Part 84

In 1661 in Essex, the wages for mowing one acre of grass were 1s.10d.; for reaping, shearing, binding one acre of wheat 4s.; and for threshing a quarter of wheat or rye 1s.

Wives participated with their husbands in general agricultural chores and did the dairy work including making cheese. Every householder kept chickens because egg production was cheap, their market price being only 1s. for a hundred. Wives also took care of the gardening work and traditionally kept for their own the cash that came in from garden, dairy, and poultry products. A wife made jellies and preserves when the fruit trees, bushes, and vines were bearing. Imported sugar enabled fruit to be preserved as jam in jars sealed with a layer of mutton fat to make them airtight. She was likely to concoct medications from her herbs. Meat had to be smoked or salted when there was not enough fodder to keep animals alive through the winter. She saw to it that the soap was boiled and the candles molded. She cooked the daily meals, did the washing, produced cloth for the family's use, and sewed the family's clothing.

Women had less work and lower pay than men. Since most cottages had a spinning wheel, spinning work was readily available to wives. In the 1670s, a female weaver or spinner was paid 2-4d. per day. A domestic servant, who was usually female, was paid 40-80s. a year. Men in the trades objected to competition from lower-paid women. Aristocratic ladies actively managed their family's household and estates. The only work available to a high middle- class woman who was waiting to get married was to be a governess in another household or a lady-in-waiting to a gentlewoman. Children often worked; this was recommended so that they were under the direct supervision of their parents rather than getting into mischief in the village. The mother typically mingled severity with gentleness, but the father did not dare to err on the side of leniency. Discipline was by whipping. Children were treated as little adults. The lack of a conception of childhood innocence even extended to the practice of adults to tell bawdy jokes in their presence or play with their children's genitals.

About 1660, the Royal Society of London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge was founded by Charles II, who became its patron. It was formed from discussion groups of the new experimental philosophy. It included the Baconians formerly at Oxford and Cambridge, who were ejected at the Restoration, and a group of Gresham professors of geometry and astronomy. The Royal Society met at Gresham College. Its goal was to compare ideas in mathematics and science and identify specific aims of science. It published scientific reports to make its findings generally known. This was a great improvement over the private correspondence among scientists, which was limited by the use of various languages. Charles himself had his own laboratory and dabbled in chemistry and anatomy. Similar societies were formed in many places in the world. Theologicians warned that scientific research was dangerous. But it's advances improved agriculture, manufactures, medicine, surgery, navigation, naval architecture, gunnery, and engineering.

Issac Newton was a genius, who in his childhood designed and built model windmills, water wheels, water clocks, sundials, and kites. He came from a family which had risen from the yeomen ranks to the gentry. For a few years after graduating from Cambridge University in 1665, he secluded himself in the countryside to study. Here, using the work of John Wallis, he formulated the binomial theorem that expands (A+B) raised to the nth exponent power, where n is an integer. He also worked with numbers that had exponents that were fractions, unending decimals, or negative numbers. Certain patterns of numbers, such as the sum of doubling each number in a series as in: 1+2+4+8+...never terminates; the series is infinite. He then developed the notion of a number being the limit of the summation of an infinite converging series of a pattern of numbers, such as the limit of 1+(1/2)+(1/4)+(1/8)...= 2. By considering the state of motion of a mass-point in an infinitely short time under the influence of an external force, he developed rules for finding areas under algebraic curves [integration], such as the hyperbola, and finding tangents to algebraic curves [differentiation], which he recognized as inverse processes. That is, differentiating the integral of a function results in a return to that function.

