the Egyptian priesthood, who could instantly communicate, during

the celebration of the Mysteries, from one temple to another, even

though the former were at Thebes and the latter at the other end of

the country; the legends attributing it, as a matter of course, to

the “invisible tribes” of the air which carry messages for mortals.

The author of “Pre-Adamite Man” (P. B. Randolph, at p. 48) quotes

an instance, which, being merely given on his own authority, and he

seeming uncertain whether the story comes from Macrinus or some other

writer, may be taken for what it is worth. He found good evidence, he

says, during his stay in Egypt, that one of the Cleopatras actually

sent news by a wire to all of the cities from Heliopolis (the

magnificent chief seat of sun-worship) to the island of Elephantine, on

the Upper Nile.

Further on, Mme. Blavatsky thus alludes to the loadstone:

“The stone magnet is believed by many to owe its name to Magnesia....”

We consider, however, the opinion of the Hermetists to be the correct

one. The word _magh_, _magus_, is derived from the Sanscrit _mahaji_,

meaning the great or wise ... so the magnet stone was called in honour

of the Magi, who were the first to discover its wonderful properties.

Their places of worship were located throughout the country in all

directions, and among these were some temples of Hercules, hence

the stone--when it became known that the priests used it for their

curative and magical purposes--received the name of Magnesian or

Herculean stone. Socrates, speaking of it, says: “Euripides calls it

the Magnesian stone, but the common people the Herculean” (Plato,

“Ion”--Burgess--Vol. IV. p. 294). In the same Vol. I. of “Isis

Unveiled” we are likewise informed that Electricity in the Norse

legends is personated by Thor, the son of Odin, at Samothrace by the

Kabeirian Demeter (Joseph Ennemoser, “History of Magic,” London,

1854, Vol. II.; J. S. C. Schweigger, “Introd. to Mythol. through Nat

Hist.,” Halle, 1836), and that it is denoted by the “twin brothers,”

the Dioskuri. Also that the _celestial_, pure fire of the Pagan altar

was electrically drawn from the astral light, that magnetic currents

develop themselves into electricity upon their exit from the body, and

that the first inhabitants of the earth brought down the heavenly fire

to their altars (J. S. C. Schweigger in Ennemoser’s “Hist. of Magic,”

Vol. II. p. 30; Maurus Honoratus Servius, “Virgil,” Eclog. VI. v. 42).

=B.C. 321.=--Theophrastus, Greek philosopher, first observed the

attractive property of the _lyncurium_, supposed by many to be the

_tourmaline_, and gave a description of it in his treatise upon stones

(“De Lapidibus,” sec. 53; or the translation of Sir John Hill, 1774,

chap. xlix.-l., p. 123). This crystal was termed _lapis lyncurius_ by

Pliny in his “Nat. Hist.,” and _lapis electricus_ by Linnæus in his

“Flora Zeylanica” (U. Aldrovandus, “Mus. Metal.”; Philemon Holland,

“The Historie of the World,” commonly called “The Naturall Historie of

C. Plinius Secundus,” London, 1601).

Theophrastus and Pliny speak of this native magnet as possessing, like

amber, the property of attracting straw, dried leaves, bark and other

light bodies. The different sorts of loadstones, of which the best were

blue in colour (as stated by Taisnier, Porta, Barthol. de Glanville and

others), are thus alluded to by Pliny (“Nat. Hist.,” lib. xxxvi. cap.

16): “Sotacus describes five kinds: the Æthiopian; that of Magnesia, a

country which borders on Macedonia; a third from Hyettus, in Boetia; a

fourth from Alexandria, in Troas; and a fifth from Magnesia, in Asia”

(Porta, “Natural Magick,” Book VII. chap. i.). He further says that

iron cannot resist it; “the moment the metal approaches it, it springs

toward the magnet, and, as it clasps it, is held fast in the magnet’s

embrace.” It is by many called _ferrum vivum_, or quick iron.[6]

Claudian speaks of it as “a stone which is preferred to all that is

most precious in the East.... Iron gives it life and nourishes it”

(Claudian, Idyl V; Ennemoser, “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 27).

Hippocrates, the father of medical science, calls it “the stone which

carries away iron.”

Epicurus, an Athenian of the Ægean tribe, says: “The _loadstone or

magnet_ attracts iron, because the particles which are continually

flowing from it, as from all bodies, have such a peculiar fitness in

form to those which flow from iron that, upon collision, they easily

unite.... The mutual attraction of _amber_ and like bodies may be

explained in the same manner.”

Hier. Cardan intimates that “it is a certain appetite or desire

of nutriment that makes the loadstone snatch the iron....” (“De

Subtilitate,” Basileæ, 1611, lib. vii. p. 381).

Diogenes of Apollonia (lib. ii. “Nat. Quæst.,” cap. xxiii.) says that

“there is humidity in iron which the dryness of the magnet feeds upon.”

Cornelius Gemma supposed invisible lines to stretch from the magnet to

the attracted body, a conception which, says Prof. Tyndall, reminds us

of Faraday’s lines of force.

Lucretius accounts for the adhesion of the steel to the loadstone by

saying that on the surface of the magnet there are hooks, and, on the

surface of the steel, little rings which the hooks catch hold of.

Thales, Aristotle, Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ and the Greek sophist

Hippias, ascribe the loadstone’s attractive virtue to the _soul_ with

which they say it is endowed. Humboldt (“Cosmos,” article on the

Magnetic Needle) says _soul_ signifies here “the inner principle of

the moving agent,” and he adds in a footnote: “Aristotle (“De Anima,”

I. 2) speaks only of the animation of the magnet as of an opinion that

originated with Thales.” Diogenes Laertius interprets this statement as

applying also distinctly to amber, for he says: “Aristotle and Hippias

maintain as to the doctrine enounced by Thales.”

The native magnet appears to have long been known in nearly every

quarter of the globe (Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. V., and Harris,

“Rudimentary Magnetism,” Parts I and II).

In the Talmud, it is called _achzhàb’th_, the stone which attracts;

in the Aztec, _tlaihiomani tetl_, the stone that draws by its breath;

in the Sanscrit, _ayaskânta_, loving toward iron; in the Siamese,

_me-lek_, that which attracts iron; in the Chinese, _thsu-chy_, love

stone, also _hy-thy-chy_, stone that snatches up iron; in the French,

_l’aimant_, and in the Spanish, _iman_, loving stone; in the Hungarian,

_magnet kö_, love stone; while in the Greek it is called _siderites_,

owing to its resemblance to iron.

For _lyncurium_ of the ancients see _Phil. Trans._, Vol. LI. p. 394,

and Hutton’s “Abridgments,” Vol. XI. p. 419.

Euripides (“Fragmenta Euripidis,” Didot edit., 1846, p. 757) called it

_lapis herculaneus_, from its power over iron, and it was also known as

_lapis heracleus_, doubtless because the best was, at one time, said

to be found near Heraclea in Lydia (Plato, “Ion”--Burgess--Vol. IV. p.

294; see, besides, Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I. p. 130; Hervart

(J. F.), Ingolstadii, 1623).

It has likewise been designated as follows: Chinese, _tchu-chy_,

directing stone; Icelandic, _leiderstein_, leading stone; Swedish,

_segel-sten_, seeing stone; Tonkinin, _d’ànamtchûm_, stone which shows

the south; and, by reason of its great hardness, the Greeks called

it _calamita_; the Italians _calamita_; the French _calamite_, also

_diamant_; the Hebrews _khalamish_ or _kalmithath_, and the Romans

_adamas_, while _adamant_ was the name given to the magnetic needle

(compass) by the English of the time of Edward III (T. H. H. Martin,

“De l’aimant, de ses noms divers et de ses variétés,” Paris, 1861;

Buttmann, “Bemerkungen ... des Magnetes und des Basaltes,” 1808, Band

II.; G. A. Palm, “Der Magnet in Alterthum,” 1867).[7]

“This stone adamas is dyuers and other than an Magnas, for yf an adamas

be sette by yren it suffryth not the yren come to the magnas, but

drawyth it by a manere of vyolence fro the magnas” (Trevisa, “Barth, de

Prop, reb.,” XVI. 8).[8]

“The adamant cannot draw yron if the diamond lye by it” (Lyly,

“Euphues,” sig. K. p. 10).

“Right as an adamound, iwys, can drawen to hym sotylly the yren” (“Rom.

Rose”).

“In Ynde groweth the admont stone ... she by her nature draweth to her

yron” (Caxton, “Myrrour,” II. vii. 79).

“The adamant placed neare any iron will suffer it to be drawen away of

the lode stone” (Maplet, “Greene Forest,” I.).

“You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant; but yet you draw not iron; for

my heart is true as steel” (Shakespeare, “Midsum. Night’s Dream,” Act.

ii. sc. 1).

“As sun to day, as turtle to her mate, as iron to adamant”

(Shakespeare, “Troilus and Cressida,” Act iii. sc. 2).

“The grace of God’s spirit, like the true load stone or adamant, draws

up the yron heart of man to it” (Bishop Hall, “Occas. Medit.,” 52.).

“The adamant ... is such an enemy to the magnet that, if it be bound to

it, it will not attract iron” (Leonardus, “Mirr. Stones,” 63).

According to Beckmann (Bohn, 1846, pp. 86–98) the real _tourmaline_ was

first brought from Ceylon (where the natives called it _tournamal_),

at the end of the seventeenth century or beginning of the eighteenth

century (see A.D. 1707).

It is classed by Pliny as a variety of carbuncle (lib. xxxvii. cap.

vii.). John de Laet says (“De Gemmis,” 1647, 8vo, p. 155): “The

description of the _lyncurium_ does not ill agree with the hyacinth of

the moderns.” Watson thinks likewise (“Phil. Trans.,” Vol. LI. p. 394)

and so does John Serapion-Serapio Mauritanus--Yuhanna Ibn Serapion Ben

Ibrahim (alluded to by Gilbert, “De Magnete,” Book I. chap. i.) in his

“Lib. de simplicibus medicinis,” Argent. 1531, fol. p. 263; and Anselm

Boèce de Boot, Flemish naturalist (“Gem. et Lap. Hist.,” Leyden, 1636);

while Epiphanius (“De Gemmis,” XII.) states that he could find in the

Bible no mention of the _lyncurium_, which latter he also believes to

have been the hyacinth. On the other hand, the Duke de Noya Caraffa

(“Recueil de Mém. Æpinus,” Petersb. 1762, 8vo, p. 122) considers the

_tourmaline_ to be identical with the _theamedes_ of the ancients

(Pliny, lib. xx. 50, and xxxvi., 25; Cardan, “De Subtilitate,” lib.

vii. p. 386).

The _betylos_ has doubtless been likewise named in this connection.

Strabo, Pliny, Helancius--all speak of the electrical or

electro-magnetic power of the betyli. They were worshipped in the

remotest antiquity in Egypt and Samothrace as magnetic stones

“containing souls which had fallen from heaven,” and the priests

of Cybelè wore a small _betylos_ on their bodies (Blavatsky, “Isis

Unveiled,” Vol. I. p. 332).

REFERENCES.--Enfield, “Dict. Phil.,” I. 152: Marbodeus Gallus,

1530–1531 Friburg, pp. 41 and 1539, Cologne, p. 39; Bostock’s

“Pliny,” Book XXXVII. chap. xii.; Azuni, “Boussole,” 1809, p.

37; Venanson, “De l’invention de la Boussole Nautique,” Naples,

1808, pp. 27–29; Thomas, “Sc. An.,” 1837, p. 250. See also

De Noya, “Encycl. Brit.,” 1855, VIII. p. 529, and Priestley,

“History of Electricity,” 1775, p. 293; A. Cæsalpini, “De

Metallicis,” Romæ, 1596; Th. Browne, “Pseudodoxia Epidemica,”

1650, p. 51; St. Isidore, “Originum,” lib. xvi. cap. 4; Corn.

Gemma, “De Natura Divinis,” lib. i. cap. 7; Alb. Magnus, “De

Mineral.,” lib. ii.; Joseph Ennemoser, “History of Magic,”

Vol. II. pp. 27, 29, 51; Julius Solinus, “De Mirabilibus,”

cap. 34; Johann S. T. Gehler, “Physik. Wörterbuch,” article

“Magnetismus”; Joannes Langius, “Epistolarum Med.,” Epist.

lxxv. For extract of Serapio’s work see Fernel’s “Coll. ...

Greek Writers,” 1576. Consult likewise “Collection des anciens

Alchimistes Grecs,” par M. Marcellin Berthelot, Paris, 1887, p.

252: _siderites_, _aimant_ ou _magnes_, _ferrum vivum_, mâle et

femelle--with references to Dioscorides, Pliny and Lexicon Alch.

Rulandi.

For Pliny, see also “Manual of Classical Biography,” by Jos. Wm.

Moss, London, 1837, Vol. I. pp. 473–504.

“For lyke as ye lodestone draweth vnto it yron: so doeth

beneficence and well doyng allure all men vnto her.”--Udal.

Markè, c. 5.

=B.C. 285–247.=--Ptolemy (Ptolemæus II, surnamed _Philadelphus_, or

the brother-loving, son of Ptolemy _Soter_) ordered Timochares, the

architect of the palace, to suspend the iron statue of Arsinoë in the

temple of Pharos.

Although Pliny says (lib. xxxiv. cap. 14) that the statue was never

completed owing to the death of both Ptolemy and his architect,

Ausonius (Decimus Magnus), Roman poet (A.D. 309–393), asserts

the contrary in his most important work, “Mosella” (vv. 314–320),

translation of Mr. de la Ville de Mirmont, the first edition of

which was published by Ugollet at Venice in 1499. Therein it is

said: “Timochares (and not Dinochares, Dinocrates, Demochrates or

Chirocrates) suspended the statue in mid-air (_dans les hauteurs

aëriennes du temple_).... Under the ceiling-vault crowned with

loadstones, a bluish magnet draws, by means of an iron hair, the young

woman it holds in its embrace.”

“Dinocrates began to make the arched roofe of the temple of Arsinoë all

of magnet, or this loadstone, to the end, that within that temple the

statue of the said princesse made of yron, might seeme to hang in the

aire by nothing” (Holland, “Plinie,” Book XXXIV. cap. 14).

King Theodoric alludes (Cassiodor, “Variar,” lib. i. epist. 45) to a

statue of Cupid in the temple of Diana at Ephesus (one of the seven

Wonders of the World), and St. Augustine (“De Civitate Dei,” XXI. 6)

speaks of a bronze figure in the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, both

suspended by means of a magnet attached to the ceiling.[9]

REFERENCES.--De Mirmont, “La Moselle,” 1889, “Commentaire,”

pp. 93 and 95; St. Isidore, “Originum,” lib. xvi. cap. 4; G.

Cedrinus, “Compend. Hist.,” cap. 267; Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,”

Vol. II. p. 1370; Knight’s “Cyclopædia,” Vol. I. p. 363; J.

Ennemoser, “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 35; Ath. Kircher,

“Magnes,” 1643, lib. ii. prob. vi.; Dinochares, with translation

of poem (Claudian, Idyl V) at pp. 61–62 of “Antique Gems,” by

Rev. C. W. King, London, 1866; Vincent de Beauvais, “Spec.

Mai,” Douai, 1624, Vol. I., lib. viii. cap. 34; Alb. Magnus,

“De Mineralibus,” 1651, lib. ii. cap. 6, p. 243; Ausonio

Lucius Ampelius, “Lib. Memorialis,” Paris, 1827, cap. viii.;

T. H. Martin, “Observ. et Théories,” 1865, pp. 5–7; Thos.

Browne, “Pseud. Epidem.,” 1658, Book II. p. 79; W. Barlowe’s

“Magneticall Advertisements,” 1616, p. 45; “Simonis Maioli ...

dies Caniculares, seu Colloqui, XXIII,” 1597, P. 782; Ruffinus,

“Prosper d’Aquitaine”; Porta, “Magia Naturalis,” lib. vii.

cap. 27; “Mosella,” in Wernsdorf’s “Poetæ Latini Minores”; E.

Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. p. 215.

=B.C. 200.=--Polybius, a Greek statesman and historian, describes (lib.

x. cap. 45, “General History”) his optical telegraph--_pyrsia_--because

the signals were invariably produced by means of fire-lights--an

unquestionable improvement upon the modes of communication which had

been previously suggested by Cleoxenes and Democritus. It consisted of

a board upon which the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet were

arranged in five columns, one space being vacant. The party signalling

would hold up with his left hand a number of torches indicating the

column from which the desired letter was to be taken, while in the

right hand he would hold up to view as many torches as were necessary

to designate the particular letter required.

REFERENCES.--Rollin’s “Ancient History, 9th Dundee,” Vol VI.

p. 321; “Emporium of Arts and Sciences,” Vol. I. pp. 296–299;

“Penny Encycl.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145. A good cut of the Polybius

telegraph will be found at p. 2 of “Wireless Telegraphy,” by Wm.

Maver, Jr., New York, 1904, and a very detailed account of all

known fire signals is given at pp. 148 and 373, Vol. IV of “The

History of Herodotus,” by Geo. Rawlinson, London, 1880.

=B.C. 60–56.=--Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus), Roman poet, alludes

to the magnet in his poem “De Rerum Natura” (“The Nature of Things”),

thus translated by Dr. Thomas Busby, London, 1813, Book VI. vv.

1045–1059:

“Now, chief of all, the Magnet’s powers I sing,

And from what laws the attractive functions spring.

(The Magnet’s name the observing Grecians drew

From the Magnet’s region where it grew.)

Its viewless, potent, virtues men surprise;

Its strange effects they view with wondering eyes,

When without aid of hinges, links or springs,

A pendent chain we hold of steely rings,

Dropt from the stone; the stone the binding source,

Ring cleaves to ring, and owns magnetic force;

Those held superior those below maintain;

Circle ’neath circle downward draws in vain,

While free in air disports the oscillating chain.

So strong the Magnet’s virtue as it darts

From ring to ring and knits the attracted parts.”

A rendering by Thomas Creech, A.M., London, 1714, Book VI. vv. 894–989,

likewise deserves reproduction here:

“Now sing my muse, for ’tis a weighty cause.

Explain the Magnet, why it strongly draws,

And brings rough Iron to its fond embrace.

This, Men admire; for they have often seen

Small Rings of Iron, six, or eight, or ten,

Compose a subtile chain, no Tye between;

But, held by this, they seem to hang in air,

One to another sticks and wantons there;

So great the Loadstone’s force, so strong to bear!

* * * * *

First, from the MAGNET num’rous Parts arise,

And swiftly move; the STONE gives vast supplies;

Which, springing still in Constant Streams, displace

The neighb’ring air and make an EMPTY SPACE;

So when the STEEL comes there, some PARTS begin

To leap on through the VOID and enter in.

* * * * *

The STEEL will move to seek the STONE’S embrace,

Or up or down, or t’ any other place,

Which way soever lies the EMPTY SPACE.”

The transmission of the magnetic attraction through rings or chains

is also alluded to in Plato’s “Ion,” p. 533, D. E. Ed. Stephanus; by

Pliny, lib. xxxiv. cap. 14; St. Augustine, “De Civitate Dei,” XX.

4; Philo, “De Mundi Opificio,” D. ed., 1691, p. 32; likewise by the

learned Bishop Hall, “The English Seneca,” as follows: “That the

loadstone should by his secret virtue so drawe yron to it selfe that a

whole chaine of needles should hang by insensible points at each other,

only by the influence that it sends downe from the first, if it were

not ordinary, would seeme incredible” (“Meditations,” 1640, con. 3,

par. 18).

REFERENCES.--“Le Journal des Savants” for January 1824, p. 30.

also for March 1833, June 1866 and December 1869; Plutarch,

“Platon. Quæst.,” Vol. II. p. 1004, ed. par.; St. Isidore,

“Etymologiarum, Originum,” lib. xvi., iv.; the Timæus (Bohn,

1849, Vol. II. p. 394); Platonis, “Io,” Lugduni, 1590, pp. 145,

146; “Houzeau et Lancaster, Bibliographie Générale,” Vol. I.

part i. pp. 440–442; Geo. Burgess, tr. of Plato’s “Ion,” London,

1851, Vol. IV. pp. 294–295 and notes.

=A.D. 50.=--Scribonius Largus, Designationus, Roman physician, relates

(Chaps. I. and XLI. of his “De Compositione Med. Medica”) that a

freedman of Tiberius called Anthero was cured of the gout by shocks

received from the electric _torpedo_, and Dioscorides advises the same

treatment for inveterate pains of the head (“Torpedo,” lib. ii.).

Other applications are alluded to by Galen (“Simp. Medic.,” lib. xi.;

Paulus Ægineta, “De Re Medica,” lib. vii.; “Encycl. Met.,” article

“Electricity,” IV. p. 41). See also Bertholon, “Elec. du Corps Humain,”

1786, Vol. I. p. 174.

Fahie states (“History of Electric Telegraphy,” p. 172) that, along

the banks of the Old Calabar River, in Africa, the natives employ the

electrical properties of the _gymnotus_ for the cure of their sick

children. They either place the ailing child close by the vessel of

water containing the animal, or the child is made to play with a very

small specimen of the fish.

REFERENCES.--“La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XXIX. p. 831; Humboldt,

“Voyage Zoologique,” p. 88; “New Gen. Biogr.,” London, 1850,

Vol. XI. p. 501; “Larousse Dict.,” Vol. XIV. p. 427; “Hœfer

Biogr.,” Vol. XLIII. p. 654.

=A.D. 121.=--The Chinese knew of old the magnet, its attractive force

and its polarity, but the most ancient record made of the peculiar

property possessed by the loadstone of communicating polarity to iron

is explicitly mentioned in the celebrated dictionary “Choue-Wen,” which

Hin-tchin completed in A.D. 121, the fifteenth year of the reign of the

Emperor Ngan-ti of the Han dynasty.

This dictionary contains a description of the manner in which the

property of pointing with one end toward the south may be imparted to

an iron rod by a series of methodical blows, and alludes to (“Tseu”)

the “stone with which a direction can be given to the needle.”

“In Europe it has been thought that the needle had its chief tendency

to the north pole; but in China the south alone is considered as

containing the attractive power” (Sir G. Staunton, “Account of an

Embassy,” London, 1797, Vol. I. p. 445).

Le Père Gaubil, who was sent to China in 1721 and died in Pekin 1759,

says (“Histoire ... de la dynastie de Tang,” in “Mémoires concernant

...” Vol. XV) that he found, in a work written towards the end of the

Han dynasty, the use of the compass distinctly marked to distinguish

the north and the south. He also states, though doubtless erroneously,

that that form was given it under the reign of Hian-Tsoung.

With reference to the magnetic attraction to the pole, it is well to

bear in mind that no allusion whatsoever is made thereto by any of the

writers of classical antiquity. This much has already been stated under

date B.C. 1000–907. It certainly appears to have escaped the attention

of the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose admiration, according to the

learned French physician Falconet (“Dissert. Hist. et Crit.”), was

excited solely by the attractive property of the loadstone.

