Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes. Charles Babbage

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       Charles Babbage

      Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664188885

Table of Contents

       PREFACE.

       REFLECTIONS ON THE DECLINE OF SCIENCE IN ENGLAND, AND ON SOME OF ITS CAUSES.

       INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

       CHAPTER I. ON THE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE AND EDUCATION.

       CHAPTER II. OF THE INDUCEMENTS TO INDIVIDUALS TO CULTIVATE SCIENCE.

       SECTION 1. PROFESSIONAL IMPULSES.

       SECTION 2. OF NATIONAL ENCOURAGEMENT.

       SECTION 3. Of Encouragement from Learned Societies.

       CHAPTER III. GENERAL STATE OF LEARNED SOCIETIES IN ENGLAND.

       CHAPTER IV. STATE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY IN PARTICULAR.

       SECTION 1. MODE OF BECOMING A FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

       SECTION 2. OF THE PRESIDENCY AND VICE-PRESIDENCIES.

       SECTION 3. OF THE SECRETARISHIPS.

       SECTION 4. OF THE SCIENTIFIC ADVISERS.

       SECTION 5. OF THE UNION OF SEVERAL OFFICES IN ONE PERSON.

       SECTION 6. OF THE FUNDS OF THE SOCIETY.

       SECTION 7. OF THE ROYAL MEDALS.

       SECTION 8. OF THE COPLEY MEDALS.

       SECTION 9. OF THE FAIRCHILD LECTURE.

       SECTION 10. OF THE CROONIAN LECTURE.

       SECTION 11. OF THE CAUSES OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

       SECTION 12. OF THE PLAN FOR REFORMING THE SOCIETY.

       CHAPTER V. OF OBSERVATIONS.

       SECTION 1. OF MINUTE PRECISION.

       SECTION 2. ON THE ART OF OBSERVING.

       SECTION 3. ON THE FRAUDS OF OBSERVERS.

       CHAPTER VI. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE IN ENGLAND.

       SECTION 1. OF THE NECESSITY THAT MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SHOULD

       SECTION 2. OF BIENNIAL PRESIDENTS.

       SECTION 3. OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE COLLEGES OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS

       SECTION 4. OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION ON THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

       SECTION 5. OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

       SECTION 6. ORDER OF MERIT.

       SECTION 7. OF THE UNION OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

       CONCLUSION.

       APPENDIX, No. 1.

       APPENDIX, No. 2.

       APPENDIX, No. 3,

       LIST OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE

PREFACE.

       Table of Contents

      Of the causes which have induced me to print this volume I have little to say; my own opinion is, that it will ultimately do some service to science, and without that belief I would not have undertaken so thankless a task. That it is too true not to make enemies, is an opinion in which I concur with several of my friends, although I should hope that what I have written will not give just reason for the permanence of such feelings. On one point I shall speak decidedly, it is not connected in any degree with the calculating machine on which I have been engaged; the causes which have led to it have been long operating, and would have produced this result whether I had ever speculated on that subject, and whatever might have been the fate of my speculations.

      If any one shall endeavour to account for the opinions stated in these pages by ascribing them to any imagined circumstance peculiar to myself, I think he will be mistaken. That science has long been neglected and declining in England, is not an opinion originating with me, but is shared by many, and has been expressed by higher authority than mine. I shall offer a few notices on this subject, which, from their scattered position, are unlikely to