Newton discovered that colors arose from the separation, rather than a modification, of white light, that is natural sunlight. He did this using a prism to dissect the white light into its spectrum of constituent colors and then using a prism and lens to recombine the colors to reconstitute white light. The spectrum was the same as that of a rainbow. He determined the angle of refraction of each color by beaming white light through a prism, and then through a hole in a board which isolated one color, to another prism. When he discovered that all colors reflect from a mirror at the same angle, he invented and built the reflecting telescope, which used a parabolic concave mirror and a flat mirror instead of a convex lens, thereby eliminating the distortions and rainbow coloring around the edges that resulted from the refraction of different colors at different angles. He deemed a ray of light to consist of a rapidly moving stream of atomic particles, rather than Robert Hooke's pulses or Christian Huygens' waves, because shadows showed a sharp boundary between the light and the absence of light. He reasoned that if light was made up of pulses or waves, it could spread around obstacles or corners as sound seemed to do. He approximated the speed of sound by timing echoes in corridors of various lengths.

Newton was methodical and combined the inductive and deductive methods of inquiry, first making observations, and then generalizing them into a theory, and finally deducing consequences from the theory which could be tested by observation. He carried mathematization of data from experiments as far as possible.

Newton theorized that the same gravity force that pulled an apple down from a tree extended out to the moon to hold it in its orbit around the earth. He saw a connection between these movements by imagining a cannon on a mountain shooting a series of cannonballs parallel to the earth's surface. The first shot has only a tiny charge of explosive, and the cannonball barely makes it out of the muzzle before falling to the ground. The second shot is propelled by a larger charge, and follows a parabolic arc as it falls. The next shots, fired with increasingly more propellant, eventually disappear over the horizon as they fall. Lastly, with enough gunpowder, a speeding cannonball would completely circle the earth without hitting it. By extrapolating from these ever faster projectiles, he opined that the moon was held in its orbit by the same earth force that operated on the projectiles. He correlated the moon's orbit with the measured acceleration of gravity on the surface of the earth. He put various substances with different masses and weights into the shell of a pendulum and observed that the pendulum had the same period [time for one oscillation] and fell at the same rate as free-falling objects. Then he formulated the idea that the ultimate agent of nature was a force acting between bodies rather than a moving body itself. Gravity did not act in proportion to the surfaces of bodies, but in proportion to quantity of matter. Gravity penetrated to the very center of all bodies without diminution by the body. Gravity's force extended to immense distances and decreased in exact proportion to the square of the distance.

Newton opined that an object moves because of external forces on it rather than by forces internal to the object. He connected the concepts of force and acceleration with a new concept, that of mass. Mass is a quantity intrinsic to an object that determines how it responds to forces, such as the force of gravity. The greater the mass of a body, the stronger the force of gravity on it, and the more difficult it is to get it moving. He found that the acceleration of a body by a force is inversely proportional to its mass, and formulated the equation that force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. So if a force acts on a planet, it produces a change in velocity that is proportional to the force and in the same direction as the force. His law of inertia is that any body, persists in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless affected by an outside force. His next law is that when a body A exerts a force on a body B, then B also exerts a force on A which is equal in amount but opposite in direction. This means that forces that operate between different parts of a planet produce no net force upon the whole planet, so that the mass of a planet can be treated as if it is concentrated at a point. These are his three laws of motion.

His law of gravitation explains how the whole universe is held together. This law holds that every object in the universe attracts every other object with a single gravitational force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. Newton had first accepted the Cartesian system of celestial vortices of aether that swirled the planets and comets around their orbits. He determined that Kepler's law that areas were swept out in equal times implied that gravity acts in the direction of a line between the planet and the sun. The gross features of the universe and Kepler's observations led to his recognition that the attraction between two bodies decreases inversely in proportion to the square of the distance between them. Only one kind of force would satisfy Kepler's requirement that the sun was a focus of an ellipse and still be consistent with Kepler's law that the square of a planet's period was proportional to the cube of its mean distance from the sun; that was the inverse square law. Then he came to accept Robert Hooke's hypothesis that planets are kept in their orbits by the combination of an attractive power of the sun and of motion in a straight line that was tangential to their orbits. From astronomical data, he calculated this centripetal acceleration of each planet towards the sun to be proportional to the inverse square of its distance from the sun. He also calculated the "centrifugal" accelerations in a straight line. His experiments showed that the centripetal force in a circular orbit was equal to the mass of the body multiplied by the square of its velocity, all divided by the radius of the circular path. He used calculus and differential equations to determine centripetal forces of elliptical orbits, where the distance from the sun, the velocity, and the acceleration were variables.

