ability in some proportion to his own, and must be ill supplied by one
incompetent to judge of the talents of a man, who as a physician, a
linguist, an antiquary, a mathematician, scholar, and philosopher, in
their most difficult and abstruse investigations, has added to almost
every department of human knowledge that which will be remembered to
aftertimes—“who,” as was justly observed by Mr. Davies Gilbert, in
his eloquent address to the Royal Society, over which he so worthily
presided, “came into the world with a confidence in his own talents
growing out of an expectation of excellence entertained in common
by all his friends, which expectation was more than realized in the
progress of his future life. The multiplied objects which he pursued
were carried to such an extent, that each might have been supposed to
have exclusively occupied the full powers of his mind; knowledge in
the abstract, the most enlarged generalizations and the most minute
and intricate details, were equally affected by him; but he had most
pleasure in that which appeared to be most difficult of investigation.”
The president added, that “the example is only to be followed by those
of equal capacity and equal perseverance; and rather recommends the
concentration of research within the limits of some defined portion of
science, than the endeavour to embrace the whole.”
Dr. Young’s opinion was, that it was probably most advantageous to
mankind, that the researches of some inquirers should be concentrated
within a given compass, but that others should pass more rapidly
through a wider range—that the faculties of the mind were more
exercised, and probably rendered stronger, by going beyond the
rudiments, and overcoming the great elementary difficulties, of a
variety of studies, than by employing the same number of hours in
any one pursuit—that the doctrine of the division of labour, however
applicable to material product, was not so to intellect, and that it
went to reduce the dignity of man in the scale of rational existences.
He thought it so impossible to foresee the capabilities of improvement
in any science, so much of accident having led to the most important
discoveries, that no man could say what might be the comparative
advantage of any one study rather than of another; and though he would
scarcely have recommended the plan of his own as the model of those of
others, he still was satisfied in the course which he had pursued.
It has been said, that the powers of imagination were the only ones of
which he was destitute. From the highly poetical cast of some of his
early Greek translations, this is at least doubtful. It might, perhaps,
have been said more justly, that he never cultivated the talent of
throwing a brilliancy on objects which he had not ascertained to
belong to them. Dr. Young was emphatically a man of truth. The truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, was the end at which he
aimed in all his investigations, and he could not bear, in the most
common conversation, the slightest degree of exaggeration, or even of
colouring. Now, all exercise of what is ordinarily called imagination,
is the figuring forth something which, either in kind or in degree, is
not in truth existent; and whether originally gifted with this faculty,
or otherwise. Dr. Young would, on principle, have abstained from its
indulgence.
To sum up the whole with that which passes all acquirement, Dr.
Young was a man in all the relations of life, upright, kind-hearted,
blameless. His domestic virtues were as exemplary as his talents
were great. He was entirely free from either envy or jealousy, and
the assistance which he gave to others engaged in the same lines of
research with himself, was constant and unbounded. His morality through
life had been pure, though unostentatious. His religious sentiments
were by himself stated to be liberal, though orthodox. He had
extensively studied the Scriptures, of which the precepts were deeply
impressed upon his mind from his earliest years; and he evidenced the
faith which he professed, in an unbending course of usefulness and
rectitude.
A
CATALOGUE
OF THE
WORKS AND ESSAYS
OF THE LATE
DR. YOUNG.
(Found in his own Hand-Writing, to 1827.)
A
CATALOGUE,
&c.
1. A short Note on Gum Ladanum, with a verbal Criticism on Longinus,
signed with his initials, and inserted in the Monthly Review for
1791, seems to have been his first appearance before the Public. The
criticism was admitted by Dr. Burney to be correct.
2. In the Gentleman’s Magazine for April 1792, Observations on the
Manufacture of Iron: an attempt to remove some objections to Dr.
Crawford’s theory of Heat, which had been advanced by Dr. Beddoes.
3. Entomological Remarks; Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1792: on the
habits of Spiders; on a passage of Aristotle, with an illustration of
the Fabrician System; and a plate of the mouth of an insect.
