Decline of Science in England - Charles Babbage (reading well .txt) 📗

that another Committee be appointed, with directions to

frame or to alter the necessary statutes, so that they may be in

strict accordance with the charters.

 

In concluding the Report, your Committee do not wish to disguise

the magnitude of some of the measures they have thought it their

duty to propose; on the contrary, they would not only urge the

fullest discussion of their expediency; but further, that if you

should even be unanimously disposed to confirm them, your

Committee would recommend, that the several statutes, when they

have been drawn up or modified, should be only entered on your

minutes, and not finally enacted. All innovations in the

constitution, or even the habits of the Royal Society, should be

scrutinized with the most jealous circumspection. It is enough

for the present Council to have traced the plan; let the Council

of the ensuing sessions share the credit of carrying that plan

into effect.

 

This Report was presented to the Council very ]ate in the session

of 1827, and on the 25th of June there occurs the following entry

on the council-book:—

 

“The Report of the Committee for considering the best means of

limiting the number of members, and such other suggestions as

they may think conducive to the good of the Society, was received

and read, and ordered to be entered on the minutes; and the

Council, regarding the importance of the subject, and its

bearings on the essential interests of the Society, in conformity

with the concluding paragraph, and considering also the advanced

stage of the session, recommend it to the most serious and early

consideration of the Council for the ensuing year.”

 

Those who advocated these alterations, were in no hurry for their

hasty adoption; they were aware of their magnitude, and anxious

for the fullest investigation before one of them should be tried.

 

Unfortunately, the concluding recommendation of the Committee did

not coincide with the views of Mr. Gilbert, whom the party had

determined to make their new President. That gentleman made such

arrangements for the Council of the succeeding year, that when

the question respecting the consideration of the Report of that

Committee was brought forward, it was thrown aside in the manner

I have stated. Thus a report, sanctioned by the names of such a

committee, and recommended by one Council to “THE MOST SERIOUS

and EARLY consideration of the Council for the ensuing year,” was

by that very Council rejected, without even the ceremony of

discussing its merits. Was every individual recommendation it

contained, not merely unfit to be adopted, but so totally

deficient in plausibility as to be utterly unworthy of

discussion? Or did the President and his officers feel, that

their power rested on an insecure foundation, and that they did

not possess the confidence of the working members of the

Society?

 

CHAPTER V.

 

OF OBSERVATIONS.

 

There are several reflections connected with the art of making

observations and experiments, which may be conveniently arranged

in this chapter.

 

SECTION 1.

 

OF MINUTE PRECISION.

 

No person will deny that the highest degree of attainable

accuracy is an object to be desired, and it is generally found

that the last advances towards precision require a greater

devotion of time, labour, and expense, than those which precede

them. The first steps in the path of discovery, and the first

approximate measures, are those which add most to the existing

knowledge of mankind.

 

The extreme accuracy required in some of our modern inquiries

has, in some respects, had an unfortunate influence, by favouring

the opinion, that no experiments are valuable, unless the

measures are most minute, and the accordance amongst them most

perfect. It may, perhaps, be of some use to show, that even with

large instruments, and most practised observers, this is but

rarely the case. The following extract is taken from a

representation made by the present Astronomer-Royal, to the

Council of the Royal Society, on the advantages to be derived

from the employment of two mural circles:—

 

“That by observing, with two instruments, the same objects at the

same time, and in the same manner, we should be able to estimate

how much of that OCCASIONAL DISCORDANCE FROM THE MEAN, which

attends EVEN THE MOST CAREFUL OBSERVATIONS, ought to be

attributed to irregularity of refraction, and how much to THE

IMPERFECTIONS OF INSTRUMENTS.”

 

In confirmation of this may be adduced the opinion of the late M.

Delambre, which is the more important, from the statement it

contains relative to the necessity of publishing all the

observations which have been made.

 

“Mais quelque soit le parti que l’on prefere, il me semble qu’on

doit tout publier. Ces irregularites memes sont des faits qu’il

importe de connoitre. LES SOINS LES PLUS ATTENTIFS N’EN

SAUROIENT PRESERVER LES OBSERVATEURS LES PLUS EXERCES, et celui

qui ne produiroit que des angles toujours parfaitment d’accord

auroit ete singulierement bien servi par les circonstances ou ne

seroit pas bien sincere.”—BASE DU SYSTEME METRIQUE, Discours

Preliminaire, p. 158.

 

This desire for extreme accuracy has called away the attention of

experimenters from points of far greater importance, and it seems

to have been too much overlooked in the present day, that genius

marks its tract, not by the observation of quantities

inappreciable to any but the acutest senses, but by placing

Nature in such circumstances, that she is forced to record her

minutest variations on so magnified a scale, that an observer,

possessing ordinary faculties, shall find them legibly written.