Newton showed that his single gravitational force could account for the way free-falling objects descend to the ground, the parabolic trajectory of projectiles, the path of the moon in its orbit around the earth, the course of the tides every twelve hours, the lower densities of the earth's atmosphere at greater heights, the paths of Jupiter's moons, the paths of comets, and the elliptical paths of the planets in their orbits around the sun. This determination discredited the previous belief that invisible angels moved the planets. Newton proved from his law of gravitation and his three laws of motion the truth of Kepler's laws of elliptical planetary motion. Newton demonstrated from data collected from the comet of 1680 that comets moved according to his law of gravitation. He showed that the path of a body traveling within the gravitational force of the sun is a circle, an ellipse, a parabola, or a hyperbola. He used the concept of a common center of gravity as a reference point for other motions. The fact that the center of gravity of the solar system was within the body of the sun verified that the sun was indeed at the center of the solar system.

Newton deduced that the tides were created by the rotation of the earth with bulges of water on the earth's surfaces that were closest and farthest from the moon. The moon "pulled" the water nearest to it with a greater force than average. It "pulled" the water farthest from it with a force weaker than average. These two moving bulges created two tides a day.

Newton's "Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis", was published in 1687. The established church denounced it as being against the scripture of the Bible. Newton did not agree with the established church on many points, such as the trinity, and was considered a heretic. He had his own interpretations of the Bible and doubted the divinity of Jesus. But it was accepted for dissenters like Newton to qualify for full civil rights by maintaining an outward conformity and taking the sacrament in the established church once a year. Newton was given a royal dispensation from taking holy orders as prescribed by the rules for tenure of fellows of his college at Cambridge University. He did believe in a God who created the universe and who had a ubiquitous presence in all space. When Catholic King James II tried to have a Catholic monk admitted to the degree of a Master of Arts at Cambridge University without taking the oath of adherence to the established Protestant church, so that he could participate in the business of the university, Newton was active in the opposition that defeated this attempt. As a result, he was elected to Parliament by Cambridge.

When Olaus Roemer, a Danish astronomer, was applying Newton's laws to the paths of the moons of Jupiter to make a table of eclipses of Jupiter's moons for use in determining one's longitude, he noticed that the eclipses were five hundred seconds ahead of average time at that time of year when the earth and Jupiter were on the same side of the sun, and five hundred seconds behind average time six months later, when Jupiter was on the other side of the sun. He reasoned that this difference was due to the light from Jupiter's moons taking more time to reach the earth when Jupiter was farther from the earth, i.e. on the other side of the sun. He concluded that light does not travel instantaneously, but at a certain speed. From the fact that it took 1000 seconds for light to travel the diameter of the earth's orbit, he calculated its speed in 1676.

In 1668, Christian Huygens formulated the law of conservation of momentum [mass multiplied by velocity], which held that when objects collide, they may each change direction, but the sum of all their momenta will remain the same. Huygens also recognized the conservation of what was later called "kinetic energy", which is associated with movement. He developed laws of centrifugal force for uniform motion in a circle. He derived the formula for computing the oscillations of a simple pendulum. In 1690, he posited the theory that light consists of a series of waves. It states that all points of a wave front of light in a vacuum may be regarded as new sources of wavelets that expand in every at a rate depending on their velocities. He thought this a better explanation of bending and interference of light than Newton's particle theory.

