Early science in Cambridge / by R.T. Gunther.

  • Gunther, R. T. (Robert Theodore), 1869-1940.
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Early science in Cambridge / by R.T. Gunther. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    37/650 (page 19)
    Whewell and his friends John Herschel, Charles Bab¬ bage, and Richard Jones used to meet at ‘ Sunday morning philosophical breakfasts’ in 1815. Greater success attended the next venture when the Cambridge Philosophical Society was established at a meeting on 2 November 1819. Dr. J. Haviland, Regius Professor of Physic, was in the chair, and William Farish, Jacksonian Professor, was elected the first president. On 6 August 1832 the Cambridge Philosophical Society was incorporated by Letters Patent with power to hold in mortmain to extent of £2,000 a year. The Society’s Seal was engraved by Mr. Wyon with a figure of Sir I. Newton, after the statue in Trinity College chapel, and the inscrip¬ tion SOCIETAS PHILOSOPHICA CANTAB. Incorp. MDCCCXXXII. The publications of the Society, the Transactions from 1820 and the Proceedings from 1843, have a world-wide circulation, and have played a most important part in preventing the scientific contributions of members of the University from being ‘frittered and squandered away’. The British Association held its 3rd meeting in Cam¬ bridge, 24-28 June 1833. Professor Adam Sedgwick, M.A., was President. The Cambridge and Cambridgeshire Mechanics Institute was established at a public meeting at the Town Hall on the 12 March 1835. On 11 March 1837 a society styled the Ray Club was founded for the cultivation of Natural Science by friendly intercourse and mutual instruction, in commemoration of the great Cambridge Naturalist. The Club consists of 12 resident Members of the University and 6 Associates who must be Undergraduates or B.A.s, and still holds an anniversary gathering on 29 November, the supposed day of Mr. Ray’s birth. Its history and objects are described in The Cambridge Ray Club (with prefatory memoir by C. C. Babington Esq., M.A., the Secretary), Camb. 8vo. 1857- Before we leave the subject of Societies, we should remember that it was Charles Babbage of Trinity who in 1820 was the leader in the foundation of the Astrono¬ mical Society—shortly to be followed by the British Association in 1832. In 1845 the Astronomical Society