A History of Science, vol 3 | Page 4

fossil-beds of America--Professor Marsh's paper on the
fossil horses in America--The Warren mastodon, --The Java fossil,
Pithecanthropus Erectus.


CHAPTER IV
. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN GEOLOGY
James Hutton and the study of the rocks--His theory of the earth--His
belief in volcanic cataclysms in raising and forming the continents--His
famous paper before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1781---His
conclusions that all strata of the earth have their origin at the bottom of
the sea---His deduction that heated and expanded matter caused the
elevation of land above the sea-level--Indifference at first shown this
remarkable paper--Neptunists versus Plutonists-- Scrope's classical
work on volcanoes--Final acceptance of Hutton's explanation of the
origin of granites--Lyell and uniformitarianism--Observations on the
gradual elevation of the coast-lines of Sweden and
Patagonia--Observations on the enormous amount of land erosion
constantly taking place, --Agassiz and the glacial theory--Perraudin the
chamois- hunter, and his explanation of perched bowlders--De
Charpentier's acceptance of Perraudin's explanation--Agassiz's paper on
his Alpine studies--His conclusion that the Alps were once covered
with an ice-sheet--Final acceptance of the glacial theory--The
geological ages--The work of Murchison and Sedgwick--Formation of
the American continents--Past, present, and future.


CHAPTER V

. THE NEW SCIENCE OF METEOROLOGY
Biot's investigations of meteors--The observations of Brandes and
Benzenberg on the velocity of falling stars-- Professor Olmstead's
observations on the meteoric shower of 1833- -Confirmation of
Chladni's hypothesis of 1794--The aurora borealis--Franklin's
suggestion that it is of electrical origin--Its close association with
terrestrial magnetism--Evaporation, cloud-formation, and
dew--Dalton's demonstration that water exists in the air as an
independent gas--Hutton's theory of rain--Luke Howard's paper on
clouds--Observations on dew, by Professor Wilson and Mr. Six--Dr.
Wells's essay on dew--His observations on several appearances
connected with dew--Isotherms and ocean currents--Humboldt and
the-science of comparative climatology--His studies of ocean currents--
Maury's theory that gravity is the cause of ocean currents-- Dr. Croll on
Climate and Time--Cyclones and anti-cyclones, --Dove's studies in
climatology--Professor Ferrel's mathematical law of the deflection of
winds--Tyndall's estimate of the amount of heat given off by the
liberation of a pound of vapor--Meteorological observations and
weather predictions.


CHAPTER VI
. MODERN THEORIES OF HEAT AND LIGHT
Josiah Wedgwood and the clay pyrometer--Count Rumford and the
vibratory theory of heat--His experiments with boring cannon to
determine the nature of heat--Causing water to boil by the friction of
the borer--His final determination that heat is a form of
motion--Thomas Young and the wave theory of light--His paper on the
theory of light and colors--His exposition of the colors of thin
plates--Of the colors of thick plates, and of striated surfaces, --Arago
and Fresnel champion the wave theory--opposition to the theory by
Biot--The French Academy's tacit acceptance of the correctness of the
theory by its admission of Fresnel as a member.


CHAPTER VII

. THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICITY AND
MAGNETISM
Galvani and the beginning of modern electricity--The construction of
the voltaic pile--Nicholson's and Carlisle's discovery that the galvanic
current decomposes water--Decomposition of various substances by Sir
Humphry Davy--His construction of an arc-light--The deflection of the
magnetic needle by electricity demonstrated by Oersted--Effect of this
important discovery--Ampere creates the science of
electro-dynamics--Joseph Henry's studies of electromagnets--Michael
Faraday begins his studies of electromagnetic induction--His famous
paper before the Royal Society, in 1831, in which he demonstrates
electro-magnetic induction--His explanation of Arago's rotating
disk--The search for a satisfactory method of storing electricity--
Roentgen rays, or X-rays.


CHAPTER VIII
. THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY
Faraday narrowly misses the discovery of the doctrine of
conservation--Carnot's belief that a definite quantity of work can be
transformed into a definite quantity of heat--The work of James
Prescott Joule--Investigations begun by Dr. Mayer--Mayer's paper of
1842--His statement of the law of the conservation of energy--Mayer
and Helmholtz--Joule's paper of 1843--Joule or Mayer--Lord Kelvin
and the dissipation of energy-The final unification.


CHAPTER IX
. THE ETHER AND PONDERABLE MATTER
James Clerk-Maxwell's conception of ether--Thomas Young and
"Luminiferous ether,"--Young's and Fresnel's conception of transverse
luminiferous undulations--Faraday's experiments pointing to the
existence of ether--Professor Lodge's suggestion of two ethers--Lord
Kelvin's calculation of the probable density of ether--The vortex theory
of atoms--Helmholtz's calculations in vortex motions --Professor Tait's

apparatus for creating vortex rings in the air---The ultimate constitution
of matter as conceived by Boscovich--Davy's speculations as to the
changes that occur in the substance of matter at different
temperatures--Clausius's and Maxwell's investigations of the kinetic
theory of gases--Lord Kelvin's estimate of the size of the molecule--
Studies of the potential energy of molecules--Action of gases at low
temperatures.
APPENDIX

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE
BOOK III
MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES
With the present book we enter the field of the distinctively modern.
There is no precise date at which we take up each of the successive
stories, but the main sweep of development has to do in each case