In 1661, Robert Boyle, called the father of modern chemistry, defined an element as a substance that cannot be further decomposed. He distinguished an element from both a mixture, which is easily separable, and a compound, which is not easily separable. He used an air pump he developed and a glass jar to create a confined vacuum space for experiments to find the properties of heat, light, and sound. He noted that burning objects such as candles and coal, when placed in the receiver of his air pump, went out after a time although air was still present. He opined that animals were dependent upon a fresh supply of air to live. He studied the relationship between the volume, density, and pressure of air and gases. He proved by experiment that the volume of a gas at a constant temperature varies in inverse proportion to the pressure applied to the gas. Since gas is compressible, he opined that gases must be composed of discrete particles separated by void, and also that basic physical properties were due to motions of particles, or atoms, which was an ancient Greek conjecture. This cast doubt on the long-held belief that everything was composed from four basic elements: air, water, fire, and earth. Boyle's laboratory at Oxford was denounced by the Oxford clergy as destroying religion. In 1679, the steam pressure cooker was invented by Denis Papin from France. He invented the atmospheric engine in 1690.

Robert Hooke helped Boyle build his air pump. Hooke was thirteen when his father, a minister, died. Hooke was a genius with innate mechanical skill and was an able mathematician. He applied a spiral spring to regulate the balance of watches. A lord financed him as a Gresham lecturer of geometry for 50 pounds a year. In 1666, he used a pendulum to measure the force of gravity and showed that the center of gravity of the earth and moon is a point describing an ellipse around the sun. In 1667, he explained the twinkling of the stars by irregular atmospheric refractions. He formulated the theory that light is composed of pulses. Hooke's Law states that the amount an elastic body such as a spring stretches out of shape is in direct proportion to the force acting on it: its tension. He invented the odometer, a wheel to measure distances. He constructed an arithmetical machine. He invented the universal joint, which can move in many angles. His book of drawings of microscopic animals is a classic. He proposed that fossils can be used as a source of information about the earth's history. Hooke became rich from his inventions, but this was not known until his death, when thousands of pounds were found in his iron chest.

In 1668, Wallis postulated the correct theory of impacts of inelastic bodies, based on the principle of conservation of momentum. In 1685, he introduced the first graphical representation of complex numbers.

Royal astronomer and genius Edmond Halley, the son of a soap maker, studied tides, magnetism, and the paths of comets and stars. He went on voyages to study the heavens from different positions, thereby laying the foundations of physical geography. He showed that the stars change in position in relation to each other. With Newton's help, he calculated the orbit of a comet he saw in 1682 to be elliptical rather than parabolic and then proved it was the same comet that had appeared in 1531 and 1607, indicating it's regularity; it was then named "Halley's comet". However, the Church of England still embraced the idea that comets and eclipses were evidence of God's wrath. Greenwich Observatory was built in 1675. Halley used a barometer to measure the density of the atmosphere and related its readings to elevations into the atmosphere and to weather. He determined that the cause of the tropical trade winds was the sun warming the tropical air at the equator, causing it to rise and move north as it was replaced by cooler air from the north. This body of air was deflected by the rotation of the earth. He illustrated the tropical winds with the first meteorological map. He made a descent in a diving bell, which was used to try to reach wrecked treasure ships. He studied fossils and perceived them as remnants of living beings that had died long ago, and imagined a succession of living things. Halley surveyed the tides and coasts of the British Channel for the king in 1701.

In 1675, apothecary Nicolas Lemery divided substances into mineral, vegetable, and animal. He wrote a dictionary of pharmaceuticals.

John Ray and Francis Willoughby were friends who traveled together to study plants and animals respectively. John Ray started the science of zoology with his edition of Francis Willoughby's "Ornithology" on birds and his own "History of Fishes". He also attempted the first scientific classification of animals in his "Synopsis of Quadrupeds". Ray compared anatomies and experimented on movements of plants and the ascent of sap. He knew that fossils were remnants of old animals. Ray first suggested the concept of species in classification of animals and plants. He opined that the goodness and wisdom of God was shown not only by the usefulness of animals to man's uses as taught by the church, but also by the adaptation of animals to their own lives and surroundings. The vast array and dispersal of animals found by world explorers all over the world cast doubt on the biblical story of Noah putting two of every kind of animal on an ark. The science of botany began with Ray's "History of Plants" and the researches of Robert Morrison, who was Charles' physician and keeper of his gardens.

