Volume 1
A course of lectures on natural philosophy and the mechanical arts / by Thomas Young.
- Thomas Young
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A course of lectures on natural philosophy and the mechanical arts / by Thomas Young. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![AUTHOR’S PREFACE. Having undertaken to prepare a course of Lectures on natural philo- sophy, to be delivered in the theatre of the Royal Institution, I thought that the plan of the institution required something more than a mere com- jiilation from the elementary works at present existing ; and that it was my duty to collect from original authors, to examine with attention, and to digest into one system, every thing relating to the principles of the me- chanical sciences, that could tend to the improvement of the arts subser- vient to the conveniences of life. I found also, in delivering the lectures, that it was most eligible to commit to writing, as nearly as possible, the whole that was required to be said on each subject; and that, even when an experiment was to be performed, it was best to describe that experiment uninterruptedly, and to repeat the explanation during its exhibition. Hence it became necessary that the written lectures should be as clearly and copiously expressed, and in a language as much adapted to the com- ])rehension of a mixed audience, as the nature of'tlie investigations would allow ; and that each experiment, which was to be performed, should also be minutely described in them. If, therefore, there was any novelty either in the matter or the arrangement of the lectures, as they were delivered for two successive years, it is obvious that they must have possessed an equal claim to the attention of a reader, had they been published as a book ; and upon resigning the situation of Professor of Natural Philosophy, I immediately began to prepare them for publication. I had in some measure pledged myself, in the printed syllabus of the lectures, to make a catalogue of the best works already published on the several subjects ; with references to such passages as appeared to be most important: it was therefore necessary, as well for this purpose, as in order to procure all possible information that could tend to the improvement of the work, to look over a select library of books entirely with this view, making notes of the principal subjects discussed in them, and exa- mining carefully such parts as appeared to deserve more than ordinary attention. Hence arose a catalogue of references ; respecting which it is sufficient to say, that the labour of arranging about twenty thousand articles in a systematic form, was by no means less considerable than that of collecting them. The transactions of scientific societies, and the best and latest periodical publications, which have so much multiplied the number of the sources of information, constituted no small jiart of the collection, which was thus to be reduced into one body of science.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21301840_0001_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