4. Observations on Vision: Philosophical Transactions, 1793, p. 169,
explaining the accommodation of the Eye, from a muscular power in
the crystalline lens—a theory not altogether new, but immediately
afterwards claimed by John Hunter, as a discovery of his own.
5. Contributions to Hodgkin’s Calligraphia Græca, 4to. London, 1794;
including Lear’s Curses in Iambics.
6. Description of an Opercularia. Linnæan Transactions, Vol. III. p.
30. London 1797: read in 1794. The Opercularia, Aspera of Gaertner,
called by Persoon, Cryptospermum Youngii, from the name here suggested.
7. Some Notes and an Epigram, in Dalzel’s Collectanea Græca, 8vo.
Edinburgh, 1795.
8. De Corporis Humani viribus oonservatricibus, Dissertatio, 8vo.
Gottingen, 1796: an Inaugural Dissertation, collected from a
multiplicity of authors.
9. Translation of Lichtenstein on the Genus Mantis. Linnæan
Transactions, Vol. VI. p. 1.: read in 1797.
10. The Leptologist. British Magazine, 1800: a series of Essays on
Grammar, Criticism, Geometry, Paintings, Manners, Riches, Exercises,
Medicine, and Music; some of them reprinted afterwards.
11. 12. There is also an account of the French Calendar and Measures,
and an Essay on the Morals of the Germans.
13. Experiments and Enquiries respecting Sound and Light. Philosophical
Transactions, 1800, p. 106: the vibrations of the air observed by means
of smoke; those of strings counted, and their orbits observed with a
microscope; their harmonics suppressed at pleasure.
14. A Bakerian Lecture on the Mechanism of the Eye. Philosophical
Transactions, 1801, p. 23: describing a new Optometer, and shewing that
the eye retains its power of accommodation under water; measuring also
the dispersive power of the eye. (Dr. Y. remarks, that he “afterwards
found that his own eye lost almost the whole of its power of
accommodation soon after fifty, remaining fixed at its greatest focal
distance.”)
15. A Letter respecting Sound and Light. Nicholson’s Journal, August
1801, in answer to Professor Robison, of Edinburgh.
16. A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Natural and Experimental
Philosophy; 8vo. London, 1802: presenting a Mathematical Demonstration
of the most important Theorems in Mechanics and in Optics; and
containing the first publication of the general law of the INTERFERENCE
OF LIGHT, which has been considered as the happiest result of all the
Author’s efforts. It was not till the year 1827, that the importance of
this law could be said to be fully admitted in England: it was in that
year that the Council of the Royal Society, adjudged Count Rumford’s
Medal to M. Fresnel, for having applied it, with some modifications, to
the most intricate phenomena of polarized light.
17. A Bakerian Lecture on the Theory of Light and Colours; Phil. Trans.
1802, p. 12, developing the law of Interference, and entering into all
the details of the theory to which it leads; dwelling, at the same
time, upon the difficult points, with somewhat more of candour than
might have been consistent with his object, had he been anxious to
obtain proselytes.
18. An Account of some Cases of the Production of Colours, p. 387,
containing a simpler statement of some applications of the same law,
intended to exhibit the facts in a more concentrated form.
19. A Reply to Mr. Gough’s Remarks. Nicholson, November 1802, p. 1.
This Letter, together with some subsequent Correspondence, relates
principally to the coalescence or composition of Sounds, affording an
analogy to the interference of Light.
20. Journals of the Royal Institution, 8vo. London, 1802–3. A first
volume, and part of a second, were edited, and chiefly written, by Dr.
Young.
21. Experiments and Calculations relative to Physical Optics.
Phil. Trans. 1804, p. 1. Another Bakerian Lecture, continuing the
demonstration and the application of the law of Interference.
22. A Reply to the Animadversions of the Edinburgh Reviewers, 8vo.
1804:—a defence of the Papers printed in the Transactions against two
articles supposed to have been written by Mr. Brougham.