The Rev. Father Joseph de Acosta (“Natural and Moral History of the

Indies,” translation of C. R. Markham, lib. i. cap. 16) thus alludes to

the above subject: “I finde not that, in ancient bookes, there is any

mention made of the vse of the Iman or Loadstone, nor of the Compasse

(_aguja de marear_) to saile by; I beleeve they had no knowledge

thereof.... Plinie speakes nothing of that vertue it hath, alwaies

to turne yron which it toucheth towards the north.... Aristotle,

Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Lucretius, Saint Augustine, nor any other

writers or Naturall Philosophers that I have seene, make any mention

thereof, although they treat of the loadstone.”

Thomas Creech, in the notes to his translation of Lucretius’ “De

Natura” says: “Nor indeed, do any of the ancients treat of this last

(the directive) power of the loadstone ... and Guido Pancirollus justly

places it among the modern inventions.”

REFERENCES.--Klaproth, “La Boussole,” Paris, 1834, pp. 9, 10,

66; Azuni, “Boussole,” Paris, 1809, p. 30; “English Cycl.”--Arts

and Sciences--Vol. V. p. 420; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. II.

p. 628; John Francis Davis, “The Chinese,” London, 1836, Vol.

II. pp. 221, etc., or the 1844 edition, Vol. III. p. 12; Geo.

Adams, “Essay ...” 1785, p. 428.

=A.D. 218.=--Salmasius, in his Commentary upon Solinus, asserts

that, at this date, amber was known among the Arabs as _Karabe_, or

_Kahrubá_, a word which, Avicenna states, is of Persian origin and

signifies the power of attracting straws; the magnet being called

_Ahang-rubá_, or attractor of iron.

REFERENCES.--“Encycl. Met.,” Vol. IV. p. 41; Fahie, “Hist. of

Elec. Teleg.,” p. 29.

=A.D. 232–290.=--Africanus (Sextus Julius), an eminent Christian

historical writer, author of a chronicle extending from the date of the

creation to A.D. 221, as well as of an extensive work entitled

“Kestoi,” states that the Roman generals perfected a system for

readily communicating intelligence by means of fires made of different

substances.

REFERENCES.--Shaffner, “Teleg. Man.,” 1859, p. 19; Appleton’s

“Cyclopædia,” 1871, Vol. XV. p. 333.

=A.D. 235.=--It is related that one Makium, who was ordered by the

Chinese emperor to construct “a car which would show the South”

succeeded in doing so, and thus recovered the secret of manufacture

which had for some time been lost. The “Amer. Journ. of Science and the

Arts” (Vol. XL. p. 249) adds that, from this date, the construction of

a magnetic car seems to have been a puzzle ... and the knowledge of

the invention appears to have been confined within very narrow limits.

Humboldt says that the magnetic wagon was used as late as the fifteenth

century of our era; the “American Journal” states that it cannot be

traced later than 1609.

=A.D. 265–419.=--What is by many believed to be the earliest reliable,

distinct mention or actually printed record of the use of the magnet

for navigation, appears in the justly prominent Chinese dictionary or

rather encyclopædia, “Poei-wen-yun-fou,” wherein it is mentioned that

there were during this period (that of the second Tsin dynasty) ships

directed to the South by the _ching_ or needle. It is likewise therein

stated that the figure then placed upon the magnetic cars represented

“a genius in a feather dress” and that, when the emperor went out upon

state occasions this car “always led the way and served to indicate the

four points of the compass.”

REFERENCES.--Homer at B.C. 1000–907; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol.

III. p. 12; Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp. 66, 67; Johnson, “Univ.

Cycl.,” Vol. I. p. 927. ed. 1877; Miller, “Hist. Phil. Illust.,”

London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 180.

In a later work called “Mung-khi-py-than” will be found the following:

“The soothsayers rub a needle with the magnet stone, so that it may

mark the south; however, it declines constantly a little to the east.

It does not indicate the south exactly. When this needle floats on the

water it is much agitated. If the fingernails touch the upper edge

of the basin in which it floats, they agitate it strongly; only it

continues to slide and falls easily. It is preferable, in order to show

its virtues in the best way, to suspend it as follows: Take a single

filament from a piece of new cotton and attach it exactly to the middle

of the needle by a bit of wax as large as a mustard seed. Hang it up in

a place where there is no wind. Then the needle always shows the south;

but among such needles there are some which, being rubbed, indicate the

north. Our soothsayers have some which show the south and some which

show the north. Of this property of the magnet to indicate the south,

like that of the cypress to show the west, no one can tell the origin.”

=A.D. 295–324.=--Koupho, Chinese physicist as well as writer, and one

of the most celebrated men of his age, compares the attractive property

of the magnet with that of amber animated by friction and heat. In his

“Discourse on the Loadstone” he says: “The magnet attracts iron as

amber draws mustard seeds. There is a breath of wind that promptly and

mysteriously penetrates both bodies, uniting them imperceptibly with

the rapidity of an arrow. It is incomprehensible.”

REFERENCES.--Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 125; Humboldt, “Cosmos,”

1848, Vol. V. p. 51; Libri, “Hist. des Mathém.,” Vol. I. p. 381,

note 2.

=A.D. 304.=--St. Elmo (St. Erasmus) Bishop of Formiæ, in ancient

Italy, who suffered martyrdom about this date at Gæta, is the one

after whom sailors in the Mediterranean first named the fires or

flames which by many are believed to be of an electric nature and

which appear during stormy weather, either at the yardarms, mastheads,

in the rigging, or about the decks of a vessel. When two flames are

seen together, they are called Castor and Pollux, “twin gods of the

sea, guiding the mariner to port,” and are considered by seamen an

indication of good luck and of fine weather; but when only one flame is

visible it is called Helena, and is supposed to be an evil omen, the

beacon of an avenging God luring the sailor to death.

St. Elmo’s fire is also known to the Italians as the fire of _St.

Peter_ and of _St. Nicholas_, to the Portuguese as _San Telmo_ and

as _Corpos Santos_, and to the English sailors as _comazant_ or

_corposant_.

The historian of Columbus’ second voyage says that during the month

of October 1493 “St. Elmo appeared on the topgallant-masts with seven

lighted tapers.” It is also alluded to by Pliny, “Nat. Hist.” lib. ii.

cap. 37; by Stobæus, “Eclogarum Phys.,” I. 514; Livy, “Hist.,” cap.

2; Seneca, “Nat. Quæst.,” I. 1; by Cæsar, “de Bello Africano,” cap. 6

edit. Amstel., 1686; and by Camoëns, “Os Lusiades,” canto v. est. 18.

“Last night I saw St. Elmo’s stars,

With their glimmering lanterns all at play

On the tops of the masts and the tips of the spars,

And I knew we should have foul weather to-day.”

Longfellow, “Golden Legend,” Chap. V.

“... Sometimes I’d divide,

And burn in many places--on the topmast,

The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,

Then meet and join....”

Shakespeare, “The Tempest,” Act i. sc. 2.

REFERENCES.--“Nouvelle Biographie Générale,” Vol. XVI. p.

179; “Grand Dict. Univ. du xix^e siècle” of Pierre Larousse,

Vol. VII. p. 786; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 245;

Becquerel, “Traité Expér.,” 1834, Vol. I. p. 34, and his

“Résumé,” Chap. I; Le Breton, “Histoire,” 1884, p. 43; “La

Lumière Electrique,” Juin 1891, p. 546, likewise Procopius,

“De Bello, Vandal,” lib. ii. cap. 2; William Falconer’s

“Observations,” etc. in Vol. III. p. 278 of “Mem. Lit. and Ph.

Soc. Manchester,” 1790 (translated in Italian, 1791), for an

account of the flames appearing upon the spear points of the

Roman legions.

=A.D. 400.=--Marcellus Empiricus, who was _magister officiorum_ in the

reign of Theodosius the Great (379–395) states in his “De Medicamentis

Empiricis,” Venetiis, 1547, P. 89, that the magnet called _antiphyson_

attracts and repulses iron. This, adds Becquerel in his “Résumé,” Chap.

III, further proves that these properties were known in the fourth

century.

REFERENCES.--Klaproth, “Boussole,” 1834, p. 12; Harris,

“Magnetism,” I and II; “New Gen. Biogr. Dict.,” London, 1850,

Vol. IX. p. 475.

=A.D. 425.=--Zosimus (Count), Greek historian, who lived under

Theodosius II (401–450), “sometime advocate of the Treasury of the

Roman Empire,” wrote the history of that empire from the reign of

Augustus to the year A.D. 410, wherein he is the first to call

attention to the electrolytic separation of metals, _i. e._ that the

latter acquire a coating of copper upon being immersed in a cupreous

solution.

REFERENCES.--Gore, “Art of Electro-Met.,” 1877, p. 1, or the

London 1890 edition, p. B; “A treatise on Electro-Metal.,” by

Walter G. McMillan, London, 1890, p. 2; “Journal des Savants”

for June 1895, pp. 382–387; Dr. Geo. Langbein’s treatise,

translated by W. T. Brannt, Chap. I; “Nouvelle Biogr. Gén.”

(Hœfer), Vol. XLVI. p. 1022; Schoell, “Hist. de la Littér.

Grecque”; Pauly, “Real Encycl. ... Alterthums”; “Biogr. Univ.”

(Michaud), Vol. XLV. p. 606; “Nouveau Larousse,” Vol. VII. p.

1429.

=A.D. 426.=--Augustine (Aurelius, Saint), the most prominent of the

Latin Fathers of the Church, finishes his “De Civitate Dei,” which he

began in 413, and which is considered the greatest monument to his

genius. He was probably the most voluminous writer of the earlier

Christian centuries. He was the author of no less than 232 books, in

addition to many tractates or homilies and innumerable epistles (“Books

and their Makers, during the Middle Ages,” Geo. Haven Putnam, New York,

1896, Vol. I. p. 3). In the “De Civitate Dei” he tells us (Basileæ,

1522, pp. 718–719) of the experiment alluded to herein at A.D. 1558.

This had better be given in his own words (“De Civitate Dei,” lib. ii.

cap. 4, Dod’s translation, Edinburgh, 1871):

“When I first saw it (the attraction of the magnet), I was

thunderstruck (_vehementer inhorrui_), for I saw an iron ring attracted

and suspended by the stone; and then, as if it had communicated its

own property to the iron it attracted and had made it a substance like

itself, this ring was put near another and lifted it up, and, as the

first ring clung to the magnet, so did the second ring to the first.

A third and fourth were similarly added, so that there hung from

the stone a kind of chain of rings with their hoops connected, not

interlinking but attached together by their outer surface. Who would

not be amazed by this virtue of the stone, subsisting as it does, not

only in itself, but transmitted through so many suspended rings and

binding them together by invisible links? Yet far more astonishing

is what I heard about the stone from my brother in the episcopate,

Severus, Bishop of Milevis. He told me that Bathanarius, once Count of

Africa, when the Bishop was dining with him, produced a magnet and held

it under a silver plate on which he placed a bit of iron; then as he

moved his hand with the magnet underneath the plate, the iron upon the

plate moved about accordingly. The intervening silver was not affected

at all, but precisely as the magnet was moved backward and forward

below it, no matter how quickly, so was the iron attracted above. I

have related what I have myself witnessed: I have related what I was

told by one whom I trust as I trust my own eyes.”

REFERENCES.--“Vie de St. Augustin,” by Poujoulat, second

edition, Paris, 1852, and by G. Moringo, 1533; Possidius,

also Rivius, “Vitæ de St. Augus.”; L. Tillemont, “Mémoires

Eccles.,” 1702 (the 13th Vol. of which is devoted to an

elaborate account of his life and controversies); Bindemann,

“Der heilige Augustinus,” 1844; Butler, “Lives of the Saints”;

Lardner, “Credibility of the Gospel History,” Vol. VI. part

i. pp. 58–59, and Vol. X. pp. 198–303; Neander, “Geschichte

der Christlichen Religion und Kirche”; Pellechet, “Catalogue

Général des Incunables,” 1897, pp. 339–370; Alfred Weber,

“History of Philosophy,” tr. by Frank Thilly, New York, 1896,

pp. 188–198; “St. Augustine’s City of God,” tr. by Rev. Marcus

Dods, Edinburgh, 1871, Vol. II. book xxi. pp. 420, 457;

“Journal des Scavans,” Vol. XIV. for 1686, pp. 22–23, mentions

the above-named experiment and the effect of diamond on the

loadstone; “Journal des Savants” for Sept. 1898; Ueberweg,

“Hist. of Philosophy” (Morris’ tr., 1885), Vol. I. pp. 333–346.

=A.D. 450.=--Aëtius (Amidenus), Greek physician, informs us (Aëtii, op.

lib. xi. cap. 25) that “those who are troubled with the gout in their

hands or in their feet, or with convulsions, find relief when they hold

a magnet in their hand. Paracelsus recommended the use of the magnet

in a number of diseases, as fluxes, hæmorrhages, etc., while Marcellus

(“Steph. Artis. Med. Princip.,” II. p. 253) and Camillus Leonardus

(“Speculum Lapidum,” lib. ii.) assert that it will cure the toothache.”

During the year 1596, Jean Jacques Vuccher published “De Secretis”

(“The secrets and marvels of Nature”), wherein, at p. 166, he thus

advises the application of a loadstone for curing the headache: “_La

pierre d’aymant appliquée et mise contre la teste, oste toutes les

douleurs et maux d’icelle-ce que nostre Hollerius escrit comme l’ayant

prins_ [sic] _des commentaires des anciens_.” And, in 1754, Lenoble

constructed magnets that were readily used in the treatment of various

diseases (“Practical Mechanic,” Vol. II. p. 171).

The application of the magnet for the relief of various complaints

is treated of at pp. 334–335, Vol. II. of J. Ennemoser’s “History

of Magic,” where will be found a list of works containing accounts

of the oldest and most extraordinary known cures on record.

Additional references to cures by the magnet, as well as with iron or

amber--besides those named more particularly at A.D. 1770 (Maxim. Hell)

and at A.D. 1775 (J. F. Bolten)--are to be found in the following works:

Avicenna, “Canona Medicinæ,” Venice, 1608, lib. ii. cap. 470;

Pliny, “Natural Historie,” Holland tr., 1601, Chap. IV. p. 609;

Hali Abas, “Liber totius medicinæ,” 1523, lib. i.; Serapio

Mauritanus, “De simplicibus medicinis,” Argent., 1531, pp.

260, 264; Antonius Musa Brasavolus, “Examen omnium simplicium

medicamentorum,” Rome 1536; Santes de Ardoynis Pisaurensis,

“Liber de Venenis” (Venetiis, 1492), Basilæ, 1562; Oribasius,

“De facultate metallicorum,” lib. xiii.; Joannes Baptista

Montanus, “Metaphrasis Summaria ...” 1551; G. Pictorio, in his

poem published at Basel in 1567, or in the 1530–1531 editions

of “Marbodei Galli Poetæ vetustissimi de lapidibus pretiosis

Enchiridion” (J. A. Vander Linden, “De Scriptis Medicis,” 1651,

pp. 210–211); Rhazès, “De simplicibus, ad Almansorem,” Venetiis,

1542, lib. ult. cap. 295; Joannes Lonicerus (author of “De

Meteoris,” Frankfort, 1550), “In Dioscoridæ Anazarbei de re

medica ...” 1543, p. 77; Matthæus Silvaticus, “Opus Pandectarum

Medicinæ,” 1498, 1511, 1526 (1541), cap. 446; Petrus de Abano,

“Tractatus de Venenis,” 1490, also “Conciliator Differentiarum

Philosophorum” (1496), 1520, 1526; Nicolaus Myrepsus, “Liber de

compositione medicamentorum,” 1541, 1549, 1567, 1626; Joannes

Manardus, “Epistolarum medicinalium” (Basilæ, 1549); Dioscorides

Pedacius, “De materia medica,” Spengel ed., 1829, Chap. CXLVII.

or in the 1557 ed. p. 507, or in the translation made by Joannes

Ruellius in 1543; Nicholas Monardus, “Joyfull newes out of the

new-found worlde,” Frampton tr., London, 1596; Arnaldus de

Villa Nova, “Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum” (1499); Amatus

Lusitanus, “Enarrationes Eruditissimæ,” 1597, pp. 482, 507;

Gabriellus Fallopius, “De Simplicibus Medicamentis purgentibus

tractatus,” and “Tractatus de compositione Medicamentorum,”

Venetiis, 1566, 1570; Joannes Langius, “Epistolarum Medicinalium

...,” Paris, 1589; Petri Andriæ Mathiolus, “Commentarii ...

Dioscoridis ... de materia medica,” 1598, p. 998; W. Barlowe,

“Magneticall Advertisements,” 1616, p. 7, or the 1843 reprint;

Albertus Magnus, “De Mineralibus” (1542), lib. ii.; Oswaldus

Crollius, “Basilica Chimica,” 1612, p. 267; Nicolaus Curtius,

“Libellus de medicamentis ...” Giessæ Cattorum, 1614; Rudolphi

Goclenii--Goclenius--“Tractatus de magnetica curatione,” 1609,

1613, also “Synarthosis Magnetica,” Marpurgi, 1617 (Eloy “Dict.

Hist. de la Méd.,” Vol. II. pp. 359–360); Luis de Oviedo,

“Methodo de la Coleccion y Reposicion de las medicinas simples,”

1622, p. 502; W. Charleton, “A Ternary of Paradoxes of the

Magnetic cure of Wounds,” 1650; the “Pharmacopœia Augustana,”

Augsburg, 1621, p. 182; Patrick Brydone in “Phil. Trans.,”

Vol. L. pp. 392, 695, and Vol. LXIII. p. 163. Consult also the

abridgments by Hutton, Vol. XI. p. 262, Vol. XIII. p. 415;

Waring’s “Bibliotheca Therapeutica,” London, 1878.

“The magnet ... gives comfort and grace, and is a cure for many

complaints; it is of great value in disputes. When pulverised, it cures

many burns. It is a remedy for dropsy” (I Sermone ... di F. Sacchetti

... § 18).

According to Dias, “the magnet reconciles husbands to their wives,” and

Platea remarks that “it is principally of use to the wounded,” while

Avicenna says “it is a remedy against spleen, the dropsy and alopecian.”

For additional information, consult J. Beckmann’s “History of

Inventions,” Bohn, 1846, Vol. I. p. 43, and the article “Somnambulism”

in the “Encyclopædia Britannica.”

=A.D. 543.=--The Japanese say that at about this date the Mikado

received from the Court of Petsi in Corea “the wheel which indicates

the south.”

REFERENCE.--Knight, “Mechanical Dictionary,” Vol. II. p. 1397.

=A.D. 658.=--As shown by Kaï-bara-Tok-sin, in the “Wa-zi-si,” the first

magnetic cars were constructed during this year in Japan; the loadstone

was not, however, discovered in that country until A.D. 713, when it

was brought from the province of Oomi (Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 94).

The “Journal of the Franklin Institute” (Vol. XVIII. for 1836, p. 69),

gives a description and illustration of one of these magnetic chariots,

taken from the thirty-third volume of the Japanese Encyclopædia.

=A.D. 806–820.=--Between these dates, under the Thâng dynasty, were

first made the cars called _Kin-Koung-yuan_, which were magnetic

chariots similar to those previously known, but bearing in addition a

drum and a bell. Both the latter were struck at regular intervals by an

erect male figure placed at the head of the car (“American Journal of

Science and the Arts,” Vol. XL. p. 249).

A critic named Tchen-yn admits, as already indicated herein under the

A.D. 235 date, that the knowledge of the mode of construction of the

magnetic cars was by no means general. “I know well,” adds he, “that,

at the time of the Thâng, under Hien-toung (who ascended the throne

806 A.D., and reigned seventeen years) a chariot was made which always

showed the four parts of the earth, in imitation, it was said, of those

constructed at the time of Hoang-ti.... Upon it stood the figure of a

spirit, whose hand always pointed to the south.”

REFERENCES.--“Mémoires concernant l’histoire ...” by Saillant et

Nyon, Paris, 1776–1788, Vol. XIII. p. 234; Klaproth, “Boussole,”

p. 72.

=A.D. 968.=--Kung-foo-Whing is said to have invented a method of

transmitting sound through wires by means of an apparatus called

_thumthsein_, although no trace whatever of the latter is to be found

in any of the numerous authorities herein quoted.

=A.D. 1067–1148.=--Frode (Ari Hinn--Ara Hin--or the Wise), Arius

Polyhistor (Ari Prestrinha Frodi Thorgillsun), Icelandic historian,

“than whom there is no higher authority,” was the first compiler of the

celebrated “Landnama-Bok,” which contains a full account of all the

early settlers in Iceland, and is doubtless the most complete record of

the kind ever made by any nation.

In it, he says that, at the time Floke Vilgerderson left Rogoland, in

Norway, about A.D. 868, for another visit to Gardansholm (Iceland),

of which he was the original discoverer, “the seamen had no loadstone

(_leiderstein_) in the northern countries,” thus showing, according to

Prof. Hansteen, that the directive power of the needle and its use in

navigation were known in Europe in the eleventh century. In this manner

is given the first intimation of the knowledge of the mariner’s compass

outside of China. The passage quoted above is by many supposed to be

an interpolation, for it is not found in several manuscripts, and it

has even been asserted (“Br. Ann.,” p. 296), that its origin does not

antedate the fourteenth century, thus strengthening the claims of the

French in behalf of Guyot De Provins.

REFERENCES.--“Landnama-Bok,” Kiœbenhaven, 1774, T. I. chap. ii.

par. 7; John Angell, “Magnet. and Elect.,” 1874, p. 10; Lloyd,

“Magnetism,” p. 101; “Pre-Col. Disc. of Am.,” De Costa, pp.

xxiii and 11; “Bull. de Géogr.,” 1858, p. 177; “Good Words,”

1874, p. 70; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 40; Hansteen, “Inquiries

Concerning the Magnetism of the Earth,” and “Magazin für

Naturvidenskaberne Christiana,” I. 2, “Encycl. Metrop.,” Vol.

III. p. 736; the 1190–1210 entry herein.

=A.D. 1111–1117.=--Keou-tsoungchy, Chinese philosopher and writer,

gives, in the medical natural history called “Pen-thsao-yan-i,” written

by him under the Soung dynasty, the earliest description of a water

compass found in any Chinese work, viz.: “The magnet is covered over

with little bristles slightly red, and its superficies is rough. It

attracts iron and unites itself with it; and, for this reason, it is

commonly called the stone which licks up iron. When an iron point is

rubbed upon the magnet, it acquires the property of pointing to the

south, yet it declines always to the east, and is not perfectly true to

the south.... If the needle be passed through a wick or a small tube of

thin reed, and placed upon water, it will indicate the south, but with

a continual inclination towards the point _ping_, that is to say, East

five-sixths South.”

In the “Mung-khi-py-than,” also composed under the Soung dynasty, it is

stated that fortune-tellers rub the needle with the loadstone in order

to make it indicate the south.

REFERENCES.--_Comptes Rendus_, Vol. XIX. p. 365; “Am. Journal

Sc. and Arts,” 1841, XL. p. 248; Davis, “The Chinese,” 1844,

Vol. III. p. 13; Becquerel, “Elec. et Mag.,” p. 58; Klaproth,

“Boussole,” pp. 67–69, 95; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p.

656, and Vol. V. p. 52; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1397;

Humboldt, “Examen Critique,” Paris, 1836, Vol. III. p 34.

=A.D. 1160.=--Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, relates in his

commentary on the Iliad of Homer, that Walimer, father of Theodoric

and King of the Goths, used to emit sparks from his body; also that a

certain philosopher observed sparks occasionally issuing from his chest

accompanied with a crackling noise.

