The evening times., 1899-01-14
A MEDIEVAL INVENTOR
The Wonderful Scientific Accom-
pIishments of Leonardo dn Incl
From the London Daily News.1

The range and amount Of his discoveries are
eNjTaoi tluaTy. and no one need grudge him his
scientific laureis. tcT his MSS have only recently
been published and the truths wEicl. hc OWNED.
but did not issue 10 the world. had TO be suhsc-
quently redscoyeTed by Others. His tame has
been otSoured partly owing 10 the great range
OF his attaiIments for the world (ls another
writer this subject has sai,D remembers long
er him who travels farthcst in a single direction
than him who travels far in many directions
But chiefly has Leonardo's scientific fame been
obscured by the accident which for three cen
turies has buried bis researches. At his death
he bcqueathed his MSS. his pupil Francesca
hazi. who took them back from Florence to
Milan. There they were soon scattered. and no one
could decipher them, for Leonardo wrote back
wards, from right to LETT. II supposed that
lie used secret script and for 800 wears nobody
succeeded in reading it. When Napoleon invaded
Italy, he carried fourteen OF these folio volumes
to Paris. where they still remain. Others are in
England
One volume. the so-called Codice Atlanti,o
preserved at Milan. has been most closely stud
led. From it that Leonardo was pioneer
both in method and in actual discovery He
founded himself on observation and experiment
He OWNED the circulation of the blood He an
ticpated Copernicus in prOpounding the theory
Of the earth's movement; long before KepIer and
Calico he demonstrated that the faint light we
see new moon Is reflected from the earth.
! He declared that motion the cause of all
life lie ioreStsled Lamarck's classification of
vertebrate and invertebratc He takes his place
in virtue of his researches into rocks and fossils
with the masters of modern science who have
proclaimed the continuity of geological causes
In botany. in physics. in mechanics he made dis
covcries OF equal originality. In applying his
scientific knowledge. he forestalled many modern
inventions. He had glimpses of the tele-
phone. He is entitled, " Muntz shows. Ito
distinguished place among the forcrunners OF
Watt" He the first inventor of screw pro-
pusion He made paddle wheels He attacked
the problem OF aerie navigation He invented
swmn,ing-bclts. He anticipated by many years
the invention OF the camera obscura lie was
great alike as civil and a military engineer
He watered the Lombard plain by the invention
OF suces; he was of the first TO recommend
the of mines for the destruction OF forts and
he anticipated the inventions OF time in slg-
gesting breechoading guns and mitrailleuses
Like m. de Rougemont,' Leonardo had even
a diving-dress of his own; but In view said he
''of the wickedness OF men. | do not publish or
divulge the method have invented for remaining
under water for they would make use OF il in
order to commit murder at the bottom of the sea,
by destroying vessels and causing them to sink
together with those board 4 pioneer in so
/ much else. Leonardo also pioneer among the
Alps? Prof. UZielli propounded the interesting
theory some years ago that Leonardo ascended
one of the peaks OF Monte Rosa but TO this NJ
Muntz docs not refer. Another note Leonardo
ate no meat, but lived entirely on vegetables
thus forestalling modern yegetarans by several
centuries. He shrank neither from the highest
specuations nor from the humblest contrivances
For centuries after his death the burghers of Milan
minced meat for their sar,sages with machines in
vented by the painter of ''Mona Lisa