23. To an Imperial Review, which was an unsuccessful speculation of
some booksellers in 1804, he contributed several medical and some
other miscellaneous articles. The works that he reviewed were, _Dumas
Phisiologie_, Darwin’s Temple of Nature, Blackburn on Scarlet Fever,
Percival’s Medical Ethics, Fothergill’s Tic Douloureux, Crichton’s
Table, Nisbet’s Watering Places, Rowley on Madness, _Hutton’s Ozanum_,
Buchan on Sea-Bathing, _Robison’s Astronomy_, Winterbottom’s Sierra
Leone, Macgregor’s Medical Sketches, Wilson’s Philosophy of Physic,
Richerand’s Physiology, and Joyce’s Scientific Dialogues.
24. An Essay on the Cohesion of Fluids. Phil. Trans. 1805, p. 71,
containing many of the results which were published as new about
a year afterwards, by La Place. The mathematical reasoning, for
want of mathematical symbols, was not understood, even by tolerable
mathematicians; from a dislike of the affectation of algebraical
formality, which he had observed in some foreign authors, he was led
into something like an affectation of simplicity, which was equally
inconvenient to a scientific reader.
25. A COURSE OF LECTURES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND THE MECHANICAL ARTS;
two volumes, 4to. London, 1807. This elaborate work was the result of
the unremitting application of five years; two, whilst the Author was
engaged in giving the Lectures at the Royal Institution, and three more
in compiling the mass of references contained in the second volume, and
in incorporating their results, when requisite, with the text of the
first. By means of numerous plates, and by indexes of various kinds,
he had endeavoured to render the book as convenient for occasional
reference, as it was correct for the purposes of methodical study. (The
failure of the booksellers who published this work, at the moment of
its appearance, so greatly injured its sale at the time, that it did
not repay the expenses of the publication; and Dr. Young considered
that his labours were first generally appreciated by the Natural
Philosophers of the Continent.)
26. Remarks on Looming, or Horizontal Refraction. Nicholson, July
1807, p. 153, supplying some deficiencies in Dr. Wollaston’s Theory,
particularly with regard to the occurrence of actual Reflection.
27. A Table of Chances, with remarks on Waves. Nicholson, Oct. 1807, p.
116.
28. A Theory of Covered Ways and Arches. Nicholson, Dec. 1807, p. 24.
29. Remarks on a Pamphlet of Professor Vince. Nicholson, April 1808,
p. 304; pointing out the mathematical fallacy of the Professor’s
supposed refutation of the hypothesis of Newton respecting the cause of
Gravitation.
30. Calculation of the rate of Expansion of a supposed Lunar
Atmosphere. Nicholson, June 1808, p. 117.
31. Determination of the Figure of a gravitating Body. Nicholson, June
1808, p. 208.
32. Calculation of the Attraction of a Spheroid. Nicholson, August
1808, p. 273.
33. A Review of Sinclair on Longevity. British Critic.
34. Abstracts and Criticisms in the “Retrospect,” about 1808 and 1809.
35. Hydraulic Investigations. Phil. Trans. 1808, p. 164; principally
subservient to an intended Croonian Lecture.
36. A SYLLABUS OF A COURSE OF LECTURES ON THE ELEMENTS OF THE MEDICAL
SCIENCES; 8vo. London, 1809. These Lectures were delivered for two
seasons at the Middlesex Hospital. (Dr. Young remarks, that “they
were little frequented, on account of the usual miscalculation of the
Lecturer, who gave his audience more information in a given time, than
it was in their power to follow.”)
37. Computation of the Depression of Mercury in the Barometer. Nich.
March 1809, p. 215. Continuation of the Paper on the Cohesion of
Fluids, Oct. p. 81.
38. Remarks on the Friction of Wheels, in Buchanan’s Essay on
Wheel-work, 8vo. Glasgow, 1809.