Leithead tells us that streams of fire came from the hair of Servius

Tullius, a Roman King, during sleep, when he was about seven years

of age (Dionysius, “Antiq. Rom.” lib. iv.; Pliny, “Hist. Nat.” lib.

ii. cap. 37); that Cardan alludes to the hair of a certain Carmelite

monk emitting sparks whenever it was rubbed backward (“De Rerum

Varietate,” lib. viii. cap. 43); that Father Faber, in his “Palladium

Chemicum,” speaks of a young woman whose hair emitted sparks while

being combed, and also refers to allusions made in the same line by

Thomas Bartholinus, “De Luce Animalium,” Lugd. 1647, p. 121; Ezekiel

di Castro, “De Igne Lambente”; Johann Jacob Hemmer, “Trans. Elec. Soc.

Mannheim,” Vol. VI; and _Phil. Trans._, Vol. V. pp. 1, 40.

REFERENCES.--Eustath in Iliad, E. p. 515, ed. Rom.; “Encycl.

Brit.,” 1855, VIII. p. 571; Priestley, “History of Electricity,”

London, 1775, pp. 128, 129; _Phil. Trans._, abridged, Vol. X.

pp. 278, 343, 344, 357.

=A.D. 1190–1210.=--Guyot de Provins, minstrel at the Court of the

Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa), gives the first French mention of the

water compass in a manuscript “politico-satirical” poem entitled “La

Bible,” to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It is therein said

that sailors were at that time in the habit of rubbing needles upon the

ugly brown stone called _marinière_, “to which iron adheres of its

own accord,” and that, as soon as placed afloat upon a small piece of

straw in the water, the needles would point to the North. The passage

alluding to the compass has been copied by D. A. Azuni, member of the

Turin Academy of Sciences, from the original manuscript, and is given

entire, with the French translation, at p. 137 of his “Dissertation

...” second edition, Paris, 1809:

“De notre père l’apostoile (le pape)

* * * * *

Ils l’appellent la tresmontaigne

* * * * *

Par la vertu de la marinière,

Une pierre laide et brumière,

Ou li fers volontiers se joint....”

The passage is also given by Klaproth, at pp. 41–43, and by Venanson,

at p. 72, of their respective works already cited; likewise by

Bertelli, p. 59 of his Memoir published in 1868.

Sonnini (C. S.), in Buffon “Minéraux,” Vol. XV, p. 100, says that Azuni

has successfully established the claims of France to the first use

of the mariner’s compass. Other writers herein, who follow in their

order, will doubtless show to the satisfaction of the reader that, as

the Arabs possessed it at the same time, they must have received it

from the Chinese, and therefore transmitted it to the Franks during the

first Crusades, as stated by Klaproth in his “Lettre à M. de Humboldt,”

Paris, 1834, pp. 64–66.

REFERENCES.--Becquerel, “Traité d’Elect. et de Magn.,” Vol. I.

p. 70; Bertelli, “Mem. sopra P. Peregrino,” 1868, p. 59; R.

M. Ferguson, “Electricity,” 1867, p. 43; J. F. Wolfart, “Des

Guiot von Provins,” Halle, 1861; “Bulletin de Géographie,”

1858, p. 177; Barbazan, “Fabliaux,” Vol. II. p. 328: Becquerel,

“Résumé,” Chap. III; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp.

628–630; “Amer. Journ. Sc. and Arts,” Vol. XL. p. 243; “Guiot

von Provins,” in Meyers Konvers. Lex., Vol. VIII. p. 81;

“Encycl. Met.,” Vol. III. p. 736, gives a verbatim copy of part

of Guyot’s poem, with its literal translation; Libri, “Hist. des

Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. p. 63; “Encycl. Met.,” Vol.

XII. p. 104; J. Lorimer, “Essay on Magnetism,” London, 1795; Sir

John Francis Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. xii, or “China,”

London, 1857, pp. 184–187; Whewell, “Hist. of Ind. Sc.,” Vol.

II. p. 46.

[Illustration: Guiot de Provins. “La Bible.” In the

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.]

=A.D. 1204–1220.=--Jacobus de Vitry, Cardinal Bishop of Ptolemais,

in Syria, one of the Crusaders, thus speaks of the compass in his

“Historiæ Hierosolimitanæ,”[10] cap. 89 and 91: “The Magnet [_diamant_,

as shown under the B.C. 321 date] is found in the Indies.... It

attracts iron through a secret virtue; after a needle has touched the

loadstone, it always turns toward the North Star, which latter is as

the world’s axis and is immobile, while the other stars turn around it;

that is why the compass is so useful to navigators, _valde necessarius

navigantibus_.”

REFERENCES.--Azuni, “Boussole,” p. 140; Venanson, “Boussole,”

p. 77; Klaproth, pp. 14, 43–44; Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 1184;

Becquerel, “Elec. et Magn.,” Vol. I. p. 70; Knight, “Mech.

Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1397.

=A.D. 1207.=--Neckam (Alexander of), 1157–1217, Abbot of St. Mary’s,

alludes in his “De Utensilibus” to a needle carried on board ship,

which, being placed upon a pivot and allowed to take its own position

of repose, “showed mariners their course when the Polar Star is

hidden.” In another work, “De Naturis Rerum” (lib. ii. cap. 89), he

writes: “Mariners at sea, when, through cloudy weather in the day,

which hides the sun, or through the darkness of the night, they lose

the knowledge of the quarter of the world to which they are sailing,

touch a needle with a magnet which will turn around until, on its own

motion ceasing, its point will be directed toward the North (Chappell,

“Nature,” No. 346, June 15, 1876; Thomas Wright, “Chronicles and

Memoirs ... Middle Ages,” 1863).

REFERENCES.--“La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XXIV. p. 898; Hœfer,

“Nouv. Biogr. Générale,” Vol. XXXVII. p. 570.

=A.D. 1235–1315.=--Lully (Raymond) of Majorca (often confounded

with Ramond Lull, who is the author of several alchemical books and

of whose biography very little is known), was, by turns, a soldier,

a poet, a monk, a knight, a missionary and a martyr, and is referred

to by Humboldt as “the singularly ingenious and eccentric man, whose

doctrines excited the enthusiasm of Giordano Bruno when a boy, and who

was at once a philosophical systematizer and an analytical chemist, a

skilful mariner and a successful propagator of Christianity.”

During the year 1272 Lully published his “De Contemplatione,” which

was followed by “Fenix de las maravillas del orbe” in 1286, and by his

“Arte de Naveguar” in 1295. In these he states that the seamen of his

time employed instruments of measurement, sea charts and the magnetic

needle (_tenian_, _los mareantes_, _instrumento_, _carta_, _compas y

aguja_), and he describes the improvements made in the astrolabes

(designed for the determination of time and of geographical latitudes

by meridian altitudes and capable of being employed at sea) from the

period that the astrolabium of the Majorcan pilots was in use.

The application of the astrolabe to navigation, Mr. Irving says (“Hist.

of the Life ... of Columbus,” London, 1828, Vol. I. pp. 76–78), was

“one of those timely events which seem to have some thing providential

in them. It was immediately after this that Columbus proposed his

voyage of discovery to the crown of Portugal.”

Lully also confirms the fact that the Barcelonians employed atlases,

astrolabes[11] and compasses long before Don Jaime Ferrer penetrated to

the mouth of the Rio de Ouro, on the western coast of Africa, which was

about fifty years after the date of the last-named work.

Incidentally it may be added that Lully, posing as an alchemist, is

said to have in the presence of the English King, Edward I, converted

iron into gold, which latter was coined into rose-nobles (Bergman,

“Hist. of Chem.”; Louis Figuier, “L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes,”

Paris, 1860, p. 148).

REFERENCES.--For Lul. Raimon, or Raymundus, or Lullius

(1235–1315), “Dict. of Philos. and Psych.,” by J. M. Baldwin,

New York, 1902, Vol. II. p. 32; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol.

II. pp. 629–631, 670, and 1859, Vol. V. p. 55; Miller, “Hist.

Phil. Ill.,” London, 1849, Vol. II. p. 217; Whewell, “Hist. Ind.

Sc.,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 169; also his “Phil. of the Ind. Sc.,”

London, 1840, Vol. II. pp. 320–323; “Journal des Savants,” 1896,

pp. 342, 345–355; “Biogr. Génér.,” article “Lulle”; Helfferich,

“Raym. L.,” Berlin, 1858; Nicolai Eymerici, “Direct Inq.,” Rome,

1578; Bolton, “Ch. Hist. of Chem.,” pp. 1000–1001; Ueberweg,

“Hist. of Philos.” (Morris’ translation, 1885), Vol. I. pp.

457, 459; “Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers,” by Arthur

Edward Waite, London, 1888, pp. 68–88, in which is given, at pp.

276–306, an alphabetical catalogue of all works on Hermetic

Philosophy and Alchemy; Humboldt, “Examen Critique,” Paris,

1836, Vol. I. pp. 7, 283.

For the Dominican Giordano (Jordano) Bruno, see “The Course of

the History of Modern Philosophy,” by Victor Cousin, New York,

1872, Vol. II. pp. 56–58; “English Cycl.” (Biography), Vol. I.

p. 979; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. I. p.

141; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. VIII. pp. 258–259, reviewed in

the “London Athenæum,” Nov. 28, 1903, p. 711.

[Illustration: Vincent de Beauvais. “Speculum Naturale.”

Page taken from the 1473 copy, now in the Bibliothèque, Ste.

Geneviève, Paris.]

=A.D. 1250.=--Vincent de Beauvais, another Crusader, writes his

“Mirror of Nature” (“Bibliotheca Mundi, Speculum Majus, Speculum

Triplex”) for St. Louis and his consort, Marguerite de Provence, and

speaks therein of the polarity of the needle (“Speculi Naturalis,” Vol.

II. lib. ix. cap. 19). He cites Aristotle as having written a book,

“De Lapide,” containing a notice of the magnet’s use in navigation,

but none of Aristotle’s known works appear to have the passage given.

Cabæus and others rather judge that book to be the work of some Arabic

writer (Thomas Creech, “Lucretius”). Libri, however, says that a

translation or _abrégé_ of the MS. of “De Lapide” is at the Paris

Library--MSS. Arabes, No. 402 (“Hist. des sc. Mathém.,” Vol. I. p. 101).

Le Sieur Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt (see A.D. 1269) alludes

clearly to the polarity of the needle in an epistle, “Ad Sigerum de

Foucaucourt--Fontancourt--militem de Magnete,” written toward the end

of the thirteenth century, and the magnet is, at about the same period,

referred to in the following lines of the minstrel Gauthier d’Espinois,

contemporary of the Count of Champagne, Thibaud VI, who lived before

the middle of the thirteenth century (“Hist. Lit. de la France,” 1856,

Vol. XXIII--chansonniers--pp. 576, 831):

“Tout autresi (ainsi) comme l’aimant déçoit (détourne)

L’aiguilette par force de vertu

A ma dame tot le mont (monde) retennue

Qui sa beauté connoit et aperçoit.”

Vincent de Beauvais applies the terms _zohron_ and _aphron_ (not

_afon_) to the south and north ends of the needle, and Mr. J. Klaproth

(“Lettre à M. de Humboldt sur l’invention de la Boussole,” Paris, 1834,

pp. 49–51), says these words are Arabian, notwithstanding assertions

made to the contrary by Martinus Lipenius in his “Navigatio Salomonis

Ophiritica Illustrata,” 1660, cap. v. sec. 3, as well as by many others

who have written upon the compass.

REFERENCES.--Sonnini, in Buffon, “Minéraux,” VIII. p. 76;

Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859–1860, Vol. II. pp. 253–254, and Vol.

V. p. 54; Azuni, “Boussole,” pp. 41, 42, and 44; Klaproth, p.

13; Miller, “History Philosophically Illustrated,” London, 1849,

Vol. I. p. 179, note. “Simonis Maioli ... Dies Caniculares,

seu Colloqui,” XXIII. 1597, p. 783; Dr. F. Ueberweg, “Hist.

of Phil.” (Morris’ translation, 1885), Vol. I. pp. 433, 435;

“Journal des Savants” for Feb.-Mar. 1892; “Vincenti Bellov.

Speculi Naturalis,” Vol. II. lib. ix. cap. 19.

It may be added that the “Mirror of Nature”[12] is one of the four

pretentious works which, however popular they may at any time have

been and however powerfully they may have influenced the age in which

they were written, do not, says Humboldt, fulfil by their contents the

promise of their titles. The other three are the “Opus Majus” of Roger

Bacon, the “Liber Cosmographicus” (Physical Geography) of Albertus

Magnus, and the “Imago Mundi” (Picture of the World) of Cardinal Petrus

de Alliaco--Pedro de Helico--Pierre d’Ailly. (For the celebrated

French theologian Pierre d’Ailly (1350–1420), Chancellor of the Paris

University, see “Histoire de l’Astronomie,” J. F. C. Hœfer, Paris 1873,

p. 290; “Paris et ses historiens,” Le Roux de Lincy et L. M. Tisserand,

Paris, 1867, p. 402 (etched portrait); “New Int. Encycl.,” New York,

1902, Vol. I. p. 231; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. I. pp. 952–954; also

works relating to him by Aubrelicque, Compiègne, 1869, by Arthur

Dinaux, Cambrai, 1824, and by Geo. Pameyer, Strasbourg, 1840.) The

last-named work by Pierre d’Ailly was the chief authority at the time

and exercised a greater influence on the discovery of America than did

the correspondence with the learned Florentine Toscanelli (Humboldt,

“Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 621; “La lettre et la carte de Toscanelli,”

par Henri Vignaud, Paris, 1901, or “Toscanelli et Christophe Colomb”

in the “Annales de Géographie,” No. 56, 11^e année, Mars 15, 1902, pp.

97–110; “Toscanelli in der älteren und neuren Columbus literatur,” E.

Geleich Mitteil. Wien, Vol. XXXVI. 10, 1893).

Two of the above-named works partake of the encyclopædic, and in this

class likewise properly enter the twenty books “De Rerum Natura” of

Thomas Cantapratensis of Louvain (1230), the “Book of Nature,” by

Conrad Van Meygenberg of Ratisbon (1349), and the great “Margarita

Philosophica,” or “Circle of the Sciences,” of Father Gregorius

Reisch (1486). (See the different entries concerning the last-named

work at pp. 663–664 of Libri’s Catalogue, Vol. II, for 1861.) One more

work bears title “Picture of the World”--“l’Image du Monde”--written

by Gautier de Metz, a French poet of the thirteenth century, on the

lines of still another encyclopædic “Imago Mundi,” by Honorius d’Autun

(Neubauer, “Traductions historiques de l’Image du Monde,” 1876, p.

129; Haase, likewise Fritsche, “Untersuch ... der Image du Monde,”

1879 and 1880; Fant, “l’Image du Monde, étudié dans ses diverses

rédactions françaises,” Upsal, 1886. Chas. Bossut, in his “Hist.

Générale des Mathém.,” Paris, 1810, Vol. I. p. 229, also mentions an

encyclopædic “Mirroir du Monde,” in Turkish _Gian Numah_; “The

Final Philosophy,” Chas. W. Shields, New York, 1877, p. 133).

=A.D. 1254.=--Albertus Magnus, of the family of the Counts of

Bollstädt, one of the most prominent philosophers and theologians of

the Middle Ages, likewise alludes to the book “De Lapide” already

referred to at A.D. 1250, and to the Arabic terms _zohron_ and

_aphron_, giving to these words, however, a wrong interpretation.[13]

Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) was justly styled _Doctor Universalis_,

for, from the time he entered the Order of the Dominican Friars

in 1221, as well as throughout his teachings, mainly at Bologna,

Strasburg, Freiburg and Cologne, he displayed an intimate acquaintance

with almost all branches of the natural sciences. He was especially

well versed in philosophy, astronomy and mathematics--_in rebus magicis

expertus fuit_--and was justly considered by many as the most erudite

philosopher of his generation; an encomium of the very rarest kind,

when such rivals as Alexander of Hales and Thomas Aquinas could dispute

the palm with him. Natural science, says Humboldt (“Cosmos,” 1860,

Vol. II. pp. 243–245), was intimately associated with medicine and

philosophy among the learned Arabs, and, in the Christian Middle Ages,

with theological polemics. The latter, from their tendency to assert an

exclusive influence, repressed empirical inquiry into the departments

of physics, organic morphology, and also astronomy, the last being,

for the most part, closely allied to astrology. The study of the

comprehensive works of Aristotle, introduced by Arabs and by Jewish

Rabbis, had tended to lead to a philosophical fusion of all branches

of study (Jourdain, “Sur les traductions d’Aristotle,” p. 256; Michael

Sachs, “Die Religiöse Poesie der Juden in Spanien,” 1845, s. 180–200),

and hence Ibn-Sina (Avicenna), Ibn-Roschd (Averroës), Albertus Magnus

and Roger Bacon passed for the representatives of all the knowledge of

their time. The fame which in the Middle Ages surrounded the names of

these four great men was proportionate to the general diffusion of this

opinion of their endowments.

Albertus was the first scholastic who systematically reproduced the

philosophy of Aristotle with reference to the Arabian commentators and

who remodelled it to meet the requirements of ecclesiastical dogma.

The cause of the new development of scholasticism in the thirteenth

century was the translation, for the first time, into Latin of the

complete works of Aristotle, which latter only came to the knowledge of

the scholastics (1210–1225) through the agency of Arabian philosophy.

The leading Arabian philosophers were Avicenna, Averroës and Avempace,

whilst, in the new movement, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas and

Joannes Duns Scotus represented the culmination of scholastic thought

and its consolidation into a system.[14]

Albertus, according to Humboldt, must be mentioned as an independent

investigator in the domain of analytic chemistry, improving as he did

the practical manipulation of ores, and having actually enlarged the

insight of men into the general mode of action of the chemical forces

of nature. His “Liber Cosmographicus” is a singularly able presentment

of physical geography. He also wrote very extensively upon plant-life,

and is the author of commentaries upon practically all the physical

works of the Stagirite, although in the commentary on Aristotle’s

“Historia Animalium” he is said to have closely followed the Latin

translation of Michael Scotus from the Arabic. Albertus doubtless owes

the praise conferred upon him by Dante less to himself than to his

beloved pupil Aquinas, who accompanied him from Cologne to Paris in

1245, and returned with him to Germany in 1248.

“Questi, che m’ è a destra più vicino,

Frate e maestro fummi; ed’ esse Alberto

E’ di Cologna, ed io Thomas d’Aquino.”

“Il Paradiso,” X. 97–99.

Gilbert refers to Albertus in “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps, i. and vi.,

also in Book II. chap. xxxviii.

REFERENCES.--“Albert the Great,” by Dr. Joachim Sighart,

translated by Rev. Fr. J. A. Dixon, London, 1876; “Journal

des Savants” for May 1848 (“D’un ouvrage inédit de Roger

Bacon”: Albertus is called _Magnus in magia naturali, major

in philosophia, maximus in theologia_; Tritheim, “Annales

Hirsaug.,” Vol. I. p. 592); for May 1851, pp. 284–298 _passim_;

for Nov. and Dec. 1884; for June 1891 (“Traditions ... du Moyen

Age”), for Feb. 1892 (“Traductions des ouvrages alchimiques

... arabes; l’alchimie dans Albert le Grand,” pp. 126–128), as

well as for March 1892; “Histoire des Sciences,” par. F. M.

L. Maupied, Paris, 1847 (Albert le Grand), Vol. II. pp. 1–95;

Barthol. Glanvilla, “Liber, de Proprietatibus Rerum,” Book

VII; Pellechet, “Cat. Gen. des Incunables,” 1897, pp. 57–81;

Bolton, “Chronol. Hist. of Chemistry,” 1897, p. 947; “The Great

Schoolmen of the Middle Ages,” by W. J. Townsend, London, 1881,

Chap. X. pp. 165–173; “Siger de Brabant et l’Averroïsme Latin

au xiii^e siècle,” par. Pierre Maudonnet, Fribourg, 1899, pp.

li-lii notes _passim_; Walton and Cotton, “Complete Angler,”

New York and London, 1847, Pt. I. p. 62; “New Int. Encycl.,”

New York, 1902, Vol. I. p. 279; “Aristotle and the Arabs,” by

Wm. M. Sloane, pp. 257–268 of “Classical Studies in Honour of

Henry Drissler,” New York, 1894; Sonnini, Buffon, “Minéraux,”

VIII. p. 76; Enfield, “History of Philosophy,” Book VII. chap

iii.; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 617–619; Quétif

and Echard, “Scriptor. Ord. Predicat,” Vol. I. p. 171; Brande,

“Manual,” 1848, Vol. I. p. 8; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History

of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I.

pp. 436–440; J. B. Hauréau, “La Philos. Scholas.,” Paris, 1850,

Vol. II. pp. 1–103; Dr. W. Windelband, “History of Philosophy,”

auth. tr. by Jas. H. Tufts, New York, 1853, pp. 311, 313; “Dict.

Hist. de la Médecine,” N. F. J. Eloy, Mons, 1778, Vol. I. pp.

63–65; “Christian Schools and Scholars,” Augusta Th. Drane,

London, 1867, pp. 69, etc.

Of authors prominently cited by Albertus Magnus, or alluded to in the

foregoing, the following accounts are given:

Alfarabius--Alpharabius--Abn Nasr Muhammed ... al Farabi--(A.D.

870–950), celebrated Arabian philosopher, native of Turkestan,

one of whose most important works, “Liber de scientiis ...”

is an encyclopædia, giving in five chapters a classification

of all known sciences. It is said he could speak in as many

as seventy languages (J. C. L. S. de Sismondi, “Historical

View of the Literature of the South of Europe,” London, 1846,

Vol. I. p. 65). He was a most zealous student of Aristotle,

and is one of the authors (Aristotle, Avicenna and Al-gazel

being the others) from whom David the Jew compiled his work “De

Causis.” Of the latter, Albertus gives a long description, and

it is likewise cited both by Thomas Aquinas and Bacon, “Opus

Majus,” J. H. Bridges, Oxford, 1897, Vol. I. pp. 100–101, who

quotes: Jourdain, pp. 112, 138–145, 184–185, and Wüstenfeld,

“Geschichte,” Göttingen, 1840.

REFERENCES.--Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. I. p. 195; “Biog.

Gen.,” Vol. I. pp. 951–952 and the references therein given;

“New Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902, Vol. I. pp. 329–330; M.

Stenischneider, “Al-Farabi,” St. Petersb., 1869; Friedrich

Dieterici, “Al-Farabi’s Philosophische Abhandlungen,” Leyden,

1890, and his “Die Philosophie der Araber,” Leyden, 1892, 1895;

Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S.

Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 407, 411–412.

Al-gazel--Al-Ghazzali--(1058–1111), another prominent Arabian

philosopher, who was for a long time professor of theology in

the Bagdad University, and became the ruler of the Sufis or

Mystics, in whose behalf he travelled extensively.[15]

The biography in “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XVIII. pp.

899–900, gives a full account of his most important works and

several valuable references, his principal book being “The

Destruction of the Philosophers,” which called forth a reply in

one of the two most important works of Averroës, entitled “The

Destruction of Destruction.”