Nicholaus Steno, a Danish physician, diagrammed six levels of stratification on the earth's surface and demonstrated in 1669 that layers of strata of rock are always deposited with the oldest layers on the bottom and the youngest layers on the top. This began the science of geology. He argued that shifts in the earth's strata caused the formation of mountains. He identified fossils as ancient creatures. The idea that fossils were remnants of dead animals existing before man conflicted with the religious idea that Adam's fall began sin and caused death. The idea from fossils that existing species of animals were modifications of predecessor animals conflicted with the religious belief that Noah's ark had preserved all the varieties of animals. John Aubrey described Stonehenge, thus founding prehistoric archaeology. He thought it to be a Druid temple.

The telescope and compound microscope, which has an objective lens and an eyepiece lens for producing a wide range of magnifications, were further developed. The cellular basis of life was discovered and described by Robert Hooke. Nehemia Grew, the son of a grammar school master who became a physician, observed and drew plant anatomy, including leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, ovules, pollen grains, and stamens. He was the first to observe the existence of plant sexuality. Italian Marcello Malpighi, a physician, used the new compound microscope to study human skin, spleen, kidneys, and liver and also compared the livers of several types of animals. He discovered capillaries linking the arterial and venous circulation in the lungs. Dutchman Anton van Leeuwenhock, a cloth manufacturer who made microscopes to inspect the quality of cloth, turned them to use in understanding the life cycles of mites, lice, and fleas. He correctly described human blood cells. When he found what he described as tiny animals (bacteria, protozoa, and rotifers), he sent clear descriptions of them to the Royal Society in London as proof against the theory of spontaneous generation, which held that lower forms of life could arise from nonliving matter. This started the science of bacteriology. With the discovery of the egg in the female reproductive system, the status of women was lifted.

Physician Thomas Willis, son of a farmer, dissected brains of men and animals to study the anatomical relations of nerves and arteries. Excess urine had been associated with a wasting disease. Willis identified diabetes mellitus with excess of urine that was sweet. Physician Thomas Sydenham, son of a gentleman, observed epidemic diseases of London over successive years, thus founding epidemiology. He also furthered clinical medicine by emphasizing detailed observations of patients and maintaining accurate records. He wrote a treatise on gout and identified scarlet fever. He introduced a cooling method of treating smallpox. But he still relied on the big three treatments: bloodletting, purging, and sweating. Bloodletting was to draw off bad blood so that it could be replaced by a better fluid. Another treatment used was cupping, whereby a vacuum was created by heated glass cups to draw blood to the surface of the skin. John Locke performed one of the first successful operations draining a kind of abscess of a man's liver. It was common for people who felt ill to take a laxative and rest at home.

In 1690, physicians opened the first dispensaries, which gave treatment and medicine together, to take business away from their rivals: the apothecaries. London's apothecaries were released in 1694 from jury service and serving as constable, scavenger, or other parish or ward office because it was necessary that they be available to attend the sick at all times. Peruvian bark which had quinine as its alkaloid had been introduced as a proven cure for the ague, a fever with chills usually due to malaria, in 1653. The English ceased to believe in holy wells, but went to spas such as Bath for treatment for disease.

There was more bathing because private homes in towns now had indoor baths. The public baths came into disuse.

For childbirth, only rich women were attended by physicians. Most physicians used talismen such as the eagle stone at deliveries. Caesarian section almost always led to the death of the mother. Midwives were licensed by the church and could baptize babies. Jane Sharp wrote "The Midwives Book" with anatomical illustrations.

Women over thirty had fewer children and the last child born was at an earlier age than before. This was in part due to birth control such as coitus-interruptus, long breast-feeding of a current child and/or the taboo against sex if the wife was still breast-feeding. Rich women often employed wet-nurses to breast- feed their babies. Babies seldom thrived, or even survived, without out a regular supply of breast milk.