39. A Croonian Lecture on the Heart and Arteries. Phil. Trans. 1809,
p. 1: attempting to demonstrate, on Mathematical principles, that the
larger arteries can have little or no concern in propelling the blood
by their active muscular powers.
40. A Numerical Table of Elective Attractions. Phil. Trans. 1809, p.
148: with remarks on the sequences of double decompositions, shewing
that if numerical expressions of electric attractions are possible,
their effects in double decompositions may be compendiously expressed
by tables of sequences only.
41. A Memoria Technica for Elective Attractions, in a few Latin
hexameters. Nich. April, 1809.
42. Account of the Pharmacopeia Londinensis, in Cumberland’s London
Review, 1810.
43. To the earlier Volumes of the _Quarterly Review_ he contributed
a variety of Articles, which frequently, according to the custom
of modern times, contained more of original research than of
immediate criticism. To Vol. I. La Place, Action Capillaire. Vol. II.
Haslam, Pinel, Cox, and Arnold, on Insanity; La Place, Refraction
Extraordinaire. Vol. III. _Herculanensia_; Jones on the Gout; _Memoires
d’Arcueil_. Vol. VI. Cuthbert on the Tides. Vol. VIII. Davy’s
Chemical Philosophy. Vol. IX. Blackall on Dropsies. Vol. X. ADELUNG’S
MITHRIDATES; Göthe on Colours. Vol. XI. _Malus. Biot. Seebeck and
Brewster, on Light_; Bancroft on Dying; Davy’s Agricultural Chemistry;
Adams on Ectropium. Vol. XIII. _Wells on Dew_. Vol. XIV. Jamieson and
Townsend on Languages; Pym and Fellowes on Yellow Fever, an article
printed, but not published in the Work. Vol. XIX. p. 411. _Restoration
and Translation of the Inscription on the Sphynx._
44. Berzelius on Definite Proportions, from the German, appeared in
several successive numbers of the Philosophical Magazine, from January
1813 to April 1814.
45. A Theory of the Tides. Nicholson, July–Aug. 1813.
46. AN INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL LITERATURE, INCLUDING A SYSTEM OF
PRACTICAL NOSOLOGY, 8vo. London, 1813: a work of considerable labour,
though far less arduous than the “Natural Philosophy.” The Appendix
contains an abstract of Berzelius’s Animal Chemistry, from the Swedish.
To a second edition, published in 1828, were added the References to
later Journals, and an Essay on Palpitations, which first appeared in
the fifth Volume of the Medical Transactions of the College of London.
47. Remarks on the Employment of Oblique Riders, and on other
Alterations in the construction of Ships. Phil. Trans. 1814, p. 303;
the substance of a Report before presented to the Board of Admiralty,
relating to Sir Robert Sepping’s Improvements, with some additional
illustrations.
48. An Investigation of the Thrust of soft Substances. Hutton’a
Mathematical Dictionary, Edition 2, 1815. Article, Pressure.
49. A PRACTICAL AND HISTORICAL TREATISE ON CONSUMPTIVE DISEASES: 8vo.
London, 1815; being a condensed abstract of every thing recorded
to have been said or done, with regard to Consumption. Particular
circumstances had pressed the publication of this Work within nine
months after it had been commenced.
50. In the eighteenth Volume of the Archæologia, London, 1815, appeared
some _Remarks on Egyptian Papyri_, and on the INSCRIPTION OF ROSETTA,
annexed to a communication made by Sir William Edward Rouse Boughton,
Bart. They contain an interpretation of the principal parts of both the
Egyptian Inscriptions on the Pillar found at Rosetta, AND CONSEQUENTLY
A KEY TO THE LOST LITERATURE OF ANCIENT EGYPT; though, for professional
reasons, the discovery was made public with as little parade as
possible.
51. Extracts of Letters and Papers relating to the Egyptian Inscription
of Rosetta, in the Museum Criticum of Cambridge, Part VI. 8vo. 1815; a
Correspondence with MM. Silvestre de Sacy, and Akerblad.