Tholuck says: “If ever a man hath deserved the name, Ghazzali

was truly a divine, and he may justly be placed on a level

with Origen [Fr. Dietericii, “Die Philosophie der Araber,”

Leipzig, 1876, pp. 28–31], so remarkable was he for learning and

ingenuity, and gifted with such a rare faculty for the skilful

and worthy exposition of doctrine.”

REFERENCES.--“Encycl. Britann.,” ninth ed., Vol. I.

p. 510; “New Int. Encycl.,” Vol. I. p. 337; “The Alchemy of

Happiness,” by Mohammed Al-Ghazzali, tr. of Henry Guy Homes,

Albany, 1873, pp. 6–7, also Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of

Philosophy, tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp.

407 and 413–414.

Alexander of Hales, so called because he made his studies at the

Monastery of Hales in Gloucestershire (_d._ 1245), called

“Doctor Doctorum” or “Doctor Irrefragabilis,” also “Theologorum

Monarcha,” was a celebrated English theologian. He became a

noted professor of philosophy and then a lecturer among the

Franciscans, being succeeded in turn by his pupils, John of

Rochelle (who died in 1271) and John Fidanza, better known as

Bonaventura (1221–1274). He was the first scholastic acquainted

with the whole of the Aristotelian works and with the Arabian

commentaries upon them. The only authentic work of his is the

ponderous “Summa Universæ Theologiæ” (best edition, Venice,

1576), much of the substance and even the text of which is said

to be found in the “Summa” of Aquinas and in the “Speculum

Morale” of Vincent de Beauvais.

REFERENCES.--“Dict. of Nat. Biog.,” London, 1885, Vol. I. p.

271; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. II. p. 121; Fleury, “Hist.

Eccles.,” Vol. XX; Du Boulay, “Hist. de l’univ. de Paris,” Vol.

I.; Stoeckl, “Geschichte d. Phil. d. Mittelalters,” 1865, Vol.

II. pp. 317–326; “Chambers’s Encycl.,” 1888, Vol. I. p. 148;

Ninth “Encycl. Britann.,” Vol. XXI. p. 427; “Dict. of Philos.

and Psychol.,” by J. M. Baldwin, New York, 1901; Vol. I. pp.

30, 124; Wadding, “Annales Ord. Min.”; “New Int. Encycl.,” New

York, 1902, Vol. I. pp. 321–322; Fabricius, “Bibl. Lat. mediæ et

inf. ætat.,” Vol. I. p. 1; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. I. pp. 923–927;

J. B. Hauréau, “Hist. de la Philos. Scholastique,” 1880, Vol.

I. part ii. pp. 131–141, or the 1850 Paris ed., Vol. I. p. 418;

Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo.

S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 433–434; Thos. Fuller,

“Church History of Britain,” London, 1837, Vol. I. pp. 398–402.

Avempace--Abn Bekr Muhammed Ibn Yahga, Arabic philosopher,

physician and poet (_d._ 1138), introduced the peripatetic

philosophy into Andalusia, and wrote commentaries on Aristotle,

in addition to a book, “Conduct of the Individual,” alluded to

by Averroës, likewise several works upon medicine and music.

REFERENCES.--“The History of Philosophy” of Dr.

Friedrich Ueberweg, tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol.

I. p. 414 (Munk, “Mélanges de Philosophie,” pp. 383–410); “New

Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902, Vol. II. p. 281; Brockelmann,

“Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur”; James Gow, “A Short

History of Greek Mathematics,” Oxford, 1884, pp. 203–205 for

Arabic learning in Spain.

Averroës--Muhammed Ibn Ahmed Ibn-Roschd, “the commentator,” “the

last great thinker of the Moslem world in the West” (1120–1198),

was an illustrious Moorish philosopher and physician best known

by his commentaries and paraphrases upon Aristotle. It is said

Averroës was recommended to the Calif as the fittest person to

expound the works of Aristotle and make them accessible to all

(“History of Classical Scholarship,” J. E. Sandys, Cambridge,

1903, p. 541).

REFERENCES.--Renan, “Averroës et l’Averroïsme,” Paris,

1852; “Dict. of Philos. and Psychology,” by J. M. Baldwin,

New York, 1901, p. 96; “Journal des Savants” for Feb. 1892,

pp. 118–126 _passim_; Antonii, “Bibl. Hisp. Vetus,” Vol.

II. pp. 240–248; Wüstenfeld, “Geschichte d’ Arab. A. V. N.,”

1840; “Engl. Cycl.,” Vol. I. pp. 448–449; Eloy, “Dict. Hist.

de la Médecine,” Vol. I. pp. 220–221; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg,

“History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885,

Vol. I. pp. 407–408, 415–417; Dr. W. Windelband, “History of

Philosophy,” auth. tr. by Jas. H. Tufts, New York, 1893, pp.

317, 338; “Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiques,” par une

société de savants, Paris, 1852, Vol. III. pp. 157–172.

“Euclide geometra e Tolommeo,

Ippocrate, Avicenna, e Galieno

Averrois che ’l gran comento feo.”

(Dante, “Divina Commedia,” Inferno, Canto IV.)

Augusta Th. Drane places Averroës at the head of all Arabic

interpreters of Aristotle, and incidentally says it would

be hard to determine his religion, for he scoffed alike at

Christianity, Judaism and Mahometanism.

Avicenna--Abohalis, Ibn Sina, Al Rayis or “the

chief”--(980–1037), “the greatest thinker of the Moslem world

in the East,” a native of Aschena, near Bokhara, was the most

celebrated physician of his day. In the “Journal des Savants”

for March 1892, “l’Alchimie d’Avicenne” is very extensively

treated of at pp. 179–189, and Avicenna is said (“Journal des

Savants” for February 1892, pp. 118–128) to be the alchemist

most frequently alluded to in the “Speculum Naturale” of Vincent

de Beauvais. His writings were so highly esteemed that the

Sultan of Egypt ordered them to be translated by the celebrated

Jewish Rabbi, Maimonides--Moses Ben Maimon--(born at Cordova, in

Spain, about A.D. 1132).

REFERENCES.--Casiri, “Bibl. Arab. Hispan.,” Vol. I. p. 268;

Hottinger, “Bibl. Quadrip.,” 1664, pp. 256, 261; “Dict. des

Sciences Philosophiques,” Paris, 1852, Vol. III. pp. 172–178; S.

Klein, “Dissertatio,” 1846; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gen.,”

Vol. I. pt. i. pp. 469–470; “The Edinburgh Encycl.,” 1830,

Vol. III. p. 107; “Engl. Cycl.,” Vol. I. pp. 449–450; Gilbert,

“De Magnete,” Book I. chaps. i., viii., xv. and Book II. chap.

ii.; Eloy, “Dict. Hist. de la Médecine,” Vol. I. pp. 223–227;

Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo.

S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 407, 412–413; Dr. W.

Windelband, “History of Philosophy,” auth. tr. by Jas. H. Tufts,

New York, 1893, p. 317; “New Gen. Biog. Dict.,” London, 1850,

Vol. XII. p. 43; “Dict. of Philosophy and Psychology,” by J. M.

Baldwin, New York, 1901, Vol. I. p. 97; “Lectures on Metaphysics

and Logic,” by Sir Wm. Hamilton, London, 1860, Vol. II. pp. 167,

171; “Historical View of the Literature of the South of Europe,”

by J. C. L. S. de Sismondi, London, 1846, Vol. I.

Duns Scotus, John, “Doctor Subtilis” (born about 1270, died in

1308), a very prominent schoolman, who was educated at Oxford,

entered the Order of St. Francis, and became one of the great

founders of scholastic thought. But little is known as to his

origin, except that a monument, erected to his memory at

Cologne during the year 1533, bears the following: “_Scotia me

genuit, Anglia me suscepit, Gallia me docuit, Colonia (Germania)

me tenet_.”

As shown by Luc. Wadding in his “J. Duns-Scoti Opera,” twelve

volumes, published at Lyons in 1639, his works are quite

numerous, the most important consisting of questions and

commentaries on the writings of Aristotle and on the “Sentences”

of Peter Lombard.

Joannes Duns Scotus is very frequently referred to by Dr. W.

Windelband (“History of Philosophy,” auth. tr. by Jas. H.

Tufts, New York, 1893, pp. 311, 314–315, 321–326, 344), and is

mentioned as “the acutest and deepest thinker of the Christian

Middle Ages, who brought the germs of the philosophy of the

will, contained in Augustine’s system, to their first important

development, and so from the metaphysical side gave the impulse

for a complete change in the direction of philosophical thought.”

REFERENCES.--“Dict. of Nat. Biog.,” London, 1888, Vol. XVI. pp.

216–220; Ritter’s “Geschichte der Philosophie”; Dr. Friedrich

Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New

York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 452–457; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol.

VI. p. 1398, containing an extensive list of references; Alfred

Weber, “History of Philosophy,” New York, 1896, pp. 246–252

(tr. of Frank Thilly); “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XV. pp. 256–257; “La

Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XV. pp. 71–72; Pluanski, “Thèse sur Duns

Scot,” Paris, 1887; “The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages,”

W. J. Townsend, London, 1881, “Duns Scotus,” Chap. XV.; J. B.

Hauréau, “La Philosophie Scholastique,” Paris, 1850, Vol. II.

pp. 307–417. Consult also the biographies written by Ferchius,

Berti, Caveili and Veglensis, and, for a complete exposition

of his system, C. Werner, “Die Scholastik des Späteren

Mittelalters,” Vienna, 1881, Vol. I; “Illustrations of the

History of Medieval Thought,” by R. L. Poole, London, 1884.

=A.D. 1254.=--Bacon (Roger), “the most remarkable man in the most

remarkable century of the Middle Ages” (E. H. Plumptre, 1866),

sometimes called Friar Bacon (1214–1294), a Franciscan monk of

Ilchester, who devoted himself to the study of science at Oxford and

Paris and “whose deep penetration into the mysteries of nature justly

entitled him to the appellation of “The Wonderful Doctor,” treats of

the magnet and of its properties at pp. 383–384 of his “Opus Minus” (J.

S. Brewer, “Fr. R. Bacon,” London, 1859), and dwells upon the loadstone

as a _miraculum in parte notum_.

Bacon is also the author of many other works, the most important of

which are his “Opus Majus” and “Opus Tertium” (first published in

English respectively in 1733 and 1859), the last named having been

originally written out for Pope Clement IV and intended to serve as a

preamble to the “Opus Minus” and “Opus Majus,” although it was later

than either in the date of its composition (Brewer, _op. cit._ p.

xliv). Leland has said that it is easier to collect the leaves of the

Sybil than the titles of all of Bacon’s works. At pp. 218–222, Vol.

III. of the ninth edition “Encyclopædia Britannica” will be found a

synopsis of the six parts into which Jebb divided the “Opus Majus”

(pronounced by Whewell “at once the Encyclopædia and the Organum of

the thirteenth century”), and likewise an account of his other works,

besides numerous references to leading authorities.

In the “Opus Tertium,” the last of the series of three which, it is

said, were all completed in about eighteen months, he speaks more than

once of A.D. 1267 as being the then current year. This happens

to be but two years prior to the date of the epistle of Pierre Pélerin

de Maricourt, the great experimentalist (Petrus Peregrinus), whom he

commends (p. lxxv) in the following words: “For there are only two

perfect mathematicians, Master John of London[16] and Master Peter of

Maricourt, the Picard ... who is worth more than any of them ... of

whom I have fully written in my ‘Opus Minus’ and of whom I shall write

more in its proper place.” Of this Master Peter, whom he calls one

of his most illustrious pupils, he further says that, being “struck

with the genius that dawned in his countenance,” he took him under his

protection from his fifteenth year and instructed him so carefully

that he outstripped all of his contemporaries both at Oxford and at

Paris. “There is no one,” adds he, “who knows so much of the root of

Philosophy ...” and one who, “through experiment, gains such knowledge

of things natural, medical, chemical; indeed, of everything in the

heavens or earth.”

Gilbert states (“De Magnete,” Book I. chap. i.) that many believe the

work of Peter Peregrinus on the magnet owes its origin to the opinions

of Roger Bacon. And in the Appendix I to Brewer’s work--p. 537, chap.

vi. “De Experimentis Mirabilibus”--will be found Bacon’s views fully

exposed on the operations of the magnet.

REFERENCES.--“Fratris Rogeri Bacon, O. M. Opus Majus,” S.

Jebb, Londini, 1733; “L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes,” Paris,

1860, by Louis Figuier, who, at p. 97, calls Roger Bacon _La

plus vaste intelligence que l’Angleterre ait possédée_; “Essai

Théorique ... des connaissances humaines,” par G. Tiberghien,

Bruxelles, 1844, Vol. I. pp. 388–389; Dr. Geo. Miller, “History

Philosophically Illustrated,” London, 1849, Vol. II. p. 112;

Humboldt, “Cosmos,” New York, 1860, Vol. II. pp. 43, 229, 241,

245, 318; “Journal des Savants” for March, April, May and

August 1848, also for December 1859 and February 1891; “Origin,

Progress and Destiny of the English Language and Literature,”

by John A. Weisse, New York, 1879, pp. 28, 233–234, 236, 424;

“History of Latin Christianity,” by Henry Hart Milman, London,

1857, Vol. VI. pp. 279–303; “Opus Majus,” by John Henry

Bridges, Oxford, 1897, Vol. I. pp. xxv-xxvi, and Vol. II. pp.

203–206, containing a valuable tabulated list of facts relating

to Bacon’s life; “Roger Bacon,” par Emile Charles, Paris, 1861,

pp. 15–19, 339–391; “De Bibliorum Textibus,” by Dr. Hody; Wm.

Whewell, “History of the Inductive Sciences,” 1858, Vol. I. pp.

512–522, or 1859, Vol. I. pp. 209–210, 245–246, 512–522, Vol.

II. p. 55; also “Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,” London,

1840, Vol. II. pp. 323–337; “The Philosophical Magazine,” Vol.

XII. pp. 327–337; Enfield, Book VII. chap. iii.; “Catalogue

Général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque Nationale,”

Paris, 1901, Vol. VI. pp. 256–259; “Encyclopædia Britannica,”

Edinburgh, 1842, seventh edition. Vol. I. as per Index at p. 17;

“Les Editions de Roger Bacon” in the “Journal des Savants” for

July 1905.

[Illustration: Brunetto Latini. “Li livres dou Trésor.”

Page taken from the 15th century Ms. in the Bibliothèque

Nationale, Paris.]

=A.D. 1260.=--Brunetto Latini, _b._ 1230, _d._ 1294, “maestro del

divino poeta Dante,” celebrated Florentine encyclopædist, composes his

“Tesoro,” rewritten in French (“Livres dou Trésor”), wherein he speaks

clearly of the compass as at some time likely to be useful at sea.

But he adds: “No master mariner dares to use it, lest he should fall

under the supposition of being a magician; nor would even the sailors

venture themselves out to sea under his command if he took with him an

instrument which carries so great an appearance of being constructed

under the influence of some infernal spirit.”

The “Tesoro” is said to be a kind of abridgment of the Bible, of Pliny,

of Solinus, of the Ethics of Aristotle, of the rhetorical writings of

Cicero and of the political works of Aristotle, Plato and Xenophon

(“New Biog. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. IX. p. 205). It would be well to

consult “La Table Générale des bulletins ... Sociétés Savantes,” par

M. Octave Teissier, Paris, 1873, p. 44, regarding the collection of

different manuscripts of Brunetto’s extensive work.

REFERENCES.--Davis, “The Chinese,” 1844, Vol. III. p. xi;

Venanson, “Boussole,” pp. 75, 148–154; Azuni, “Boussole,” p.

139; Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp. 45–46; “Journal des Savants”

for January 1865, also for January and February 1880; “The

Monthly Magazine” for June 1802; Libri, “Hist. des Sciences

Mathématiques,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 64, 152–156.

=A.D. 1265–1321.=--Dante--Durante--(Alighieri), illustrious Italian

poet, regarded as the greatest poetical genius that flourished between

the Augustan and Elizabethan ages, composed, during his exile, the

“Divina Commedia,” which was the first poem written in the Italian

language. In Canto XII. vv. 28–30 of his “Paradiso,” translated by Dr.

Plumptre, he thus alludes to the mariner’s compass:

“Then from the heart of one of those new lights,

There came a voice which made me turn to see,

E’en as the star the needle’s course incites.”

Guido Guinicelli (1240–1276), priest and scholar, and whom Dante

considered not only the greatest of living Bolognese poets, but his

master in poetry (Note: “Purg.,” XXVI. Vol. I. p. 327, v. 92) refers to

the nautical compass in nearly the same terms as Dante (“Rime. Ant.,”

p. 295). He adds: “The mountains of loadstone give the virtue to the

air of attracting iron, but, because it (the loadstone) is far off,

(it) wishes to have the help of a similar stone to make it (the virtue)

work, and to direct the needle toward the star” (P. L. Ginguené, “Hist.

Lit. d’Italie,” Vol. I. p. 413; Guido delle Colonne--Io Colonna da

Messina--Mandella Lett. p. 81, Florence, 1856).

At pp. 35 and 130 of Bertelli’s “Pietro Peregrino di Maricourt,” Roma,

1868, Memoria prima, appear verses said to be by Guinicelli and by

Guido delle Colonne, judge of Messina, who flourished about 1250, and

which are translated literally into English as follows:

“In those parts under foreign skies

Are the mountains of loadstone,

_Which give power to the air_

To attract iron, but, because distant,

It requires to have assistance from similar stones,

To bring it into use,

And direct the needle towards the star.

The learned relate that the loadstone

Could not attract

Iron by its power,

_Were it not that the air between them aids_;

Although the calamite is a stone,

The other existing stones

Are not so powerful

To attract, because they have not the influence.”

The “Paradiso,” translated by A. J. Butler, London, 1885, Canto XII. v.

29, reads: “_Si mosse voce, che l’ago (needle) alla stella_,” and

Fazio degli Uberti in the “Dittamondo” (about 1360) has “_Quel gran

disio, che mi, traeva addietro come ago a calamita_” (III. 2).

REFERENCES.--Hœfer, “Nouv. Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XIII. pp. 21–50,

the last-named page containing an unusual number of citations;

“Biblogr. Dantesca,” by Colomb de Batines, Prato, 1845–1846; “La

Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XIII. pp. 887–901, embracing many

additional references; the note at p. 154 of Plumptre’s “Dante,”

also Humboldt’s “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 629; Libri, “Hist.

des Sc. Math.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 164, etc.; Frederic

C. Harrison, “The New Calendar of Great Men,” London, 1892, pp.

310–315.

[Illustration:

Dante Alighieri. “La Divina Commedia,” Mantuae 1472, the first

page of what is by many regarded as the oldest edition of the

earliest known poem written in the Italian language.

Now in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.]

=A.D. 1266.=--It is shown by Th. Torffæus (Latin for Thormodr

Torfason), an Icelandic scholar (_b._ 1636, _d._ 1719), who published

“Historia Rerum Norvegicarum” (Hafniæ, 1711, IV. c. 4, p. 345), that

at this date the northern nations were acquainted with the mariner’s

compass. In the “History of Norway” here alluded to, he mentions the

fact that the poem of the Icelandic historian, Jarl Sturla (Snorri

Sturlason) written in 1213, on the death of the Swedish Count

Byerges, was rewarded with a box containing a mariner’s compass.

REFERENCES.--Suhm, “In effigien Torfæi, una cum Torfænis”;

“Nouv. Biogr. Générale de Hœfer,” Vol. XLV. p. 495; “New Gen.

Biog. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. XII. p. 263; Jessen, “Norge,”

pp. 83–99; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XV. p. 312; Michaud,

“Biog. Univ.,” Vol. XLI. p. 683.

=A.D. 1269.=--Peregrinus (Petrus), Pierre Pélerin de Maricourt,

Méhéricourt--Magister Petrus de Maharnecuria, Picardus--doubtless a

Crusader, was, as Roger Bacon tells us (“Opus Tertium,” cap. xi) the

only one, besides Master John of London, who, at this period, could be

deemed a thoroughly accomplished, perfect mathematician, and was one

who understood the business of experimenting in natural philosophy,

alchemy and medicine better than any one else in Western Europe.

Peregrinus is the author of a letter or epistle, “Written in

camp at the Siege of Lucera (delle Puglie--Nucerræ) in the year

of our Lord 1269, on the 8th day of August,” addressed to his

_Amicorum intime_, a soldier, by the name of Sygerus de

Fontancourt--Foucaucourt--Foucancort.

Of this epistle, which is the earliest known work of experimental

science, there are but few reliable complete manuscript copies. Most of

these have been very ably analyzed by P. D. Timoteo Bertelli Barnabita

in the exhaustive Memoirs published by him in Rome during 1868, and

still better detailed by Dr. Silvanus P. Thompson in his several

valuable printed researches and lectures on the subject, but there has

been of it only one printed issue in book form, that of the Lindau

physician, A. P. Gasser, which appeared at Augsburg during 1558.

Several attempts at translation have been made, notably by Guillaume

Libri (“Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques ...” Paris, 1838, Vol. II.

p. 487) who admitted that, with the aid of several paleographers, he

could not decipher many of the abbreviated faint characters existing in

the Bibliothèque Nationale manuscript (No. 7378A in quarto,

at folio 67), and by Tiberius Cavallo, who does scarcely better with

the Leyden copy (Fol. Cod. No. 227) which was discovered by him,

and but a portion of which he transcribes in the supplement to his

“Treatise on Magnetism,” London, 1800, pp. 299–320. A translation

was also made by Brother Arnold, of the La Salle Institute in Troy,

N.Y., and published during 1904, but the most meritorious version now

existing is the one entitled “Done into English by Silvanus P. Thompson

from the printed Latin versions of Gasser 1558, Bertelli 1868, and

Hellmann 1898, and amended by reference to the manuscript copy in his

possession, formerly amongst the Phillipps’ manuscripts, dated 1391.”

This translation, “printed in the year 1902, in the Caxton type, to the

number of 250 copies,” reflects very great credit upon Prof. Thompson,

who has given us such a faithful interpretation of the original work

as would naturally be expected at his hands, and who has, besides,

rubricated this right royal little volume and caused it to be issued in

one of the most attractive typographical fashions of the Chiswick Press.

The Hellmann 1898 Berlin version just alluded to, which appeared in

“Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten ...” No. 10 (_Rara Magnetica_),

contains a photographic reproduction of the Augsburg 1558 title-page,

and, it may be added, the volume of Phillipps’ manuscripts, of

which Prof. Thompson became the fortunate possessor, includes one

of Chaucer’s treatises on the Astrolabe, besides the Peregrinus’

manuscript in question.

During the year 1562 much of the original epistle was pilfered by

Joannes Taisnier Hannonius, who badly condensed and deformed it and

incorporated it as new matter, conjointly with some papers of his own,

in a book entitled “Oposculum ... de Natura Magnetis et ejus effectibus

...” Coloniæ, 1562; and that much was translated “into Englishe” by

Richarde Eden, London, about 1579, under title of “A very necessarie

and profitable booke concerning navigation.”

Much has been said at different times regarding the contents of the

above-named epistle, the full title of the Paris MS. No. 7378 of which

reads

“_Epistola Petri Peregrini de Maricourt ad Sygerum de Foucaucourt

militem de magnete_,”

but no _résumé_ of it could better be given than by quoting here its

first page, which has been translated as follows:

This treatise on the magnet contains two parts, of which Part I

is complete in ten chapters, and Part II in three.

