On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    OBITUARY.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    M . Laplace . This celebrated geometrician was at the period of his death entering his seventy-ninth year . He was the son of a gardener , and was born at Beaumonten-Auge , near Pont l'Ev&que , ou the 27 th- March , 1749 . After having for some time studied mathematics in the

    military school of that town , he went to Paris , where his talents obtained him some powerful patrons . He succeeded Bezont as inspector of the royal artillery corps , became a member of the Academy of Sciences , and subsequently of the

    Institute , and of the Board of Longitude . He filled no public situation before the 18 th Brumaire , at which period he was nominated Ministre de PInte * rieur ; but he retained this post Only six weeks , being then called to the senate . In 1814 , he was made a member of the Chambfe

    des Pairs . We abstain from any remarks ou his political life , for M . Laplace was not a political character , and he Would never have fixed public attention , but from his previous renown * We shall , therefore , consider him only as a philo * sopher , and shall give a brief summary of those labours which have placed him first in the rank of those of whom France has reason to be proud .

    In 1796 , appeared the Exposition of the Mundane System , a celebrated work , which , even in a literary point of view , is a masterpiece , for its elegant simplicity of style , and for the clearness with which the author has given the most abstruse demonstrations . Among the number of new and important results which this book contains , we must

    remark especially the explanation of the courses of Saturn and Jupiter . These two planets , in fact , present so singular an inequality in their motion , that some astronomers have founded upon it an objection to the theory of attraction , While others , in attempting to explain it by that theory * have considered themselves under the necessity of admitting the existence of a celestial body , invisible , yet of

    vast dimensions * whose influence" had the power of causing an irregularity in the motion of the two planets . It is true that since the epoch of this conjecture , Hefschel has discovered the planet which bears his name , but the distance of this body renders it Incapable of producing such a perturbation ; and it was reserved for M . Laplace to shew , by a more rigorous ' calculation of the mutual effects of

    the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn , that the remarkable inequality observable in their movements ! far from furnishing an

    Untitled Article

    objection to the theory of attraction , presents , On the contrary ., a striking conr hrmation of its truth . Every body is aware of the precision with which astronomers can now determine the elevation of the tides , for any , distant period whatever , and every body is aware , too , that we are indebted to M . Laplace for this admirable acquisition . Newton had demonstrated , it is true , although rather vaguely , that the phenomenon of the tides is the result of the

    attraction of the moon ; but he furnished no means of calculating exactly to what height the tides would rise in every given , position of the planets . M . Laplace , by ; reducing to calculation the influence of the planets on the sea , has rendered the world a service analogous to that of D'Alembert , relative to the calculation of the precession of the equinoxes . In both

    cases , the question related to a blank left by Newton , which genius alone could supply . The science of physics is not less indebted than astronomy to M . Laplace ; he has , in particular , enriched it with one important truth : we allude to the pains which he has taken to demonstrate , that the particles of bodies affect each

    other , by means of forces different from those which govern the attraction of large masses , —of forces to which the law of attraction , varying inversely as the squares of the distance , is inapplicable . The hunlan mind has so strong a teudency to generalize ideas—the adoption of a single principle is so favourable to the natural indolence of the mind , that it has ever

    been the fate of the greatest discoverers to lead to error , by being exaggerated . Thus the followers of Descartes were desirous of explaining every thing by a single principle of action , impact . At a later period , Newton demonstrated tlmr , in addition to that unquestionable force , it was impossible not to allow the existence of another , viz . attraction , the influence of which acts in the inverse ratio

    of the square of the distance , and from that period this was the ouly accepted theory . M . Laplace opened a new way , by demonstrating that there are powers which decrease much more rapidly than attraction , and bo much so , as to become insensible at any assignable distance . The most evident of these forces is the

    molecular attraction ; and the true theory of capillary attraction , the credit of which is due entirel y to M . Laplace , is an application of his ideas upon this subject . M . Lftplaee had the the honour , while yet very young , of sharing the l&bcmra of

    Untitled Article

    ( 375 )

    Obituary.

    OBITUARY .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1827, page 375, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1796/page/63/