b. September 7, 1677 and d. January 4, 1761

English physiologist and naturalist. He made important discoveries in vegetable physiology. He wrote treatises on anatomy, the circulation of the blood and invented an improved plan for ventilating prisons. He opened the way to a correct appreciation of blood pressure. His work ranks second in importance to Harvey’s in founding the modern science of physiology. His most important book was “Statical Essays.”

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most; feels the noblest; acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life is but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things-God.
The dead have all the glory of the world.

—The End of Life: P. J. Bailey

The motive of science was the extension of man,
on all sides, into Nature, till his hands should
touch the stars, his eyes see through the earth, his
ears understand the language of beast and bird
and the sense of the wind; and through his sympathy
heaven and earth should talk with him.

—Beauty: Emerson

b. September 6, 1807 and d. October 17, 1887

English scientist. He is best known by his work on “Photography” (1842), “Researches on Light,” “Elementary Physics” (1851) and “Manual of Photography” (1857). He devoted special attention to the chemical influence of the solar rays, was the discoverer of several important photographic processes and contributed largely to our knowledge of the influence of light, heat and actinism on the growth of plants. He was actively engaged in investigating the phenomena of mineral veins and of metalliferous deposits.

See how yon beam of seeming white
Is braided out of seven-hued light,
Yet in those lucid globes no ray
By any chance shall break astray,
Hark how the rolling surge of sound,
Arches and spirals circling round,
Wakes the hushed spirit through thine ear
With music it is heaven to hear.

—Holmes

1821—Joseph Von Fraunhofer invented and first used gratings to measure wave lengths of light.

1822—The first elements of spectrum analysis were worked out by Sir David Brewster.

1842—Christian Doppler enunciated his principle of the increase or decrease of wave-number when the body emitting the waves is approaching or receding.

b. December 27, 1802 and d. September 6, 1870

American engineer. Engaged in the survey and construction of the Champlain Canal improvement in 1824-’25, in building the Oswego Canal in 1826-’28, the survey and plans for the improvement of the Oneida River in 1829-’30 and in the construction of the Chenango Canal in 1833-’36. He was chief engineer and constructed a number of railroads.

‘Tis Labor works the magic press,
And turns the crank in hives of toil,
And beckons angels down to bless
Industrious hands on sea and soil.
Here sunbrowned toil, with shining spade,
Links lake to lake with silver ties,
Strung thick with palaces of trade
And temples towering to the skies.

—An Ode to Labor: George W. Bungay

Thus shall the years proceed-till growing time
Unfold the treaures of each differing clime;
Till one vast brotherhood mankind unite
In equal bonds of knowledge and of right;
Then, the proud column, to the smiling skies,
In simple majesty aublime shall rise,
O’er Ignorance Foil’d, their triumph loud proclaim,
And bear inscribed, immortal, Darwin’s name.

—E. H. Smith

1825, October 26—Great Erie Canal, 363 miles long, was completed, chiefly through influence of Dewitt Clinton. It cost $7,500,000, and connects Great Lakes with the seaboard of New York. The Champlain Canal was also completed.