Of Part I: Chap. I states the object of the work;

Chap. II, of what the investigator in this line of work should

be;

Chap. III, of a knowledge of the loadstone;

Chap. IV, of the science of the discovery of the parts of the

loadstone;

Chap. V, of the source of the discovery of poles in the

loadstone--which of them is the north and which the south;

Chap. VI, in what manner a magnet attracts a magnet;

Chap. VII, how iron touched with the magnet turns towards the

poles of the globe;

Chap. VIII, in what manner a magnet attracts iron;

Chap. IX, why the northern part attracts the southern part, and

the converse;

Chap. X, of the inquiry whence the magnet derives the natural

power it possesses.

[Illustration: Petrus Peregrinus. “Epistola ... de Magnete.”

The earliest known treatise of experimental science, now in

the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.]

Of Part II: Chap. I, on the construction of an instrument

(floating compass) by which the azimuth of the sun and moon, and

of any star above the horizon, can be ascertained;

Chap. II, on the construction of a better instrument (pivoted

compass) for like purpose;

Chap. III, on the construction of a wheel for perpetual motion.

An analyzation of each chapter in turn will show how satisfactorily

Peregrinus has developed, in connected series, all of the early

experiments upon which are based his theories of the loadstone.

PART I

Chap. I states that the intention or object of the work is to

make known the hitherto hidden nature, occult properties, of

the loadstone, the art of treating the latter, the making of

scientific instruments, and matters of interest to students of

nature, astrologers and sailors.

Chap. II. The investigator in this line should know the natures

of things and understand the motions of the heavenly bodies,

but, above all, he should be assiduous in handiwork for

experimental research.

Chap. III indicates four different requisite qualities of the

loadstone, and tells where they are to be found and how to

select and test them--the best of them being free from flaws, of

great density and of a bluish or celestial colour.

Chap. IV shows how to find in the loadstone the two poles,

one north and the other south, using preferably a globular

magnet,[17] placing thereon a needle or an oblong piece of

iron, and, either drawing lines in the direction taken by the

needle, so that they “may meet at two points, just as all the

meridian circles of the world meet at the two opposite poles

of the world,” or, by merely marking the magnet so that “the

opposite points will be correctly placed just as are the poles

in a sphere.”

Chap. V. In order to find the poles in a stone--which of them is

the North and which the South--take a round wooden vessel shaped

like a skiff (_paropsidis_, _parascidis_), and place

the stone therein, then put the vessel containing the stone into

another large vessel filled with water, so that the first-named

vessel may float into the larger one: “The stone in the first

vessel will be like a sailor in a ship, and the first vessel

may float roomily into the second as does a ship in a river,

and the stone so placed will turn its small vessel acting as

the Northern pole in the direction of the Northern heaven....

If this pole were then turned away a thousand times, a thousand

times would it return to its place by the will of God.”

Chap. VI. Having found which pole is the Northern, mark it so

that it may be known when necessary. Place the stone into a

small vessel, as shown in Chap. V, then hold another stone in

the hand and approach its Northern part to the Southern part of

the stone floating in the vessel, and the floating stone will

follow the other “as if it wished to adhere thereto.... Know

that, as a rule, the Northern part of one stone attracts the

Southern part of another stone and the Southern the Northern.”

Chap. VII. When the needle or oblong piece of iron (alluded to

in Chap. IV) has touched the magnet and been attached to a light

piece of wood or stalk and then placed in a vessel of water,

one part will be turned towards the mariner’s star because it

is near the pole, “the fact being that it does not turn towards

the aforesaid star but towards the pole.” That end of the iron

which has touched the Southern end of the stone turns towards

the Northern quarter of the sky, and _vice versa_.

Chap. VIII. If you wish to attract iron floating on water, hold

the Southern part of a loadstone to the Northern part of the

iron and the iron will follow. But, if you bring the North end

of the stone near the North end of the iron, the latter will

avoid the stone. “If, however, violence is used towards the

ends, so that, for instance, the Southern end of the iron which

was touched with the Northern end of the magnet is now touched

with the Southern end of the magnet ... the power in the iron

will easily be changed, and that will become Southern which was

previously Northern, and the converse.”

Chap. IX. “The Northern part of the magnet attracts the Southern

and the reverse, as has been shown; in which attraction the

magnet is an ‘agent’ of greater power while the ‘patient’

(_i. e._ the other which is acted upon) is, of weaker.” This

is proved by taking a loadstone--marking it, for instance,

AD--dividing, separating it into two parts, and placing one

part (the Northern, marked A, called the “agent”) into water

so that it will float. It will turn “to the North, as before,

for the division does not deprive the parts of the stone of

their properties, if it be homogeneous.” The other part (the

Southern, marked D, called the “patient”) is next to be floated

in a similar manner. When this is done, the other ends of the

two stones should be marked respectively B and C. It will then

be observed that “if the same parts are again brought near each

other, one will attract the other, so that they will be joined

together again at B and C where the division took place. Whence

it is that they become one body with the same natural propensity

as at first. The proof of this is that if they are joined

together they will possess the same oppositions (opposite poles)

they first contained. The ‘agent,’ therefore, as you will see by

experiment, intends to unite its ‘patient’ to itself, and this

takes place on account of the similitude between them.... And,

in the same way, it will happen that if A is joined with D, the

two lines will become one, by virtue of that very attraction,

in this order CD--AB ... there will then remain the identity of

the extreme parts as at first, before they were reunited, for C

will be the North point and B the South point, as B and C were

before.... It is therefore evident, from these observations,

why the Southern parts do attract the Northern, and the reverse,

and why the attraction of the South by the South, and the North

by the North, is not according to Nature.”

Chap. X. “Some weak inquirers have imagined that the power which

the magnet exercises over iron lies in those mineral places in

which the magnet is found ... but it is found in different parts

of the world.... Besides, when iron or the magnet turns towards

the Southern as well as to the Northern quarter, as is evident

from what has already been said, we are compelled to decide

that the attraction is exercised on the poles of the magnet not

only from the locality of its quarry, from which ensues the

evident result that, wheresoever a man may be, the direction

of this stone appears to his eye, according to the position of

his meridian circle. All the meridian circles, however, meet

together at the poles of the globe, wherefore it is that the

poles of the magnet receive their power from the poles of the

world. From this, it manifestly appears that the direction of

the magnet is not towards the mariner’s star, as the meridian

circles do not meet there, but all the poles, for the mariner’s

star is always found beyond the meridian circle of any region

unless it be twice in a complete revolution of the firmament.

Likewise from this, it is manifest that the parts of the magnet

receive their power from the world’s poles ... the whole

magnet from the whole heavens.”[18] Then follows a suggestive

experiment looking towards perpetual motion, by which one may

secure “a wonderful secret” and even “be saved the trouble of

having any clock.” Here, it is given that a _terrella_,

poised on its poles in the meridian, moves circularly with a

complete revolution in twenty-four hours. This is explained by

N. Cabæus in his “Phil. Magn.,” lib. iii. cap. 4.

PART II

Chap. I. He takes a round, or an ovoid magnet, and, after noting

its poles, files it between the two poles on both sides so that

it may be like a compressed sphere and thus occupy less space.

He then encloses this magnet between two light wooden capsules,

or boxes (_cassulas_) after the manner of a mirror ...

so fastened (with glue) that they cannot be opened and water

cannot enter. Then, says he, “place the capsules thus adjusted

in a large vessel full of water in which the two quarters of the

globe, viz. the South and the North, are found and marked, and

let them be indicated by a thread extending from the Northern to

the Southern part of the vessel; allow the capsules, or boxes,

to float and let there be above them a slender piece of wood in

the form (position) of a diameter. Then move this piece of wood

above the boxes until it is equidistant from the meridianal line

previously found and indicated by the thread, or is the same

(line) itself. This being done, according to the piece of wood

so situated, draw a line on the capsules, or boxes, and it will

be the perpetual meridianal line in all countries. That line,

therefore, when cut at right angles by another will be divided

in the centre and will be the line of the East and West. You

will thus have four quadrants actually marked on the capsules,

or boxes, representing the four quarters of the globe, of which

each will be divided into ninety, so that there may be in the

universe CCCLX parts (degrees) in the entire circumference of

the capsules, or boxes. Inscribe divisions on it as they were

formerly inscribed on the back of the astrolabe. There should

be, besides, a slender and light ruler above the capsules so

inscribed after the manner of the ruler on the back of the

astrolabe. Instead, however, of the sights (_pinnularum_),

should be erected at right angles two pins over the ends of the

ruler.”

This floating compass and the pivoted compass described

in the following chapter are to be found illustrated, pp.

67–77, figs. 10 and 12, at end of Part II of Bertelli

Barnabita’s Memoirs above referred to.

Chap. II. For the construction of a “better instrument and of

more certain effects” (the pivoted compass) he says: “Let there

be made a vessel of wood, brass or any other solid material

that you desire, and let it be turned in the shape of a jar

(_pixidis tornatum_) somewhat deep and tolerably large and

let a cover of transparent material, such as glass or crystal,

be fitted to it. If the whole vessel were of transparent

substance so much the better. Let there be placed in the centre

of the same vessel a slender axis of brass or silver, applying

its extremities to the two parts of the jar, that is to say (to

the) higher and lower. Let two holes be then made in the centre

of the axis facing each other at right angles. Then let a piece

of iron wire, like a needle, be passed through one of these

holes and another wire of silver or brass be passed through the

other, intersecting the iron at right angles. Let the cover at

first be divided into quadrants and each of the quadrants into

ninety parts, as was taught regarding the other instrument. Let

North and South and East and West be marked on it and let a rule

of transparent material be added to it with wires set upright at

the ends. You will approach what part of the magnet you please,

whether North or South, to the crystal until the needle moves

towards it and receives virtue from it. When this is done,

turn the vessel until one end (of the needle) stands directly

over the North in the instrument coinciding with the Northern

quarter of the sky. This being done, turn the rule to the sun,

by day, and to the stars, by night, in manner above indicated.

By means of this instrument, you will be enabled to direct your

footsteps to states and islands and to any places on the globe,

and wheresoever you may be, whether on land or on sea, so long

as their latitudes and longitudes are known to you.”

Chap. III. He constructs “a wheel which shall be constantly

in motion,” by making a very thin concave, silver case, after

the manner of a mirror, suitably perforated, around the rim

of which he inserts small iron nails, or teeth, bent closely

toward each other and which he then places upon an immovable

axis so that it may revolve easily.” He continues: “Let a silver

wire be added to this axis, fixed to it and placed between two

bowls on the end of which let a magnet be set, prepared in this

manner. Let it be rounded and its poles ascertained, as before

indicated; afterwards, let it be fashioned in the shape of an

egg with the poles intact, and let it be somewhat filed down

in two intermediate and opposite parts with the object of its

being compressed and occupying less space so that it may not

touch the inner walls ... let the magnet be placed on the wire

... and let the North pole be somewhat inclined towards the

small teeth of the wheel so that it may exercise its power ...

so that each tooth shall arrive at the North pole and, owing

to the impetus of the wheel, shall pass it by and approach the

Southern quarter. Thus every small tooth will be in a perpetual

state of attraction and avoidance. And, in order that the wheel

may perform its duty with greater rapidity, insert, between

the cases, a small round brass or silver pebble of such size

that it may be caught between any two of the small teeth, so

that, as one part of the wheel comes uppermost, the pebble may

fall to the opposite part. Wherefore, whilst the motion of the

wheel is perpetual on one side, the same will be in the case

of the pebble on the other side, or the fall of the pebble

caught between any two of the teeth will be perpetual to the

opposite side because as it is drawn towards the centre of the

earth by its weight, it assists the motion by not suffering the

small teeth to remain at rest in front of the stone. Let there

be spaces, however, between the small teeth conveniently curved,

so as to catch the pebble as it falls in the way the present

description indicates.”

[Illustration: Petrus Peregrinus. Facsimile of a Ms. at the

Bodleian Library, of the “Epistola de Magnete,” wherein is

described the earliest known pivoted compass.]

Gilbert alludes to this perpetual-motion engine as having been devised

or delineated by Peregrinus after he had got the idea from others (“De

Magnete,” Book II. chap. xxxv.), and says that Jerome Cardan writes

(“Opera,” Batav., 1663; “De Rerum Varietate,” Book, IX. chap. xlviii.)

he could construct one out of iron and loadstone--not that he ever saw

such a machine; that he merely offers the idea as an opinion and quotes

from a report of the physician Antonio de Fantis of Treviso published

in “Tabula generalis ac mare magnum scotice subtilitatis....”

In the “Magisterium Naturæ et Artis,” P. Francisci Tertii de Lanis,

Brixiæ, 1684, Tractatus Tertius, Caput Secundum, p. 489, under

Problema, I, _Motus perpetuus magnetis_, will be found allusion

to the machines of (1) P. Peregrinus, as described in his epistle;

(2) Taisnier; (3) Ant. de Fantis (cited by Cardan, as stated above);

also mention of those of P. Schottus, Athan. Kircherus, Hieronimus

Finugius and others; the most important of these being again alluded to

throughout the third chapter of the same tract.

Gilbert makes further allusion to P. Peregrinus in his Book I. chap.

i.; Book II. chap. xxxv.; Book III. chap. i.; Book IV. chap. i.; Book

VI. chap. iv.

The Peregrinus’ Leyden manuscript (Fol. Cod. No. 227) already alluded

to, Libri says (“Histoire des Sciences Mathém....” 1838, Vol. I. p.

383, note), is but a poor copy of the manuscript in the Paris Library

(No. 7378A), from which latter the words _Petri ad Sygerum_ have been

unfortunately transformed into _Petri Adsigerii_. He adds (Vol. II. pp.

70–71) that Humboldt cites (“Examen Critique,” p. 243) several authors

who have alluded to the pretended Adsigerius. Mention is also made of

the fact that W. Wenkebach, professor at the Hague Military School,

examined the manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Nos. 1629, 1794 and

2458, containing the treatise of Peregrinus, and that not one of them

has the passage alluding to the declination. The Leyden manuscript,

by the way, is said to be the only one, besides the Vatican copy, No.

5733, bearing the full date, which latter was first made known by

Thévenot in his “Recueil de Voyages.” And it was a passage found in the

Leyden manuscript (Q 27) which led to the belief that Peregrinus had

first observed the variation or declination of the magnetic needle.

The passage is as follows: “Take note that the magnet, as well as

the needle that has been touched by it, does not point exactly to the

poles, but that the part of it which is supposed to point to the South

sometimes declines a little to the West, and that the part which looks

towards the North sometimes inclines to the East. The exact quantity of

this declination I have ascertained, after numerous experiments, to be

five degrees. However, this declination is no obstacle to our guidance,

because we make the needle itself decline from the true South by nearly

one point and a half towards the West. A point contains five degrees.”

This passage is unquestionably a late addition, being written in a

different hand in a circle which itself is an incompleted outline of

one of the figures of Peregrinus’ primitive compass.

REFERENCES.--“Encyclopædia Metropolitana,” Vol. III. p. 737

(“Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum,” fol. 11, p. 1400; “Catalogue

of the MSS. in the library of Geneva,” by Senebier, p. 207);

“Bulletino di bibliographia e di storia delle scienze ...” B.

Boncompagni, Vol. I. pp. 1–32, 65–99, 101–139, 319–420; Vol. IV.

pp. 257–288, 303–331; “Cat. bibl. publicæ univers. Lug. Bat.,”

p. 365; W. Wenkebach, “Sur Petrus Adsigerius ...” Rome, 1865

(taken from Vol. VII. No. 3 of the “Annali Pura ed Applicata”);

Brunet, “Manuel du Libraire,” 1863, Vol. IV. p. 493; “Br. Museum

Library,” 538, G 17; “Journal des Savants,” for April-May 1848,

and September 1870; Walker, “Magnetism,” 1866, p. 6; “English

Cyclopædia,” Vol. VIII. p. 160, also Dr. Hutton’s “Phil. and

Math. Dictionary”; Thos. Young, “A Course of Lectures on Nat.

Phil. and the Mechanical Arts,” London, 1807, Vol. I. pp. 746,

756; “Electro-magnetic Phenomena,” by T. A. Lyons, New York,

1901, Vol. I. pp. 105–106; Vol. II. p. 565 (with translation of

a portion of the original manuscript); “Examen Critique,” A. de

Humboldt, Paris, 1836, Vol. III. p. 31; “Science and Literature

of the Middle Ages,” Paul Lacroix, London, pp. 88–89, 280–282;

Silvanus P. Thompson, “Proceedings of the British Academy,”

1905–6, p. 377. It may be added that Houzeau et Lancaster,

“Bibl. Générale,” Vol. I. part i. p. 640, allude, at No. 3197,

to a manuscript of P. Peregrinus, “Nova compositio astrolabii

particularis,” as being in the Library of Geneva and as citing

the year 1261 in connection with the astronomical tables of John

Campan (Campanus, Italian mathematician, who died about 1300):

“Biog. Générale,” Vol. VIII. p. 373.

=A.D. 1270.=--Riccioli (Giovanni Battista), an Italian astronomer,

member of the Society of Jesuits, _b._ 1598, _d._ 1671, asserts that at

this period under the reign of St. Louis (1226–1270), French navigators

were already using the magnetic needle, which they kept floating in a

small vase of water, and which was supported by two tubes to prevent

its falling to the bottom.

For a detailed account of the work of this well-known scientist

consult: “Biographie Générale” Vol. XLII. pp. 147–149; Fabroni, “Vitæ

Italorum,” Vol. II; Jean Baptiste Delambre, “Hist. de l’Astron. Mod.,”

1821; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 11; Venanson, “Boussole,” pp.

70–71; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 54; Becquerel, “Résumé,” p. 59; Alex.

Chalmers, “Gen. Biog. Dict.,” 1811, Vol. XXVI. pp. 182–183; Fischer,

“Geschichte der Physik,” Vol. I; Tiraboschi, “Storia della letter.

Ital.,” Vol. VIII; “English Cyclopædia,” Vol. V. pp. 76–77. Riccioli’s

“Almagestum Novum,” Bologna, 1651, in two volumes, gives in book nine

of the second volume the sentence of Galileo. This is the work which

an old savant called “the pandects of astronomical knowledge” (Morhof

Polyhistor, Vol. II. p. 347).

=A.D. 1271–1295.=--Polo (Marco), Paulum Venetum, is reported by many

to have brought the compass from China to Italy. This is, however,

supported by no evidence, nor is any allusion whatever made to the fact

in the account he rendered of his voyage. Before Marco Polo set out on

his travels, as Humboldt states, the Catalans had already made voyages

“along the northern islands of Scotland as well as along the western

shores of tropical Africa, while the Basques had ventured forth in

search of the whale, and the Northmen had made their way to the Azores

(the Bracir islands of Picignano).”

Polo relates that he set out from Acre in 1271, and returned to Venice

“in the year 1295 of Christ’s Incarnation.” His “Travels” (“Il Milione

di Messer Marco Polo”) according to the review of Col. Henry Yule,

consists of a prologue and four books. It was dictated by him to a

fellow prisoner, Rusticiano or Rusticello, of Pisa, and “it would

appear now to be definitely settled that the original was ... of just

such French as we might expect in the thirteenth century from a Tuscan

amanuensis following the oral dictation of an Orientalized Venetian.”

Polo’s journeyings extended “so far to the north that he leaves the

North Star behind him, and thence so far to the south that the North

Star is never seen.”

REFERENCES.--Becquerel, “Elec. et Magn.,” Vol. I. p. 70;

Sonnini, in Buffon, “Minéraux,” Vol. VI. p. 84; Humboldt,

“Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 625, 656, or 1860, pp. 250–251;

“The Book of Ser Marco Polo,” by Sir Henry Yule, New York,

1903, which contains a very extensive bibliography at end of

the second volume; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838,

Vol. II. pp. 26, 140, etc.; D. A. Azuni, “Dissertation sur la

Boussole,” p. 69; Miller, “Hist. Phil. Ill.,” 1849, Vol. I. pp.

179–180; “Encycl. Brit.,” ninth ed., Vol. XIX. p. 407; “Journal

des Savants” for September 1818, also May 1823, and the five

articles published January to May 1867; see also “Centennaire

de Marco Polo,” par. H. Cordier, Paris, 1896, containing

“bibliographie très complète de toutes les éditions de Marco

Polo et des ouvrages qui lui sont consacrés.”

=A.D. 1282.=--Baïlak, native of Kibdjak, wrote this year, in Arabic,

his book on “Stones,” wherein he says that he saw during his voyage

from Tripoli to Alexandria, in 1242, the captains of the Syrian sea

construct a compass in the following manner: “When the night is so

dark as to conceal from view the stars which might direct their course

according to the position of the four cardinal points, they take a

basin full of water, which they shelter from wind by placing it in the

interior of the vessel; they then drive a needle into a wooden peg or

a corn-stalk, so as to form the shape of a cross, and throw it into

the basin of water prepared for the purpose, on the surface of which

it floats. They afterwards take a loadstone of sufficient size to fill

the palm of the hand, or even smaller; bring it to the surface of the

water, give to their hands a rotatory motion towards the right so that

the needle turns on the water’s surface; they then suddenly and quickly

withdraw their hands, when the two points of the needle face north and

south. I have seen them, with my own eyes, do that during my voyage at

sea from Tripolis to Alexandria.”

REFERENCES.--E. Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” New York, 1847,

Vol. II. pp. 221–222, note; “American Journal of Science and

Arts,” Vol. XL. p. 247; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. xii;

Klaproth, “Lettre à M. de Humboldt,” pp. 59, 60, 67; Knight,

“Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. pp. 1371 and 1397; “Electro-Magn.

Phenom.,” by T. A. Lyons, New York, 1901, Vol. II. p. 564.

=A.D. 1302.=--Gioia--Goia (Flavio or Joannes), an Italian pilot

reported born at Positano, near Amalfi, is said by Flamnius Venanson

(“De l’invention de la boussole nautique,” Naples, 1808, pp. 138 and

168) to be the real inventor of the mariner’s compass. This view is

supported by Briet (Philippe), “Annales Mundi,” Vol. VI: Géog. et

Hydrog., lib. x. cap. 8; by Voltaire (“Essai sur les Mœurs,” 1819,

Vol. III. chap. cxli.), and by many others, but Klaproth (“Lettre ...”

1834, pp. 132–136) quotes Anthony of Bologna, called the Panormitan,

as saying that Gioia lived in the fourteenth century and wrote both

“_Prima dedit nautis usum magnetis Amalphis_” and “_Inventrix

præclara fuit magnetis Amalphis_.” He adds that a statement to the

same effect was made by Arrigi Brechmann in his “Historia Pandectarum

Amalphitorum,” Dissertatio I, No. 22, Neapoli, 1735, p. 925, but that

both are equally incorrect, for Gioja could not have invented an

instrument which had already been in use more than a hundred years

before his time.[19]

In his “Essay on Several Important Subjects,” London, 1676, Joseph

Glanvill remarks (p. 33): “I think there is more acknowledgment due to

the name of this obscure fellow, that hath scarce any left, than to a

thousand Alexanders and Cæsars or to ten times the number of Aristotles

and Aquinas’. And he really did more for the increase of knowledge

and advantage of the world, by this one experiment, than the numerous

_subtile disputers_ that have lived ever since the creation of the

School of Wrangling.”

