The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-06-24
The Eighteenth Century,

"hat the preceding century achieved
in science, is thus present ed by NJ. Tame,
in one of his chapters on "The Ancient
Regime" 1t is well to realize on what
shoulders we are mounted, when We mar
vel at the height of the present epoch
For the first time in history the sciences
expand and affirm each other to the extent
of providing, not as formerly, under Calico
and Descartes, constructive fragments, or
provisional scafolding, but definite and
demonstrated system of the universe, that
of Newton. Around this capital fact, al
most all the discoveries of the century.
either as complementary or as prolouga-
tions, range themselves. In pure mathe-
matics We have the Infnitesimal Calculus
discovered simultaneously by Leibnitz and
Newton, mechanics reduced by d Alembert
to single theorem, and that superb col
lection of theories which, elaborated by
the Bernoaillis, Euler, Clairaut, dAlem-
bert, Taylor aud Maclaurin, is finally COM
pieted at the end of the century by Monge,
Lagrange, and Laplace. In Astronomy,
the series Of calculations and observations
which, from Newton to Laplace, transforms
science into problem of mechanics, ex-
plains and predicts the movements of the
planets and Of their satellites, Indicating
the origin and formation of our solar sys.
TEN, and, extending beyond this, through
the discoveries of Herschel, affording an
insight into the distribution of the stellar
archipelagoes and of the grand outlines of |
celestial architecture. In Physics, the
decomposition of light and the principles
of optics discovered by Newton, the We
lOcity of sound, the form of its fluctuations,
and, from Sauyeur to Chladni, from New
ton to BernOuilli and Lagrange, the expe-
rimental laws and leading theorems of
Acoustics, the primary laws of the radia-
ton of heat by Newton, Kraft, and Lam
bert, the theory of latent heat by Black
the proportions Of caloric by Lavoiser and
lAplace, the first true conceptions of the
source Of fire and heat, the experiments,
laws, and means by which Duray, Nollet,
franklin, and especially Coulomb, explain.
manipulate and, for the first time, utilize
electricity. In Chemistry, all the foun.
dations of the science isolated oxygen, |
nitrogen and hydrogen, the composition of
water, the theory Of combustion, chemical
nomenclature, qualitative analysis, the in.
destructibility Of matter, in short. the
discoveries of Scheele, Priestley, Cayen.
dish and Stahl, crowned with the clear
and concise theory of Lavoisier. In Min
eralogy, the goniometcr, the constancy of
angles and the primary laws of derivation
by Rome de Lisle, aud next the discovery
OF types and the mathematical deduction
OF secondary forms by Hauy. Iu Geolo-
gy, the yerifcation and results Of Newton's
theory, the exact form Of the earth. the
depression of the poles, the expansion of
the equator, the cause and the law of the
tides, the primitive auidity of the planet,
the consistency Of It's internal heat. and
then, with Button, Desmarets, Hutton and
Werner, the aqueous or igneous origin of
rocks, the qualification Of the earth, the
structure Of beds Of fossils, the prolonged
and repeated submersion Of continents.
the slow growth of animal and vegetable
deposits, the vast antiquity of life, the
dfpadations, fractures and gradual trans
formation of the terrestrial surface, and
finally, the grand picture in which Button
describes in approximatiye features The
entire history Of our globe, from the mo-
ment it formed mass Of glowing lava
down to the time when our species, after
SO many lost or surviving species, was able
to inhabit it. 4 #.