52. An Investigation of the Pressure sustained by the fixed supports
of flexible Substances. Phil. Mag. Sep. 1813, applied to the Hoops of
Casks, and to Dock Gates.
53. An Algebraical Expression of the Values of Lives. Phil. Mag. Jan.
1816, with a Diagram.
54. Account of some Thebaic Manuscripts, written on leather. Legh’s
Narrative, 4to. London, 1816.
55. Additional Letters relating to the Inscription of Rosetta; the
first addressed to the Archduke John, who had lately been in England;
the second to M. Akerblad, Museum Criticum VII. _The Letters were
printed and distributed in_ 1816; _the Journal was not published till_
1821. THEY ANNOUNCE THE DISCOVERY OF THE RELATION BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT
KINDS OF EGYPTIAN LETTERS, OR CHARACTERS—the basis on which the system
of M. Champollion was afterwards erected.
56. Letters of Canova, and two Memoirs of Visconti, translated from the
French and Italian. 8vo. London. 1816. A volume of 200 pages, which
was completed in twelve days; together with remarks on an error of
Delambre, which was afterwards confuted more at large by Mr. Cadell.
57. It was in 1816, that Dr. Young complied, with an application made
to him by Mr. M^{c}Vey Napier, to write some articles for a Supplement
to the Encyclopædia Britannica, conducted under the superintendence of
that gentleman, and completed in 1825.
The Articles which he furnished were: Atwood — Addendum to Annuities
— Bathing — G. Beccaria — Bloch — Borda — Boulton — Bramah — BRIDGE —
Brisson — Bryant — Camus — _Notes_ on Carpentry — Cavallo — _Cavendish_
— _Chromatics_ — Cohesion — Condamine — Coulamb — Dolland — Dolomieu —
Duhamel — EGYPT — Fermat — Fluents — F. Fontana — G. Fontana — J. R.
Forster — J. G. A. Forster — Fourcroy — Frisi — Guyton de Morveau —
Herculaneum — Hydraulics — Ingehousz — Lagrange — La Lande — Lambert
— LANGUAGES — Lemmonier — Luc — Malus — Maskelyne — Mason — Mechain
— Messier — Orme — Pallas — Pauw — PORSON — Preservers of Life —
Road-making — _Robison_ — Rush — _Steam-Engine_ — Tennant — Thomson —
Count Rumford — TIDES — Tooke — Wakefield — Watson — Weights and
Measures — Polarization by Arago, translated, with _Notes_, In all,
about sixty-three articles, each marked with two different letters.
(These were two consecutive letters of the sentence “Fortunam ex
aliis;” the _u_ in _fortunam_ being sometimes printed as a _v_.)
58. Remarks on some Theorems relating to the Pendulum. Phil. Trans.
1818, p. 95, in a Letter to Captain Kater.
59. Translation of some Greek Inscriptions. Light’s Travels. 4to.
London, 1818.
60. Specimen of a Greek Manuscript in the possession of the Earl of
Mountmorris, 1819. Archæologia, vol. XIX. This may possibly have been
a pawnbroker’s account: another piece nearly resembling it was sent by
Mr. Salt to the British Museum.
61. Remarks on the Probabilities of Error in Physical Experiments, and
on the Density of the Earth, considered especially with regard to
the reduction of Experiments on the Pendulum. Phil. Trans. 1819, p.
70, computing the density of the earth, upon the supposition of the
commpression of a homogeneous elastic substance only.
62. Dr. Young edited the Nautical Almanac, from the year 1819, for the
remainder of his life.
63. Remarks on Laplace’s latest Computation of the Density and
Figure of the Earth. Brando’s Journal, April 1820; determining the
Ellipticity, on the supposition of a compressed elastic substance.
64. Dr. Young furnished quarterly, for many years, to Brande’s
Philosophical Journal, about twenty pages of Astronomical and Nautical
Collections, beginning in 1820; the greater part either original or
translated by himself.