In the “Navigator’s Supply,” published 1597, William Barlowe speaks of

“the lame tale of one Flavius at Amelphus in the Kingdome of Naples;

for to have devised it (the compass) is of very slender probabilitie.”

M. D. A. Azuni says (“Boussole,” 1809, p. 144) that Gioja may have

possibly invented the method of suspending the magnetic needle upon a

perpendicular pivot so that it would remain horizontal whatever the

movements of the vessel. This is very likely; at any rate, it must be

admitted that this particular mode of support permits a freer movement

to the needle in any direction and admits of more exact observations

than when the needle is floating upon the water.

At pp. 487–505, Vol. II of his “Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques,”

Guillaume Libri transcribes all he is able to from the almost illegible

Peter Peregrinus’ manuscript, No. 7378A, in the Paris Bibliothèque,

and refers to the imperfect mode of suspending the magnetic needle

therein shown. It is, says he, similar to that spoken of by Francesco

da Buti (Libri, Vol. II. pp. 67–68; Bertelli, “Pietro Peregrino,” pp.

63–66), who makes first mention of the compass in the Dante commentary

(“Comment, sopra la Divina Commedia”) to be found in the collection of

manuscripts No. 29, held by the Magliabechiana Library of Florence.

He adds that the suspension of the needle is likewise alluded to by

Guerino detto il Meschino, in a work first composed prior to the

“Divina Commedia” (an Italian romance, attributed to one Andrew the

Florentine) as _imbellico_, or _in bellico_, _in bilico_, meaning

in suspense, throughout the editions of Padua, 1473, Bologna, 1475,

Milan, 1482 and Venice, 1480, 1498. Mention is also made by Libri of

the writings of Adélard de Bath on the compass, at p. 62 of his second

volume.

REFERENCES.--Camillus Leonardus, “Speculum Lapidum”; the notes

at p. 180, Vol. I. of Dr. Geo. Miller’s “Hist. Phil. Ill.,”

London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 179, note; Venanson, “Boussole,”

pp. 158, 160; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1398;

Collenutius--Collenuccio--“Compendio ... regno di Napoli,”

Venice, 1591; “Discussione della leggenda di Flavio Gioia,

inventore della bussola” (T. Bertelli, in “Rivista di Fisica

Mat. e Sc. Nat.,” Pavia, 1901, II. pp. 529–541); Matteo Camara,

“Memorie ... di Amalfi,” Salerno, 1876; “Literary Digest,” July

6, 1901, translated from “Le Cosmos,” Paris, June 8, 1901;

Giraldi, “Libellus de Re Nautica,” Bâle, 1540; Admiral Luigi

Fincati, “Il Magnete, la calamita e la bussola,” Rome, 1878;

“Annales de Géographie,” Vol. XI. No. 59, pp. 7–8 for September

15, 1902, and G. Grimaldi in the “Mem. d. Accad. Etrus. di

Cortona”; Paulus Jovius, “Historiarum,” Florence, 1552; Pietro

Napoli Signorelli, “Sull’invenzione della bussola nautica ...”;

M. A. Blondus, “De Ventis,” Venice, 1546; Cælius Calcagninus,

“Thesaurus Græcarum Antiquitatum,” 1697, Vol. XI. p. 761;

Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 149; “Riv. G.

Ital.,” X. 1903, pp. 1, 11, 105–122, 314–334.

For Briet (Philippe), _b._ 1601, _d._ 1668, see Michaud, “Biog. Univ.,”

Paris, 1843, Vol. V. p. 527. The best, most complete edition of Briet’s

“Annales Mundi” is the Venice, 1693.

=A.D. 1327–1377.=--It has been claimed by F. M. Arouet de Voltaire,

who asserts it at Vol. III. pp. 251–252 of his “Essai sur les Mœurs et

l’Esprit des Nations,” Paris, 1809, “that the first well-authenticated

use of the compass” was made by the English during this period, which

is that of the reign of King Edward III.

By Voltaire, the extraordinary (_prodigieuse_) antiquity of the

Chinese is not questioned. They knew of the compass, but he says “it

was not employed by them for its proper use, that of guiding vessels

at sea. They travelled only along the shores. Possessed, as they were,

of a country that furnished everything, they did not feel the need

of going, as we do, to the other end of the world” (Vol. I. pp. 239,

247). Speaking of the Portuguese (Vol. III. p. 257) he says: “It was

not before known if the magnetic needle would point to the south on

approaching the South Pole; it was found to point constantly to the

north during the year 1486.”

From the time of Edward III, the compass was known in England by the

names of _adamant_, _sailing needle_ and _sail-stone dial_, as has been

shown in the writings of Chaucer and others, the most important of

which will be duly quoted in their order. The compass was alluded to,

more particularly, by John Gower, “Confessio Amantis,”[20] Books I and

VI; by Richard Hakluyt, “Voyages,” Vol. I. pp. 213, 215; and by Edward

Fairfax, “Godefroy de Boulogne,” Book XV. s. 18.

It may be well to record here that Voltaire was “confessedly the

foremost name, the acknowledged head of European literature of his

time.” Goethe calls him “the greatest literary man of all time,

the most astonishing creation of the Author of Nature” (“Nouvelle

Biographie,” Vol. XLV. i. p. 445). Though not the first French author

who wrote on the wonderful discoveries of Newton, he was the first to

make them extensively known on the Continent.

REFERENCES.--Sir Harris Nicolas, “Hist. Roy. Navy,” 1847,

Vol. II. p. 180; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 57,

note; Whewell, “Hist. of the Ind. Sc.,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 431;

“Crit. and Misc. Essays,” by Thomas Carlyle, Boston, 1860,

pp. 5–78. “La France Littéraire,” par Joseph M. Quérard,

Vol. X. Paris, 1839, pp. 276–457, devotes as many as 182

pages to bibliographical notices of Voltaire and names 1131

publications written by or relating to him, whilst in Quérard’s

“Bibliographie Voltairienne” will be found a still more extended

account at pp. i-xxxvi and at pp. 1–84.

THE MARINER’S COMPASS

Regarding the mariner’s compass, it can scarcely be doubted, from what

precedes, that it came to the knowledge of Europeans in the manner

indicated under the A.D. 1190 date.

Baïlik of Kibdjak--Baüak Kibdjaki--spoke of its use as generally well

known by the Syrian navigators, who constructed it in exactly the

same way as did the Chinese (A.D. 1111–1117 and A.D. 1282), and which

resembled the compass seen by Brunetto Latini in the possession of

Friar Bacon while in England prior to the year 1260 (Knight, “Mech.

Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1397).

Edrisi (Idrisi or Aldrisi), the most eminent of the Arabian

geographers, is said by Boucher to have given a confirmed account of

the polarity of the magnet, the early knowledge of which by the Arabs

has been shown conclusively by Jacob de Vitry, Vincent de Beauvais and

Albertus Magnus.

Signor P. T. Bertelli, who has been mentioned under the A.D. 1190 date,

could not find any reference, however remote, to the directive property

of the loadstone throughout a careful examination of Latin and Greek

works dating from the sixth century B.C. to the tenth century A.D.

He admits that the directive property was known to the Chinese, who

had made rude floating needle compasses before the beginning of the

Christian era, although these compasses are likely to have been brought

home by the Amalfian sailors, who are, by some writers, represented as

having substituted the pivoted needle as well as added the Rose of the

Winds.[21] He will not, however, recognize the claims made in favour of

Flavio Gioja. On the other hand, A. Botto has shown that the Amalfitans

introduced the compass between the tenth and the eleventh centuries

(“Contributo agli studi storici sull’origine della bussola nautica,”

1899). Consult likewise Vol. IX of “Annales de Géogr. et de Bibliogr.,”

1899, p. 8.

At p. 195 of the December 1904 issue of “Terrestrial Magnetism” is a

short article relative to the claim made that the compass was invented

by a Veronese named Salomone Ireneo Pacifico (A.D. 776–846) during the

first half of the ninth century. It states that Bertelli considers this

due to a misinterpretation of an inscription on Pacifico’s tomb, and

it alludes to Bertelli’s previous paper on the subject in “Terrestr.

Magn.,” Vol. VIII. No. 4, p. 179 (see also the number of “Terrestr.

Magn.” for June 1905, p. 108, and the “Geographical Journal” for March

1905, pp. 334–335).

The earliest recorded use of the compass in a Spanish vessel, according

to Capmany (“Memorias Historicas,” 1792), is to be found in the

Chronicle of Don Pedro Niño, Conde de Buelna, as follows: “It is

reported that Conde’s galleys left the island of La Alharina along the

coast of Bombay ... and the pilots compared their needles which had

been rubbed with the magnet stone....”

In Dr. Plumptre’s notes on Dante, reference is made to the fact that

the European knowledge of the magnetic needle came from Arabia, and,

like Humboldt, he quotes in support thereof an allusion from the

Spanish “Leyes de las Partidas” belonging to the first half of the

thirteenth century. The passage in the last named is spoken of by M.

Fern de Navarrete in his “Discurso historico,” etc., 1802 (II. tit. ix.

ley 28) and reads thus: “The needle which guides the seaman in the dark

night and shows him, both in good and in bad weather, how to direct his

course is the mediatrix (_medianera_) between the loadstone (_la

piedra_) and the north star....” Humboldt adds: “See the passage in

‘Las siete Partidas del sabio Rey Don Alonso el IX’ [according to the

usually adopted chronological order, Alfonso the tenth], Madrid, 1829,

Vol. I. p. 473.”[22]

On the other hand, the knowledge of the compass by the Arabs in the

thirteenth century has been most decidedly contested by E. Renaudot

(“Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine,” Paris, 1717, p. 3);

by D. A. Azuni (“Dissertation sur l’origine de la Boussole,” Paris,

1809, pp. 102, 127); by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (“Coll. Voy.,” 1554,

Vol. I. p. 379); by A. Collina (“Considerazioni,” etc., Faenza, 1748,

p. 121, etc.). Buffon says (“Théorie de la Terre,” Paris, An. VIII.

tome i. p. 300): “I know that some pretend the Arabs have invented

the compass and have used it long before the French (see ‘Abrégé de

l’histoire des Sarrazins,’ de Bergeron, p. 119) ... but that opinion

always appeared to me devoid of reason; for there is no word in the

Arabian, Turkish or Persian tongue which can be made to signify the

compass.... They employ the Italian word _bossola_....”

The same view is entertained by Dr. William Robertson, principal of

the University of Edinburgh, who, after announcing in his “History

of the Reign of Charles V,” London, 1769, Vol. I. p. 78, that the

mariner’s compass was invented soon after the close of the Holy War,

gives at pp. 333–335 of his “Historical Disquisition,” London, 1812,

a translation of the above passage taken from an early edition of

that illustrious French naturalist George Louis Le Clerc, Comte de

Buffon. Robertson adds: “This shows that the knowledge of this useful

instrument was communicated to them (the Arabs) by the Europeans. There

is not one single observation of ancient date made by the Arabians on

the variation of the needle, or any instruction deduced from it for the

assistance of navigators.... When Mr. Niehbuhr was at Cairo, he found a

magnetic needle in the possession of a Mohammedan which served to point

out the _Kaaba_, and gave it the name of _el magnetis_, a

clear proof of its European origin.”

The claims of France to the discovery of the compass have been laid

by some to the fact that the north point of the early instruments

was generally drawn in the form of a _fleur de lys_, but Voltaire

says (“Essai,” etc., Vol. III. p. 251), that the Italians drew this

in honour of the sovereigns of Naples, a branch of the French royal

family. The able writer in the English Cyclopædia (“Arts and Sciences,”

Vol. III. p. 102) considers the design to be only “an _ornamented

cross_ which originated in devotion to the mere symbol; though, as the

compass undoubtedly came, he says, into Europe from the Arabs, the

_fleur de lys_ might possibly be a modification of the _mouasala_, or

dart, the name by which the Arabs called the needle” (“Phil. Mag.,”

Vol. XVIII. p. 88).

REFERENCES.--Hallam, “Middle Ages,” Vol. III. chap. ix. part

ii.; Klaproth, “La Boussole,” pp. 53, 54 and 64–66; Davis, “The

Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 12; “Silliman’s Journal,” XL. 242–250;

“Nautical Magazine,” April 1903; “Ciel et Terre,” Juin 1,

1904, pp. 156–158; “Histoire de la Boussole,” par P. D. M.

Boddært; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. I.

pp. 136–137, 382, etc.; Article “Bussola” in “Nuova Encycl.

Italiana,” by Bocardo, Vol. IV. Torino, 1877, p. 377, poesia

di Ugo di Sercy (Bercy) e di Giovanni di Mehun; “Harper’s

Magazine,” New York, for February, 1904; V. Molinier, “Notice

... boussole au xiii^e siècle,” Toulouse, 1850; G. Grimaldi,

“Dissert. ... della bussola,” Roma, 1741; McCulloch, “Traités

... boussole,” Paris, 1853; Magliozzi, “Notizie ... bussola,”

Napoli, 1849; Dr. Geo. Miller, “Hist. Phil. Illust.,” London,

1849, Vol. I. p. 180, note. For Edrisi, see “Journ. des

Savants,” issued in April and August 1843, and in December 1846.

=A.D. 1391.=--Chaucer (Geoffrey), the father of English poetry,

thus expresses himself in “The Conclusions of the Astrolabie”

(“English Poets,” London, 1810, Vol. I): “I haue giuen thee a

sufficient astrolabye for oure orizont compowned after the latitude

of Oxenforde.... Now hast thou here, the fower quarters of thin

astrolabie, deuided after the fower principall plages or quarters of

the firmament.... Now is thin Orisonte departed in XXIIII partiez by

thi azymutz, in significacion of XXIIII partiez of the world; al be it,

so that ship men rikne thilke partiez in XXXII.”

“Now maugre Juno, Aneas

For all her sleight and her compas

Atcheiued all his auenture.”

“House of Fame,” B. I.

“The stone was hard of adamaunt,

Whereof they made the foundemaunt,

The tour was round made in compas,

In all this world no richer was.”

“Rom. of the Rose.”

“Right as betwene adamants two

Of euen weight, a pece of yron set,

Ne hath no might to moue to ne fro

For what that one may hale, that other let.”

“Assem. of Foules.”

REFERENCES.--“English Poets,” London, 1810, Vol. I. p. 453; Ch.

Wells Moulton, “Library of Literary Criticism,” Vol. I. pp.

77–81.

=A.D. 1436.=--Bianco--Biancho--(Andrea), was an Italian cartographer

living at Venice early in the fifteenth century, who published, in

1436, an atlas exhibiting charts of the magnetic variation. The

knowledge of the latter, which is so indispensable to the correction of

a ship’s reckoning, was then ascertained less by the sun’s rising and

setting than by the polar star.

One of Bianco’s charts, now in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, shows

two islands at the West of the Azores, leading many to believe that he

possessed some knowledge of the existence of North and South America.

In Justin Winsor’s description of Dr. John G. Kohl’s collection of

early maps (“Harvard Univ. Bulletin,” Vol. III. pp. 175–176), it is

said that the original of Andrea Bianco’s Map of the World A.D. 1436,

now at Venice, was reproduced by Joachim Lelewell (“Géographie du Moyen

Age,” Pl. XXXII), and also in M. F. de Barros de Santarem’s “Essai

sur l’histoire de la cosmographie et de la cartographie” (Pls. XXIII,

XLIII).[23] Reference is also made thereto in Winsor’s “Bibliography of

Ptolemy’s Geography,” sub anno 1478. Mr. Winsor adds: “Bianco’s views

are of interest in early American cartography from the deductions which

some have drawn from the configuration of the islands ‘Antillia’ and

‘De la man Satanaxio’--(two islands on its western verge)--that they

represent Pre-Columbian discovery of South and North America.” Humboldt

(“Crit. Untersuchungen,” I. 413, 416) has discussed the question, and

pointed out that one island, “Antillia,” had earlier appeared on a map

of 1425, and D’Avezac finds even earlier references to the same island.

To Andrea Bianco may be ascribed the best of all known forms of

wind-roses. Admiral L. Fincati illustrates, in his well-known pamphlet

“Il Magnete, la Calamita e la Bussola,” Rome, 1878, all the best-known

examples from 1426 to 1612, those of Bianco having upon them either

the _fleur de lys_ (referred to at A.D. 1327–1377) or the letter

=T=[symbol], or designs of a triangle or trident, to indicate the

north, whilst the east is designated by a cross, in same manner as

shown in the 1426 Giraldi and the Oliva 1612–1613.[24]

For other forms and accounts of these rose-of-the-winds or compass

cards, it would be well to consult more particularly Nordenskiöld,

Nils Adolf Erik (1832–1901), “Periplus” (1897), as well as his

“Facsimile Atlas” published eight years previously; Pedro de Medina,

“Arte de Navegar”; Francesco Da Buti, “Comment, sopra la Div. Com.”;

Simon Stevin’s “Haven-finding Art”; Athan. Kircher, “Magnes, sive

de Arte Magnetica”; and Guillaume de Nautonniez, “Mécométrie de

l’Eymant ... déclinaison guideymant pour tous les lieux ...” published

1602–1604.[25]

REFERENCES.--“Biog. Gen.,” Vol. V. pp. 922–923, Mazzuchelli,

“Scrittori d’ Italia”; “New Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902–1903,

Vol. II. p. 796; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. II. p. 672;

Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 55; Johnson’s “New Univ.

Cycl.,” 1878, Vol. III. p. 230; “Der Atlas des Andrea Bianco

vom Jahre 1436 of Oscar Peschel,” Venedig, 1869; Justin Winsor,

“Narrative and Critical Hist. of America,” Boston, 1889, Vol. I.

pp. 50–56, 114, 117; “Formaleoni, saggio sulla nautica antica de

Veneziani,” Venez., 1783, pp. 51–59 (Libri, “Hist. des. Math.,”

Vol. III).

=A.D. 1490–1541.=--Paracelsus (Aureolus Theophrastus)--the assumed

name of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim--a native

of Switzerland, admitted by unprejudiced writers to have been one of

the greatest chemists of his time (Hemmann, “Medico--Sur. Essays,”

Berlin, 1778). The author of “Isis Unveiled” states that he made use

of electro-magnetism three centuries before Prof. Oersted’s discovery,

and that he rediscovered the occult properties of the magnet, “the bone

of Horus,” which, twelve centuries before his time, had played such an

important part in the theurgic mysteries, thus very naturally becoming

the founder of the school of magnetism and of mediæval magico-theury.

But Mesmer, who lived nearly three hundred years after him, and as a

disciple of his school brought the magnetic wonders before the public,

reaped the glory that was due to the fire-philosopher, while the great

master died in want (“Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I. pp. 71, 72, 164).

Madame Blavatsky further adds (Vol. I. p. 167) that the full views

of Paracelsus on the occult properties of the magnet are explained

partially in his famous book “Archidoxorum,” wherein he describes the

wonderful tincture, a medicine extracted from the magnet, and called

“Magisterium Magnetis,” and partially in the “De Ente Dei” and “De Ente

Astrorum,” lib. i.

[Illustration: Christopher Columbus. Photographic

reproduction of his letter, March 21st, 1502, to Nicolo

Oderigo, Ambassador to France and to Spain, which was

acquired by the King of Sardinia and presented by him to the

City of Genoa.

It is now preserved in the Palace of the Genoese

Municipality.]

[Illustration:

_Señor,--La soledad en que nos habeys desado non se puede

dezir. El libro de mys escrituras, di amiçer Françisco de

Ribarol, para que os le enbie, con otro traslado de cartas

mesajeras. Del recabdo y el lugar que porneys en ello, os pido

por merçed que lo escrivays aDon Diego. Otro tal se acabara, y

se os enbiara por la mesma guisa, y el mesmo miçer Françisco:

en ello fallereys escritura nueba. Sus Altezas me prometieron

de me dar todo lo que me pertençe y de poner [en] posesion de

todo aDon Diego como veyreys. Al Señor mi[çe]r Juan Luys y ala

Señora madona Catalina escrivo. La carta va con esta. Yo estoy

de partida en nonbre de la Santa Trinidad con el primer buen

tienpo, con mucho atabio. Si Geronimo de Santi Esteban viene

debeme esperar y no se enb[ali]jar con nada por que tomar[a]n

del lo que pudieren y despues le desaran en blanco. Venga aca y

el Rey y la Reyna le recibiran fasta que yo venga. Nuestro Señor

os aya en su santa guardia. Fecha a xxi de março en Sebilla

1502._

_Alo que mandardes,_

·_S_·

·_S· A ·S_·

_X M Y_

_X[-p]o FERENS._

Sir,--The loneliness in which you have left us cannot be told.

I have given the book of my writings to Messer Francesco di

Rivarola, in order that he may send it to you, with another

transcript of letters missive. Respecting the receipt thereof,

and the place in which you will put it, I beg you to be so

good as to write to Don Diego. Another similar one shall be

finished and sent to you in the same manner, and by the same

Messer Francesco; you will find a new writing in it. Their

Highnesses made me a promise to give me all that belongs to

me, and to put Don Diego into possession of everything, as you

will see. I am writing to Messer Gian Luigi and to the Signora

my Lady Caterina; the letter is going with this one. I am on

the point of setting out, in the name of the Holy Trinity, with

the first fine weather, with a great equipment. If Girolamo da

Santo-Stefano comes, he must wait for me, and not burden himself

with anything, because they will take from him whatever they

can, and will then leave him bare. Let him come hither, and the

King and Queen will receive him until I arrive. May Our Lord

have you in his holy keeping. Done on the 21st of March, in

Seville, 1502.

At your command

·S·

·S· A ·S·

X M Y

Xp̄o FERENS.]

Christopher Columbus. Translation of the letter written by

him to Nicolo Oderigo, shown opposite; made into English by

Mr. G. A. Barwick, B.A., of the British Museum. Permission to

reproduce both original letter and its translation was given

by Messrs. B. F. Stevens & Brown, London.]

In the words of Paracelsus, we give the following extracts concerning

the loadstone, taken from “The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings ...” by

A. E. Waite, London, 1894:

_Vol. I. p. 17._--“The adamant. A black crystal called ... Evax ... is

dissolved in the blood of a goat.”

“The magnet. Is an iron stone, and so attracts iron to itself.

Fortified by experience.... I affirm that the magnet ... not only

attracts steel and iron, but also has the same power over the matter of

all diseases in the whole body of man.”

_Vol. I. pp. 132_ and _145_.--“A magnet touched by mercury or anointed

with mercurial oil, never afterwards attracts iron ... same if steeped

in garlic....”

_Vol. I. p. 136._--“The life of the magnet is the spirit of iron which

can be taken away by rectified _vinum ardens_ itself or by spirit of

wine.”

_Vol. II. p. 59._--“Wherever the magnet has grown--there, a certain

attractive power exists, just as colocynth is purgative and the poppy

is anodyne....”

Mr. A. E. Waite says (Vol. II. p. 3) that the ten books of Paracelsus’

_Archidoxies_ stand in the same relation to Hermetic Medicine as

the nine books _Concerning the Nature of Things_ stand to Hermetic

Chemistry and to the science of metallic transmutation.