He who can see portions of matter beyond the ken of the rest of

his species, confers an obligation on them, by recording what he

sees; but their knowledge depends both on his testimony and on

his judgment. He who contrives a method of rendering such atoms

visible to ordinary observers, communicates to mankind an

instrument of discovery, and stamps his own observations with a

character, alike independent of testimony or of judgment.

 

SECTION 2.

 

ON THE ART OF OBSERVING.

 

The remarks in this section are not proposed for the assistance

of those who are already observers, but are intended to show to

persons not familiar with the subject, that in observations

demanding no unrivalled accuracy, the principles of common sense

may be safely trusted, and that any gentleman of liberal

education may, by perseverance and attention, ascertain the

limits within which he may trust both his instrument and himself.

 

If the instrument is a divided one, the first thing is to learn

to read the verniers. If the divisions are so fine that the

coincidence is frequently doubtful, the best plan will be for the

learner to get some acquaintance who is skilled in the use of

instruments, and having set the instrument at hazard, to write

down the readings of the verniers, and then request his friend to

do the same; whenever there is any difference, he should

carefully examine the doubtful one, and ask his friend to point

out the minute peculiarities on which he founds his decision.

This should be repeated frequently; and after some practice, he

should note how many times in a hundred his reading differs from

his friend’s, and also how many divisions they usually differ.

 

The next point is, to ascertain the precision with which the

learner can bisect an object with the wires of the telescope.

This can be done without assistance. It is not necessary even to

adjust the instrument, but merely to point it to a distant

object. When it bisects any remarkable point, read off the

verniers, and write down the result; then displace the telescope

a little, and adjust it again. A series of such observations

will show the confidence which is due to the observer’s eye in

bisecting an object, and also in reading the verniers; and as the

first direction gave him some measure of the latter, he may, in a

great measure, appreciate his skill in the former. He should

also, when he finds a deviation in the reading, return to the

telescope, and satisfy himself if he has made the bisection as

complete as he can. In general, the student should practise each

adjustment separately, and write down the results wherever he can

measure its deviations.

 

Having thus practised the adjustments, the next step is to make

an observation; but in order to try both himself and the

instrument, let him take the altitude of some fixed object, a

terrestrial one, and having registered the result, let him

derange the adjustment, and repeat the process fifty or a hundred

times. This will not merely afford him excellent practice, but

enable him to judge of his own skill.

 

The first step in the use of every instrument, is to find the

limits within which its employer can measure the SAME OBJECT

UNDER THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES. It is only from a knowledge of

this, that he can have confidence in his measures of the SAME

OBJECT UNDER DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES, and after that, of

DIFFERENT OBJECTS UNDER DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES.

 

These principles are applicable to almost all instruments. If a

person is desirous of ascertaining heights by a mountain

barometer, let him begin by adjusting the instrument in his own

study; and having made the upper contact, let him write down the

reading of the vernier, and then let him derange the UPPER

adjustment ONLY, re-adjust, and repeat the reading. When he is

satisfied about the limits within which he can make that

adjustment, let him do the same repeatedly with the lower; but

let him not, until he knows his own errors in reading and

adjusting, pronounce upon those of the instrument. In the case

of a barometer, he must also be assured, that the temperature of

the mercury does not change during the interval.

 

A friend once brought to me a beautifully constructed piece of

mechanism, for marking minute portions of time; the three-hundredth parts of a second were indicated by it. It was a kind

of watch, with a pin for stopping one of the hands. I proposed

that we should each endeavour to stop it twenty times in

succession, at the same point. We were both equally unpractised,

and our first endeavours showed that we could not be confident of

the twentieth part of a second. In fact, both the time occupied

in causing the extremities of the fingers to obey the volition,

as well as the time employed in compressing the flesh before the

fingers acted on the stop, appeared to influence the accuracy of

our observations. From some few experiments I made, I thought I

perceived that the rapidity of the transmission of the effects of

the will, depended on the state of fatigue or health of the body.

If any one were to make experiments on this subject, it might be

interesting, to compare the rapidity of the transmission of

volition in different persons, with the time occupied in

obliterating an impression made on one of the senses of the same

persons. For example, by having a mechanism to make a piece of

ignited charcoal revolve with different degrees of velocity, some

persons will perceive a continuous circle of light before others,

whose retina does not retain so long impressions that are made

upon it.

 

SECTION 3.

 

ON THE FRAUDS OF OBSERVERS.

 

Scientific inquiries are more exposed than most others to the

inroads of pretenders; and I feel that I shall deserve the thanks

of all who really value truth, by stating some of the methods of

deceiving practised by unworthy claimants for its honours, whilst

the mere circumstance of their arts being known may deter future

offenders.

 

There are several species of impositions that have been practised

in science, which are but little known, except to the initiated,

and which it may perhaps be possible to render quite intelligible

to ordinary understandings. These may be classed under the heads

of hoaxing,