65. Appendix to the second edition of Belzoni’s Travels, 4to. London,
1821.
66. ELEMENTARY ILLUSTRATION OF THE CELESTIAL MECHANICS OF LAPLACE, 8vo.
London, 1821; with some additions relating to the motions of Waves, and
of Sound, and to the cohesion of Fluids. (This volume, and the article
“Tides,” in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Dr. Young
considered as together containing the most fortunate of the results of
his mathematical labours.)
67. AN ACCOUNT OF SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES IN HIEROGLYPHICAL LITERATURE
AND EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES, including the author’s original Alphabet, as
extended by M. Champollion, 8vo. London, 1823; with a translation of
some Greek Manuscripts on Papyrus, the most remarkable of which was Mr.
Grey’s “Antigraph” of an Egyptian original then lying on his table; the
discovery of which singular coincidence was the immediate cause of the
publication of the volume.
68. Hieroglyphics, collected by the Egyptian Society, folio. London,
1823—a collection of Plates of Egyptian Antiquities subservient to the
study of Hieroglyphical Literature, lithographized at the expense of
about fifty subscribers, but not at that time publicly sold. The second
number, plates 16 to 40, contains nearly all that was known of the
interpretation of the Hieroglyphics, the evidence for each word being
exhibited in a comparative Index.
(This work was entirely carried on by Dr. Young; but the subscriptions
not being adequate to the expenses, it was afterwards made over to the
Royal Society of Literature, he undertaking to continue the supervision
as before.)
69. A finite and exact Expression for the Refraction of an Atmosphere
nearly resembling that of the Garth. Phil. Trans. 1824, p. 159; a
computation derived from an optical hypothesis not exactly agreeing
with the probable height of the physical atmosphere, but affording
correct results.
70. Remarks on Spohn and Seyffarth. Brande’s Phil. Journal, Oct. 1826,
in a Letter addressed to the Baron William Von Humboldt.
71. A Formula for expressing the Decrement of Human Life; in a Letter
addressed to Sir Edward Hyde East, Bart. Phil. Trans. 1826, intended
to render the interpolation from the best observations more regular:
it is followed by a correction of Dr. Price’s mistake, rejecting the
periodical payments of annuities.
72. Practical Application of the Doctrine of Chances, as it regards
the subdivision of Risks. Brande’s Phil. Journ. Oct. 1826; shewing the
Limitations under which Speculations on Probabilities may be conducted
with prudence.
73. Remarks on Mr. Peyron’s Account of the Egyptian Papyrus. Brande’s
Phil. Journ. Jan. 1827—the great Greek Papyrus of Turin: in which Mr.
Grey’s three contracts are cited and explained,—not two of them only,
as had been supposed by Mr. Peyron.
_The following Articles, of a later date than those contained in the
above Catalogue, are known to have been written by Dr. Young._
74. Hieroglyphical Fragments. Brande’s Philosophical Journal,
April–June, 1827.—Hieroglyphical Fragments; with some Remarks
on English Grammar: in a Letter to Baron William Von Humboldt.
Brande’s Phil. Journal, July–September, 1827.—Hieroglyphical
Fragments, illustrative of Inscriptions preserved in the British
Museum; with some Remarks on M. Champollion’s Opinions: in a
Letter to the Cavalier San Quintino. Brande’s Phil. Journal,
October–December, 1827.—Hieroglyphical Fragments. Brande’s Phil.
Journal, January–March, 1828.
75. A Letter to M. Arago, relating to M. Champollion’s Discoveries:
dated, Geneva, July 1828. Inserted in the Classical Journal, No. 75.
76. Comparison of different Tables of Mortality. Brande’s Phil.
Journal, December 1828.
77. Letter to Mr. Bailey, April 1829.
78. A Translation of Fresnel’s Elementary View of the Undulatory Theory
of Light. In various Numbers of Brande’s Phil. Journal; commenced in
January 1827, and concluded in April 1829.