REFERENCES.--Biography of Paracelsus, in Larousse, “Dict

Univ.,” Vol. XII. pp. 171–172, in F. Hartmann, 1887, and in the

ninth ed. of the “Encycl. Brit.,” Vol. XVIII. pp. 234–236; Van

Swinden, “Recueil,” etc., La Haye, 1784, Vol. I. pp. 356–358;

Gilbert, “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps. i. and xiv., also Book

II. chap. xxv.; “Journal des Savants” for November 1849; Walton

and Cotton, “Complete Angler,” New York and London, 1847, pp.

212–213, for notes regarding Paracelsus, Robert Fludd, Jacob

Behmen and the Rosicrucians; “Dictionnaire Historique de la

Médecine,” N. F. Eloy, Mons, 1778, Vol. III. pp. 461–471;

“History and Heroes of the Art of Medicine,” J. Rutherfurd

Russell, London, 1861, pp. 157–175; “Histoire Philosophique de

la Médecine,” Etienne Tourtelle, Paris, An. XII. (1804) Vol. II.

pp. 326–346; “History of Magic,” Joseph Ennemoser, London, 1854,

Vol. II. pp. 229–241.

At p. 55 of the first supplement to “Select. Bibliog. of

Chemistry,” by H. C. Bolton, Washington, 1899, mention is made

of the Paracelsus Library belonging to the late E. Schuberth of

Frankfort-on-the-Main ... as containing 194 titles of works on

Paracelsus and 548 titles of works relating to Paracelsus and

his doctrines; the section on Alchemy embracing as many as 351

titles.

=A.D. 1492.=--Columbus, Colombo, Colon (Christopher), the discoverer

of America., is the first to determine astronomically the position of

a _line of no magnetic variation_ (on which the needle points to the

true north) the merit of which discovery has, by Livio Sanuto, been

erroneously attributed to Sebastian Cabot. (Livio Sanuto, “Geographia

distincta in XII libri ...” wherein the whole of Book I is given to

reported observations of the compass and to accounts of different

navigators.)

Columbus did not, as many imagine, make the first observations of the

existence of magnetic variation, for this is set down upon the charts

of Andrea Bianco, but he was the first who remarked, on the 13th of

September, 1492, that “2½ degrees east of the island of Corvo, in

the Azores, the magnetic variation changed and passed from N.E. to

N.W.” Washington Irving thus describes the discovery (“History ... Ch.

Columbus,” Paris, 1829, Vol. I. p. 198): “On the 13th of September, in

the evening, being about two hundred leagues from the island of Ferro

(the smallest of the Canaries), Columbus, for the first time, noticed

the variation of the needle, a phenomenon which had never before been

remarked. He perceived, about nightfall, that the needle, instead of

pointing to the North Star, varied about half a point, or between five

and six degrees to the north-west, and still more on the following

morning. Struck with this circumstance, he observed it attentively

for three days and found that the variation increased as he advanced.

He at first made no mention of this phenomenon, knowing how ready his

people were to take alarm; but it soon attracted the attention of the

pilots, and filled them with consternation. It seemed as if the laws

of nature were changing as they advanced, and that they were entering

into another world, subject to unknown influences (Las Casas, ‘Hist.

Ind.,’ l. i. c. 6). They apprehended that the compass was about to lose

its mysterious virtues; and, without that guide, what was to become

of them in a vast and trackless ocean? Columbus tasked his science

and ingenuity for reasons with which to allay their terrors. He told

them that the direction of the needle was not to the polar star but

to some fixed and invisible point. The variation, therefore, was not

caused by any fallacy in the compass, but by the movement of the North

Star itself, which, like the other heavenly bodies, had its changes

and revolutions, and every day described a circle around the pole. The

high opinion that the pilots entertained of Columbus as a profound

astronomer gave weight to his theory, and their alarm subsided.”

Humboldt says: “We can, with much certainty, fix upon three places in

the _Atlantic line of no declination_ for the 13th of September,

1492, the 21st of May, 1496 and the 16th of August, 1498.”

REFERENCES.--“Columbus and his Discoveries,” in the “Narrative

and Critical History of America,” by Justin Winsor, Boston,

1889, Vol. II. pp. 1–92; “Christopher Columbus, His life, work

...” by John Boyd Thacher, 1903; Giov. Bat. Ramusio, “Terzo

volume delle Navigationi e Viaggi ...” 1556; Dr. Geo. Miller,

“History Phil. Illust.,” London, 1849, Vol. II. pp. 216–219;

David Hume, “History of England,” London, 1822, Vol. III. pp.

387–398; Guillaume Libri, “Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques

en Italie,” Halle, 1865, Vol. III. pp. 68–85; “Columbus, a

Critical Study,” by Henry Vignaud, London, 1903; Weld, “Hist.

Royal Society,” Vol. II. p. 429; Thos. Browne, “Pseudodox.

Epid.,” 1658, Book II. pp. 68–69; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849,

Vol. I. p. 174; Vol. II. pp. 636, 654–657, 671–672, and Vol.

V. (1859) pp. 55–56, 116; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II., pp.

1374, 1397; Poggendorff, “Geschichte der Physik,” Leipzig, 1879,

p. 270; “Raccolta di documenti e studi publicati della R. Com.

Columb. pel 40 Centenario alla scoperta dell’America,” Roma,

1892; Humboldt, “Examen Critique ... progrès de l’astronomie

nautique,” Paris, 1836, Vol. I. pp. 262–272, etc.

It may be worth noting here that the ashes of Columbus, removed from

the Cathedral of Havana, were placed in a mausoleum at Seville,

November 17, 1902 (“Science,” Dec. 12, 1902, p. 958).

Amongst the numerous claimants to the discovery of America, some have

placed the great navigator Martin Behaim--Behem--(1430–1506), who

received his instruction from the learned John Müller (Regiomontanus)

and became one of the most learned geographers as well as the very

best chart maker of his age. Cellarius, Riccioli and other writers

assert that Behaim had, before Columbus, visited the American

Continent, while Stuvenius shows, in his treatise “De vero novi orbis

inventore,” that the islands of America and the strait of Magalhæns

were accurately traced upon the very celebrated globe called the

“World Apple” completed by Behaim in the year 1492, and which is still

to be seen in Behaim’s native city of Nürnberg.[26] (See Mr. Otto’s

letter to Dr. Franklin, in the second volume of the “Transactions of

the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting

useful knowledge,” likewise Humboldt, “Examen critique de l’histoire

de la Géographie,” Vol. II. pp. 357–369; “The Reliquary,” London,

Vol. VI. N.S. Jan.-Oct. 1892, pp. 215–229; Justin Winsor, “Narrative

and Critical History of America,” Boston 1889, Vol. II. pp. 104–105;

“Geogr. Jour.,” Vol. V. March 1895, p. 228.)

It was this same Martin Behaim (Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1860, Vol. II.

p. 255) who received a charge from King John II of Portugal to

compute tables for the sun’s declination and to teach pilots how to

“navigate by the altitudes of the sun and stars.” It cannot now be

decided whether at the close of the fifteenth century the use of the

log was known as a means of estimating the distance traversed while

the direction is indicated by the compass; but it is certain that

the distinguished voyager Francisco Antonio Pigafetta (1491–1534)

the friend and companion of Magellan--Magalhæns--speaks of the log

(_la catena a poppa_) as of a well-known means of measuring the

course passed over. Nothing is to be found regarding way-measurers

in the literature of the Middle Ages until we come to the period of

several “books of nautical instruction,” written or printed by this

same Pigafetta (“Trattato di Navigazione,” probably before 1530); by

Francisco Falero, a brother of Ruy Falero, the astronomer (“Regimiento

para observar la longitud en la mar,” 1535); by Pedro da Medina, of

Seville (“Arte de Navegar,” 1545); by Martin Cortez, of Bujalaroz

(“Breve Compendio de la esfera, y de la arte de navegar,” 1551), and by

Andres Garcia de Cespedes (“Regimiento de Navigacion y Hidrografia,”

1606). From almost all these works--some of which, if not all, have

naturally become very scarce--as well as from the “Summa de Geografia”

which Martin Fernandez de Enciso had published in 1519, we learn most

distinctly that the “distance sailed over” was then ascertained in

Spanish and Portuguese ships not by any distinct measurement, but

only through estimation of the eye, according to certain established

principles. Medina says (lib. iii. caps. 11–12): “In order to know

the course of the ship, as to the length of distance passed over,

the pilot must set down in his register how much distance the vessel

hath made according to hours (_i. e._ guided by the hour-glass,

_ampoleta_); and, for this, he must know that the most a ship

advances in an hour is four miles, and, with feebler breezes, three

or only two.” Cespedes, in his “Regimiento” (pp. 99 and 156) calls

this mode of proceeding _echar punto por fantasia_, and he justly

remarks that if great errors are to be avoided, this _fantasia_

must depend on the pilot’s knowledge of the qualities of his ship.

Columbus, Juan de la Cosa, Sebastian Cabot and Vasco da Gama, were

not acquainted with the log and its mode of application, and they all

estimated the ship’s speed merely by the eye, while they ascertained

the distance they had made merely through the running down of the sand

in the glasses known as _ampoletas_.

REFERENCES.--For F. A. Pigafetta, for Petro de Medina and for

Martin Cortez, Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Génér.,” Vol. I. pt.

ii. pp. 1221–1223; “New Gen. Biog. Dict.,” Jas. Rose, London,

1850, Vol. XI. p. 113; “Biog. Univ.” (Michaud), Vol. XXXIII. p.

297; “Grand Dict. Univ.” (Larousse), Vol. XII. p. 999; “Nouv

Biog. Gen.” (Hœfer), Vol. XL. p. 207. Also Dr. G. Hellmann’s

“Neudrucke,” 1898, No. 10, for reproduction of Francisco

Falero’s “Tratato del Esphera y del arte del marear” (Del

Nordestear de las Agujas), 1535, as well as for reproduction of

Martin Cortez’ “Breve Compendio” (De la piedra Yman), 1551.

=A.D. 1497.=--Gama (Vasco or Vasquez da), celebrated Portuguese

navigator, is known positively to have made use of the compass during

the voyage he undertook this year to the Indies. He says that he

found the pilots of the Indian Ocean making ready use of the magnet.

The first book of the history of Portugal by Jerome Osorius--wherein

he gives (pp. 23–24, Book I. paragraph 15, 1581 ed.) a very extended

“description de l’aiguille marine, invention des plus belles et

utiles du monde”--states that, instead of a needle, they used a small

magnetized iron plate, which was suspended like the needle of the

Europeans, but which showed imperfectly the north.

Gilbert says (“De Magnete,” Book IV. chap. xiii.) that, as the

Portuguese did not rightly understand the construction and use of the

compass, some of their observations are untrustworthy and that in

consequence various opinions exist relative to magnetic variation. For

example, the Portuguese navigator Roderigues de Lazos--Lagos--takes

it to be one-half point off the Island of St. Helena; the Dutch, in

their nautical journal, make it one point there; Kendall, an expert

English navigator, makes it only one-sixth of a point, using a true

meridional compass. Diego Alfonso finds no variation at a point a

little south-east of Cape das Agulhas,[27] and, by the astrolabe, shows

that the compass points due north and south at Cape das Agulhas if it

be of the Portuguese style, in which the variation is one-half point to

the south-east.

REFERENCES.--Azuni, “Boussole,” p. 121; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p.

64; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1398; Larousse, “Dict.,”

Vol. VIII. p. 977; “Voyageurs anciens et modernes” (Charton),

1855; “Le Comte Amiral D. Vasco da Gama,” par D. Maria T. da

Gama, Paris, 1902.

=A.D. 1497.=--Cabot (Sebastian), a prominent English navigator, lands,

June 24, 1497, on the coast of Labrador, between 56 degrees and 58

degrees north latitude.

At p. 150 of the 1869 London edition of Mr. J. F. Nicholl’s “Life of

Seb. Cabot” it is said the latter represented to the King of England

that the variation of the compass was different in many places, and

was not absolutely regulated by distance from any particular meridian;

that he could point to a spot of no variation, and that those whom he

had trained as seamen, as Richard Chancellor and Stephen Burrough, were

particularly attentive to this problem, noting it at one time thrice

within a short space.

REFERENCES.--Richard Hakluyt, “The Principal navigations,

voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the English nation,”

1599: at pp. 237–243, for the voyage of Richard Chancelor,

pilote maior, and, at p. 274, for “the voyage of Steuen

Burrough, master of the pinnesse called the Serchtrift”;

Livio Sanuto, “Geografia,” Venice, 1588, lib. i.; Fournier,

“Hydrographie,” lib. xi.; “Library of Am. Biog.,” by Jared

Sparks, Boston, 1839, Vols. II and VII as per Index at pp.

318–319; “Jean et Seb. Cabot,” par Hy. Harisse, Paris, 1882;

Geo. P. Winship, “The Cabot Bibliography,” London and New

York, 1900; Humboldt, “Examen Critique,” Vol. IV. p. 231, and

“Cosmos,” Vol. II. (1860) pp. 640, 657–658; Biddle, “Memoir of

Seb. Cabot,” 1831, pp. 52–61.

=A.D. 1502.=--Varthema-Vertomannus (Ludovico di) leaves Europe for the

Indies, as mentioned at p. 25 of his “Travels,” translated by J. Winter

Jones, London, 1863, from the original “Itenerario ... ne la India ...”

Milano, 1523. He states that the Arabs who navigated the Red Sea were

known to have long since made use of the mariner’s chart and compass,

and he tells us, in the introduction and at p. 249, that “the captains

carried the compass with the needle after our manner,” and that their

chart was “marked with lines perpendicular and across.” When the polar

star became invisible, they all asked the captain by what he could then

steer them, and “he showed us four or five stars, among which there was

one (_B. Hydrus_) which he said was opposite to (_contrario della_)

our North Star, and that he sailed by the north because the magnet was

adjusted and subjected to our north, _i. e._ because this compass was

no doubt of European origin--its index pointing to the north, and being

unlike that of the Chinese pointing to the south.”

REFERENCES.--Cavallo, “Magnetism,” London, 1787, Chap. IV;

also, “Hakluyt’s Collection of the early voyages, travels and

discoveries,” London, 1811, Vol. IV. p. 547, for “The navigation

and voyages of Lewes Vertomannus.”

=A.D. 1530–1542.=--Guillen (Felipe), an ingenious apothecary of

Seville, and Alonzo de Santa Cruz (who was one of the instructors of

mathematics to young Charles V, King of Spain and Emperor of Germany,

and the _Cosmografo Mayor_ of the Royal Department of Charts at

Seville), construct variation charts and variation compasses by which

solar altitudes can be taken.

REFERENCES.--Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 658, and

1859, Vol. V. p. 56; L. A. Bauer, “U. S. Magn. Tables,” 1902, p.

26.

Although based upon very imperfect observations, the magnetic

charts thus devised by Alonzo de Santa Cruz antedate by more

than one hundred and fifty years the work of Dr. Halley (at

A.D. 1683).

=A.D. 1544.=--Hartmann (Georg) a vicar of the church of Saint Sebaldus,

at Nuremberg, writes March 4, to the Duke Albrecht of Prussia, a

letter which was brought to light by Moser and which reads as follows:

“Besides, I find also this in the magnet, that it not only turns from

the north and deflects to the east about nine degrees, more or less,

as I have reported, but it points downward. This may be proved as

follows: I make a needle a finger long, which stands horizontally on a

pointed pivot, so that it nowhere inclines toward the earth, but stands

horizontal on both sides; but, as soon as I stroke one of the ends

(with the loadstone) it matters not which end it be, then the needle

no longer stands horizontal, but points downward (_fällt unter sich_)

some nine degrees, more or less. The reason why this happens I was not

able to indicate to his Royal Majesty.” The above seems to establish

the fact that Hartmann first observed the dip of the magnetic needle

independently of Robert Norman.

Gilbert refers (“De Magnete,” Book I. chap. i.) to Fortunius

Affaitatus--Affaydatus--an Italian physicist who, says he, has some

rather silly philosophizing about the attraction of iron and of its

turning to the poles, thus alluding to the latter’s small work called

“Physicæ (et) ac astronomiæ (astronomicæ) considerationes,” which

appeared at Venice in 1549. Nevertheless, it is a question whether

Affaitatus was not actually the first to publish the declination of

the magnetic needle. (“Biogr. Gén.,” Vol. I. p. 346; Mazzuchelli,

“Scrittori d’Italia”; Bertelli, “Mem. sopra P. Peregrino,” p. 115;

Adelung, Supplément à Jocher, “Allgem. Gelehrten-Lexicon”; Johann

Lamont, “Handbuch des Magnetismus,” Leipzig, 1867, p. 425; J. C.

Poggendorff, “Biogr.-Lit. Handwörterbuch,” Leipzig, 1863, Vol. I. p.

15; Michaud, “Biogr. Univ. Anc. et Mod.,” Vol. I. p. 208, Paris, 1843;

Brunet, “Manuel,” Paris, 1860; “Biog. Cremonese de Lancetti”; M. le Dr.

Hœfer, “Biog. Gen.,” Paris, 1852, Vol. I. p. 346.)

REFERENCES.--Dove, “Repertorium der Physik,” Vol. II, 1838, pp.

129–130; Poggendorff, “Geschichte der Physik,” 1879, p. 273; L.

Hulsius, “Descriptio et usus,” Nürnberg, 1597; “Ency. Brit.,”

1883, Vol. XV. p. 221; P. Volpicelli, “Intorno alle prime ...

magnete” (Atti dell Acad. Pont. de Nuov. Lincei, XIX. pp. 205,

210).

=A.D. 1555.=--Olaus Magnus, a native of Sweden and Archbishop of Upsala

(where he died during 1568) issued in Rome his great work “Historia de

Gentibus Septentrionalibus,” which, for a long time, remained the chief

authority on Swedish matters. In this book, Gilbert says (“De Magnete,”

lib. i. cap. 1) allusion is made to a certain magnetic island and to

mountains in the north possessing such power of attraction that ships

have to be constructed with wooden pegs so that as they sail by the

magnetic cliffs there be no iron nails to draw out.

To this, reference is made by Thos. Browne (“Pseud. Epidem.,” 1658,

Book II. p. 78) as follows: “Of rocks magnetical, there are likewise

two relations; for some are delivered to be in the Indies and some

in the extremity of the North and about the very pole. The Northern

account is commonly ascribed unto Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala,

who, out of his predecessors--Joannes, Saxo and others--compiled a

history of some Northern Nations; but this assertion we have not

discovered in that work of his which commonly passeth among us; and

should believe his geography herein no more than that in the first line

of his book, where he affirmeth that Biarmia (which is not 70 degrees

in latitude) hath the pole for its zenith, and equinoctial for the

horizon.”

In a Spanish book entitled “The Naval Theatre,” by Don Francisco de

Seylas and Louera, we find two causes assigned for the variation of

the declination; one is “the several mines of loadstones found in the

several parts of the earth ...” the other being that “there is no doubt

but large rocks of loadstones may affect the needles when near them

...” (“Philos. History ... Roy. Acad. Sc. at Paris,” London, 1742, Vol.

II. pp. 279–280).

REFERENCES.--Claudus Ptolemæus, “Geographia,” lib. vii. cap.

2 (and others named by Bertelli Barnabita at foot of p. 21

of his “Pietro Peregrino de Maricourt,” Roma, 1868, viz.

Klaproth, “Lettre sur la Boussole,” Paris, 1834, p. 116; Thos.

H. Martin, “Observ. et Théor. des anciens,” Rome, 1865, p.

304; Steinschneider, “Intorno. alla calamita,” Roma, 1868);

also Albertus Magnus, Lugduni, 1651; Mr. (Thomas) Blundeville,

“His Exercises”; Fracastorio, in the seventh chapter of his

“De Sympathia et Antipathia”; F. Maurolycus, “Opuscula,” 1575,

p. 122a; Lipenius, “Navigatio Salomonis Ophiritica”; Paulus

Merula, “Cosmographia Generalis,” Leyden, 1605; Toussaincte de

Bessard, “Dialogue de la Longitude,” Rouen, 1574; U. Aldrovandi,

“Musæum Metallicum,” 1648, pp. 554, 563, wherein he alludes to

the magnetic mountains spoken of by Sir John Mandeville; Ninth

“Encycl. Brit.,” Vol. XVII. p. 752; also the entry at A.D.

1265–1321.

=A.D. 1558.=--Porta (Giambattista della), Italian natural philosopher

(1540–1615), carries on a series of experiments with the magnet for

the purpose of communicating intelligence at a distance. Of these

experiments, he gives a full account in his “Magiæ Naturalis,” the

first edition of which is said to have been published at Naples when

Porta was but fifteen years of age (“Encycl. Brit.,” article “Optics”).

Prof. Stanley Jones says this is the earliest work in which he has

found allusions to a magnetic telegraph.

Porta’s observations are so extraordinary--and they attracted so much

attention as to justify eighteen separate editions of his work in

different languages prior to the year 1600--that extracts must needs

here prove interesting. They are taken out of “Natural Magick in XX

Bookes by John Baptist Porta, a Neapolitaine ... London 1658,” the

seventh book of which treats “Of the wonders of the loadstone.”

_Proem_: “And to a friend that is at a far distance from us and

fast shut up in prison, we may relate our minds; which I doubt not may

be done by two mariner’s compasses, having the alphabet writ about them

...”

Chap. I (alluding to the loadstone):

“The Greeks do call it _Magnes_ from the place,

For that the Magnet’s hand it doth embrace.”

Nicander thinks the stone was so called--and so doth Pliny--from one

_Magnes_, a shepherd.

In Chap. XVIII he states that “the situation makes the Vertues of the

Stone contrary ... for the stone put above the table will do one thing,

and another thing if it be put under the table ... that part that

drew above will drive off beneath; and that will draw beneath that

drove off above: that is, if you place the stone above and beneath in a

perpendicular.”

In Chap. XXV, in allusion to “a long concatenation of iron rings,” he

thus quotes Lucretius:

“A stone there is that men admire much

That makes rings hang in chains by touch.

Sometimes five or six links will be

Fast joyn’d together and agree.

All this vertue from the Stone ariseth,

Such force it hath ...”

Chap. XXVII alludes to the Statue hung by Dinocrates: “... but that is

false, that Mahomet’s chest hangs by the roof of the Temple. Petrus

Pellegrinus saith, he shewed in another work how that might be done:

but that work is not to be found.... But I say it may be done--because

I have now done it--to hold it fast by an invisible band, to hang in

the air: onely so, that it be bound with a small thread beneath, that

it may not rise higher: and then striving to catch hold of the stone

above, it will hang in the air, and tremble and wag itself.”

In Chap. XXVIII he says that “Whilst the loadstone is moved under a

table of wood, stone or any metal, except iron, the needle in the

mariner’s compass will move above, as if there is no body between them.

St. Augustine (‘Liber de Civitate Dei’) knew this experiment (likewise

alluded to by Camillus Leonardus in his ‘Speculum Lapidum,’ published

1502). But that is much more wonderful that I have heerd: that if one

hold a loadstone under a piece of silver, and put a piece of iron above

the silver, as he moves his hand underneath that holds the stone, so

will the iron move above; and the silver being in the middle, and

suffering nothing, running so swiftly up and down, that the stone was

pulled from the hand of the man, and took hold of the iron.”

Chap. XXX is headed: “A loadstone on a plate of iron, will not stir

iron,” and he again quotes Lucretius:

“Pieces of iron I have seen

When onely brass was put between

Them and the Loadstone, to recoil:

Brass in the middle made this broil.”

In Chap. XXXII he tells us that an Italian “whose name was Amalphus

... knew not the Mariner’s Card, but stuck the needle in a reed, or a

piece of wood, cross over: and he put the needles into a vessel full of

water that they might flote freely: then carrying about the loadstone,

the needles would follow it: which being taken away, as by a certain

natural motion, the points of the needles would turn to the north

pole: and, having found that, stand still.... Now the Mariner’s Compass

is made, and a needle touched with the Loadstone, is so fitted to it,

that, by discovering the pole by it, all other parts of the heavens are

known. There is made a rundle with a Latin-navel upon a point of the

same metal, that it may run roundly freely. Whereupon, by the touching

onely of one end, the needle not alone partakes of the vertues of it,

but of the other end also, whether it will or not....”

Chap. XLVIII is headed “Whether Garlick can hinder the vertues of the

loadstone.” By Porta we are informed that “Plutarch saith Garlick is at

great enmity with the loadstone; and such antipathy and hatred there

is between these invisible creatures, that if a loadstone be smeered

with Garlick, it will drive away iron from it,” which is confirmed by

Ptolemy, who states “that the loadstone will not draw iron, if it be

anoynted with Garlick; as Amber will no more draw straws, and other

light things to it, if they be first steeped in oyl.” He found that

when the loadstone “was all anoynted over the juice of Garlick, it did

perform its office as well as if it had never been touched with it.”

In Chap. LIII Porta denies “that the diamond doth hinder the

loadstone’s vertue.” “Some pretend,” says he, “there is so much discord

between the qualities of the loadstone and the diamond, and they are so

hateful, one against the other, and secret enemies, that if the diamond

be put to the loadstone, it presently faints and loses all its forces.

(Pliny.) The loadstone so disagreeth with the diamond, that if iron be

laid by it, it will not let the loadstone draw it; and if the loadstone

do attract it, it will snatch it away again from it. (St. Augustine.)

I will say that I have read of the loadstone: how that, if the diamond

be by it, it will not draw iron; and, if it do when it comes neer the

diamond, it will let it fall” (Marbodeus, of the Loadstone ... Marbodei

Galli ... de lapidibus pretiosis Enchiridion ... Freiburg, 1530, 1531):

“All loadstones by their vertue iron draw;

But of the diamond it stands in awe:

Taking the iron from’t by Nature’s Law.”

“I tried this often, and found it false; and that there is no truth in

it.”

With reference to the above, see Plat (at A.D. 1653), who also

alludes to the fact of the softening of the diamond with Goat’s blood.

This is alluded to by Porta in the next chapter.

Chapter LIV contains extracts from Castianus in Geoponic. Græc.,

Marbodeus and Rhenius, the interpreter of Dionysius.

In 1560 there was established at Naples, by the versatile Giam. della

Porta, the first Academy of Sciences--Academia Secretum Naturæ--to

which were admitted only those who had contributed to the advancement

of medicine or to scientific studies in general (“Science,” December

19, 1902, p. 965).

REFERENCES.--Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.” Vol. IV. pp.

108–140, 399–406; Houzeau et Lancaster, Vol. II. p. 229; The

Fourth Dissertation of the “Encycl. Brit.,” p. 624; Sarpi, at

A.D. 1632; Poggendorff, “Geschichte der Physik,” 1879, pp. 133,

273–274; “Encycl. Brit.,” the article on “Optics”; “Journal des

Savants” for September 1841.

=A.D. 1575–1624.=--Boehm--Böhme--Behmen (Jacob), a mystical German

writer, known as the theosophist _par excellence_, is the author

of “Aurora,” etc. (1612), “De Tribus Principiis” (1619) and of many

other treatises, which were reprinted under the title of “Theosophia

Revelata,” and which contain his many very curious observations

concerning astrology, chemistry, theology, philosophy and electricity.

REFERENCES.--“Notice sur J. Boehm,” La Motte-Fouqué, 1831;

“Notes and Queries” for July 28, 1855, p. 63; Ninth “Britan.,”

Vol. III. p. 852; J. Ennemoser, “History of Magic,” Vol. II. pp.

297–328.

=A.D. 1576.=--Norman (Robert), a manufacturer of compass needles at

Wapping, is the first who determined the _dip or inclination_ to the

earth of the magnetic needle in London, by means of a dipping needle

(inclinatorium) of his own making. Five years later (1581) Norman

publishes a pamphlet “The Newe Attractive, containing a short discourse

of the Magnes or Lodestone, and amongest other his vertues, of a newe

discouered secret, and subtill propertie concernyng the Declinyng of

the Needle, touched therewith, under the Plaine of the Horizon ...”

from which is taken the following:

“Hauing made many and diuers compasses and using alwaies to finish and

end them before I touched the needle, I found continuallie that after I

had touched the yrons with the stone, that presentlie the north point

thereof woulde bend or decline downwards under the horizon in some

quantitie; in so much that to the flie of the compass, which was before

levell, I was still constrained to put some small piece of ware on the

south point and make it equall againe ...” (Weld, “History of the Royal

Society,” 1848, Vol. II. p. 432).

In the fourth chapter of his work, Norman describes the mode of making

the particular instrument with which he was enabled to establish the

first accurate measurement of the dip “which for this citie of London,

I finde, by exact obseruations to be about 71 degrees 50 mynutes.”

Whewell thus alludes to several investigations in the same line:

“Other learned men have, in long navigations, observed the differences

of magnetic variations, as Thomas Hariot, Robert Hues, Edward Wright,

Abraham Kendall, all Englishmen: others have invented magnetic

instruments and convenient modes of observation such as are requisite

for those who take long voyages, as William Borough, in his book

concerning the variation of the compass; William Barlo, in his

‘Supplement’; Robert Norman, in his ‘Newe Attractive.’ This is that

Robert Norman (a good seaman and an ingenious artificer) who first

discovered the _dip_ of magnetic iron” (“Enc. Metr.,” p. 738; read

also paragraph 366 of J. F. W. Herschel’s “Prelim. Disc.,” 1855).

In Book I. chap. i. of Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” he says that Norman

posits a point and place toward which the magnet looks but whereto

it is not drawn: toward which magnetized iron, according to him, is

collimated but which does not attract it. He alludes again to this

“respective point” (Book IV. chaps. i. and vi.), saying that Norman

originated the idea of the “respective point” looking, as it were,

toward hidden principles, and held that toward this the magnetized

needle ever turns, and not toward any attractional point: but he was

greatly in error, albeit he exploded the ancient false opinion about

attraction. Gilbert then proceeds to show how this theory is proved by

Norman. The original passage in Norman’s “Newe Attractive” (London,

1581, Chap. VI) is as follows:

“Your reason towards the earth carrieth some probabilitie, but I prove

that there be no _Attractive_, or drawing propertie in neyther of these

two partes, then is the _Attractive_ poynt lost, and falsly called

the poynt _Attractive_, as shall be proved. But because there is a

certain poynt that the needle alwayes respecteth or sheweth, being

voide and without any _Attractive_ propertie: in my judjment this

poynt ought rather to bee called the poynt _Respective_.... This poynt

_Respective_, is a certayne poynt, which the touched needle doth always

_Respect_ or shew....”

For the means of determining the _dip or inclination_, see “English

Ency.”--Arts and Sciences--Vol. VIII. p. 160.

We have thus far learned that the _declination or variation_ was

alluded to by Peter Peregrinus (A.D. 1269) in the Leyden MS.; that

Norman was the first to determine the _dip or inclination_, and we

shall, under the 1776 date, find that Borda determined the third

magnetic element called the _intensity_.

In 1581 appeared “The newe attractive ... a discours of the variation

of the cumpas ... made by W. B(orough).” This was followed, in 1585 and

in 1596, by “The newe Attractive ... newly corrected and amended by M.

W. B.,” also, in 1614, by “The New Attractive, with the application

thereof for finding the true variation of the compass, by W. Burrowes.”

Norman is also the author of “The safegarde of Saylers, or Great Rutter

... translated out of Dutch ... by R. Norman,” 1590, 1600, 1640.

REFERENCES.--Noad, “Manual of Electricity,” London, 1859, p.

525; Gassendi, at A.D. 1632; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859–1860,

Vol. I. p. 179; Vol. II. pp. 281, 335; Vol. V. p. 58; Geo.

Hartmann, A.D. 1543–1544; “Nature,” Vol. XIII. p. 523;

Walker, “Magnetism,” p. 146, and, for a photo reproduction

of the title-page to the 1581 edition as well as a copy of

its contents, see G. Hellmann “Neudrucke ...” 1898, No. 10;

also Sidney Lee, “Dict. of Nat. Biogr.,” Vol. XLI. p. 114,

and William Whiston (1667–1752), “The Longitude and Latitude,

discovered by the Inclinatory or Dipping Needle,” London, 1721.

=A.D. 1580.=--The celebrated naturalist Li-tchi-tchin, who finished his

_Pen-thsao-Kang-Mou_ towards the end of 1580, says: “If the loadstone

was not in love with iron it would not attract the latter.” Eight and

a half centuries before, about the year A.D. 727, the same allusion

had been made by Tchin-Thsang-Khi in his “Natural History” (Klaproth,

“Lettre à M. de Humboldt ...” Paris, 1834, p. 20).

=A.D. 1580.=--In Parke’s translation of the “History of the Kingdom of

China,” written by Juan G. de Mendoza, a Spanish missionary sent to the

Chinese Empire by Philip II, appears the following (Vol. II. p. 36):

“The Chinos doo gouerne their ships by a compasse deuided into twelue

partes and doo vse no sea cardes, but a briefe description of Ruter

(Ruttier--Routier--direction book) wherewith they do nauigate or saile.”

=A.D. 1581.=--Burrowes--Borough--Burroigh (William), “a man of

unquestionable abilities in the mathematiques,” Comptroller of the

English navy in the reign of Elizabeth, who has been alluded to as

Robert Norman, is the first in Europe to publish well authenticated

observations upon the magnetic variation or declination made by him

from actual observation, while voyaging between the North Cape of

Finmark and Vaigatch (Vaygates). These are recorded at length in his

little book dedicated to “the travaillers, seamen and mariners of

England” and entitled “A Discourse of the Variation of the Cumpas, or

Magneticall Needle. Wherein is Mathematically shewed, the manner of the

observation, effects, and application thereof, made by W. B. And is to

be annexed to The Newe Attractive of R. N. 1581 (London).”

At pp. 7 and 8 of his “Terrestrial and Cosmical Magnetism,” Cambridge,

1866, Mr. Walker gives extracts from the twelve chapters of Burrowes’

work which, “containing, as it does, the first recorded attempt at

deducing the declination of the needle from accurate observations,

must be considered as making an epoch in the history of terrestrial

magnetism.”

REFERENCES.--Johnson, “New Univ. Encycl.,” 1878, Vol. III. p.

230, and the tables of the variations at pp. 274–275 of Vol.

II. of Cavallo’s “Elements of Natural Philosophy,” 1825. See

the photo reproduction of “A Discourse ...” 1596 ed. in G.

Hellmann’s “Neudrucke ...” 1898, No. 10.

=A.D. 1585.=--Juan Jayme and Francisco Galli made a voyage from the

Philippines to Acapulco, solely for the purpose of testing by a long

trial in the South Sea a declinatorium of Jayme’s invention, from which

M. de Humboldt says (“Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 56) some idea may be

formed of the interest excited in reference to terrestrial magnetism

during the sixteenth century.

=A.D. 1586.=--Vigenere (Blaise de), in his annotations to Livy (“Les

cinq premiers livres de Tite-Live,” Paris, 8vo, Vol. I. col. 1316)

alludes to the possibility of communicating the contents of a letter

through a thick stone wall by passing a loadstone over corresponding

letters circumscribing the compass needle.

REFERENCES.--“Emporium of Arts and Sciences,” Vol. I. p. 302;

Fahie, p. 20.

=A.D. 1589.=--Acosta (Joseph d’), learned Jesuit, who has been already

mentioned under the A.D. 121 entry, says in Chap. XVII. lib. i. of

his masterly “Historia Natural de las Indias” (“Histoire Naturelle et

Moralle des Indes tant Orientalles qu’Occidentalles,” traduite par

Robert Reynault Cauxois, 1598, 1606) that he is able to indicate four

lines of no variation (instead of one only discovered by Columbus)

dividing the entire surface of the earth: “foure poyntes in all the

world, whereas the needle looked directly towards the North.” Humboldt

remarks that this may have had some influence on the theory advanced,

in 1683, by Halley, of four magnetic poles or points of convergence.

REFERENCES.--Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859–1860, Vol. I. pp. 66, 193,

note; Vol. II. pp. 280, 281; Vol. V. p. 140.

=A.D. 1590.=--Cæsare (Giulio-Moderati), a surgeon of Rimini, observes

the conversion of iron into a magnet by position alone. This effect

was noticed on a bar which had been used as a support to a piece of

brickwork erected on the top of one of the towers of the church of St.

Augustine as is mentioned at the 1632 entry of Pietro Sarpi.

=A.D. 1597.=--Barlowe--Barlow (William)--who died May 25, 1625, and

was Archdeacon of Salisbury--publishes his “Navigators’ Supply,”

from which the following is extracted: “Some fewe yeares since, it so

fell out that I had severall conferences with two East Indians which

were brought into England by Master Candish (Thomas Cavendish, one

of the great navigators of the Elizabethan Age) and had learned our

language.... They shewed that in steade of our compas they (in the East

Indies) use a magneticall needle of sixe ynches long ... upon a pinne

in a dish of white _china_ earth filled with water; in the bottome

whereof they have two crosse lines for the foure principall windes, the

rest of the divisions being reserved to the skill of their pilots.”

Barlowe also published in 1613, 1616 and 1618 different editions of his

work on the magnet, the full title of the last named being “Magneticall

Advertisements or diuers pertinent obseruations and approued

Experiments concerning the nature and properties of the Loadstone.

Whereunto is annexed a briefe Discoverie of the idle Animadversions of

Mark Ridley, Dr. in Physike upon this treatize.”[28] Therein (Preface

to the reader), he speaks of “That wonderful propertie of the body of

the whole earth called the magneticall vertue (most admirably founde

out and as learnedly demonstrated by Doctor Gilbert, physitian vnto our

late renowned soveraigne Queen Elizabeth of happy memory) is the very

true fountaine of all magneticall knowledge. So that although certain

properties of the loadstone were knowne before, yet all the reasons of

those properties were vtterly vnknowne and never before revealed (as I

take it) vnto the sonnes of man....” Just before the Preface appears

the following letter which (as William Sturgeon remarks) affords a good

idea of the opinion entertained by Gilbert of Barlowe’s talents in this

branch of science: “To the Worshipfull, my good friend, Mr. William

Barlow, at Easton by Winchester. Recommendations with many thanks for

all your paines and courtesies, for your diligence and enquiring, and

finding diuers good secrets, I pray proceede with double capping your

Loadstone you speake of, I shall bee glad to see you, as you write,

as any man. I will haue any leisure, if it were a moneth, to conferre

with you, you haue shewed mee more,--and brought more light than any

man hath done. Sir, I will commend you to my L. of Effingham, there

is heere a wise learned man, a Secretary of Venice, he came sent by

that State, and was honourably receiued by her Majesty, he brought me

a lattin letter from a Gentleman of Venice that is very well learned,

whose name is Iohannes Franciscus Sagredus, he is a great Magneticall

man and writeth that hee hath conferred with diuers learned men of

Venice, and with the Readers of Padua, and reporteth wonderfull liking

of my booke, you shall haue a coppy of the latter: Sir, I purpose to

adioyne an appendix of six or eight sheets of paper to my booke after

a while, I am in hand with it of some new inuentions, and I would haue

some of your experiments, in your name and inuention put into it, if

you please, that you may be knowen for an augmenter of the art. So far

this time in haste I take my leaue the XIII of February. Your very

louing friend, W. GILBERT.”

Speaking of William Barlowe, Anthony à Wood says: “This was the person

who had knowledge of the magnet twenty years before Dr. Will. Gilbert

published his book of that subject, and therefore by those that knew

him he was accounted superior, or at least equal, to that doctor for

an industrious and happy searcher and finder out of many rare and

magnetical secrets” (“Athenæ Oxonienses,” London, 1813, Vol. II. p.

375). Under heading of Gilbert, the “British Museum Catalogue of

Printed Books,” 1888, has it that “Mag. Adv.” was compiled partly from

“De Magnete.”

REFERENCES.--Mark Ridley, “Magn. Animad.,” 1617, p. xi; Cavallo,

“Magnetism,” 1787, p. 46; A.D. 1302; Sidney Lee, “Dict. of

Nat. Biogr.,” Vol. III. pp. 233–234; “La Grande Encycl.” (H.

Lamisault), Vol. V. p. 430; Pierre Larousse, “Grand Dict. Univ.

du xix^e siècle,” Paris, 1867, Vol. II. p. 239; Claude Augé, “Le

Nouveau Larousse,” Vol. I. p. 738; “Wood’s Ath. Ox.” (Bliss),

Vol. II. p. 375; Hœfer, “Nouv. Biogr. Univ.,” Vol. IV. p. 53;

“Biogr. Britannica”; Hutton, “Mathem. Dict.”; “British Annual,”

I.

=A.D. 1599.=--Wright (Edward), English mathematician, connected

with the East India Company and author of the Preface to Gilbert’s

original “De Magnete,” published in London “Die Havenvinding--The

Haven-finding Art: Translation of Simon Stevinus’ ‘Portuum

investigandorum ratio,’” in which is urged the advantage of keeping

registers of the variations observed on all voyages. Thus, says

Lardner, the _variation of the variation_ not only as to time, but

as to place, had at this period begun to receive the attention of those

engaged in navigation.

Wright constructed for Prince Henry a large sphere which represented

the motion of the planets, moon, etc., and he predicted the eclipses

for seventeen thousand one hundred years. He is said to have discovered

the mode of constructing the chart which is known by the name of

Mercator’s Projection.

Simon Stevinus, above mentioned, also called Stephanus--Simon

of Bruges--was a most distinguished mathematician and physicist

(1548–1628), and is alluded to by Edward Wright not only in the Preface

to Gilbert’s “De Magnete” above referred to, but also in Book IV.

chap. ix. of the latter work. The English translation of “Portuum

investigandorum ratio” was afterwards attached to the third edition of

Wright’s “Certaine errors in navigation detected and corrected.”

REFERENCES.--“English Cycl.,” Vol. VI. p. 834; “Biogr. Génér.,”

Vol. XLIV. pp. 496–498; Larousse, “Dict.,” Vol. XIV. p. 1100;

G. Hellmann, “Neudrucke ...” 1898, No. 10; “Chambers’ Encycl.,”

1892, Vol. IX., p. 725; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XXX. pp.

489–490; Montucla, “Hist. des Mathém.,” Paris, An. VIII. Vol.

II; Quetelet, also Van de Weyer, “Simon Stevin,” 1845; “Mémoires

de l’Académie,” Paris, 1753, p. 275; Steichen, “Vie et Travaux

de S. Stevin,” 1846; “Terrestrial Magnetism,” Vol. I. p. 153,

and Vol. II. pp. 37, 72, 78.

=A.D. 1599.=--Pancirollus (Guido)--Panciroli (Gui)--already quoted at

A.D. 121, further remarks: “The ancients sailed by the pole star, which

they call _Cynosura_. The compass is believed to have been found at

Amalfi, about 300 years ago by one Flavius. And this unknown fellow (if

it was Flavius) hath deserved more than 10,000 Alexanders and as many

Aristotles.... This single act hath improved knowledge and done more

good to the world than all the niceties of the subtle schools.”

REFERENCES.--“History of Things Lost,” London, 1715, Vol.

II. p. 338; Græsse, Vol. V. p. 117; also his biography in

Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XII. p. 108, and in the “Dict. de

Biographie,” Vol. II. p. 2012.

=A.D. 1600.=--Schwenter (Daniell), Professor of Oriental languages

at Altdorff, describes, under the assumed name of Janus Hercules

de Sunde, in his “Steganologia et Steganographia,” the means of

communicating intelligence at a distance by employing two compass

needles circumscribed with an alphabet, the needles being shaped from

the same piece of steel, and magnetized by the same magnets.

Under caption “The First Idea of the Electric Telegraph,” the following

appeared in the “Journal of the Franklin Institute,” Vol. XXI. 1851, p.

202: “In the number of the _Philosophical Magazine_ for May, 1850, I

[N. S. Heineken] observe that Prof. Maunoir claims, for his friend Dr.

Odier, the first idea of the electric telegraph. I herewith send you

a translation of ‘How two people might communicate with each other at

a distance by means of the magnetic needle,’ taken from a German work

by Schwenter, entitled ‘Deliciæ Physico-Mathematicæ,’ and published at

Nürnberg in 1636 ... upward of a century before the period alluded to

by Prof. Maunoir. Indeed, Oersted’s grand discovery was alone wanting

to perfect the telegraph in 1636. The idea, in fact, appears to have

been entertained prior even to this date, for Schwenter himself quotes,

at p. 346, from a _previous_ author.” This “previous author” is either

Giambattista della Porta, mentioned at A.D. 1558, or Famianus Strada,

who appears herein under the A.D. 1617 date.

The passage from Dr. Louis Odier’s letter relative to an electric

telegraph is given at A.D. 1773 (see J. J. Fahie, “A History of

Electric Telegraphy to the Year 1837,” London, 1884, pp. 21–22).

=A.D. 1600.=--Gilbert--Gilberd--Gylberde (William), of Colchester

(1544–1603), physician to Queen Elizabeth and to James I of England,

justly called by Poggendorff “The Galileo of Magnetism,” publishes

his _“De magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno magnete

tellure; Physiologia nova, plurimis et argumentis et experimentis

demonstrata,”_ to which he had given “seventeen years of intense

labour and research”[29] and which he dedicates “alone to the

true philosophers, ingenuous minds, who not only in books but in

things themselves look for knowledge,” and wherein the phenomena of

electricity are first generalized and classified.

This great work is subdivided into six books, which respectively treat

of the loadstone, of magnetic movements (_coitio_), of direction

(_directio_), of variation (_variatio_), of declination (_declinatio_),

and of the great magnet, the earth[30] of circular movement

(_revolutio_).

BOOK I

After Gilbert has given in this Book an account of ancient and modern

writings on the loadstone,[31] he indicates exactly what the latter is,

where found, its different properties, and, having introduced us to

his _terrella-microge_, or little earth[32]--a globular loadstone,

showing that it has poles answering to the earth’s poles, he tells

us all about iron ore, its natural and acquired poles, the medicinal

virtues attributed by the ancients to iron as well as to the loadstone;

and he ends this First Book with the announcement that loadstone and

iron ore are the same, that iron is obtained from both, like other

metals from their ores, and that all magnetic properties exist, though

weaker, both in smelted iron and in iron ore; furthermore, that the

terrestrial globe is magnetic and is a loadstone; and that just as in

our hands the loadstone possesses all the primary powers (forces) of

the earth, so the earth, by reason of the same potencies, lies ever in

the same direction throughout the universe.