Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815–1840

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Scottish Beginnings

   • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

   Pages 1-10

3. London Beginnings

   • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

   Pages 11-17

4. The First Trip Abroad

   • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

   Pages 19-33

5. In the Mainstream of London Science

   • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

   Pages 35-53

6. The Mechanism of the Heavens

   • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

   Pages 55-94

7. The Second Stay Abroad

   • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

   Pages 95-121

8. On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences

   • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

   Pages 123-150

9. The Civil List and Mary Somerville

   • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

   Pages 151-162

10. ‘The Comet’, an Experiment, and a Third Edition

    • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

    Pages 163-177

11. The Last London Years

    • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

    Pages 179-187

12. Outside the Mainstream of Science

    • Elizabeth Chambers Patterson

    Pages 189-195

13. Back Matter

    Pages 197-264

    PDF

Among the myriad of changes that took place in Great Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century, many of particular significance to the historian of science and to the social historian are discernible in that small segment of British society drawn together by a shared interest in natural phenomena and with sufficient leisure or opportunity to investigate and ponder them. This group, which never numbered more than a mere handful in comparison to the whole population, may rightly be characterized as 'scientific'. They and their successors came to occupy an increasingly important place in the intellectual, educational, and developing economic life of the nation. Well before the arrival of mid-century, natural philosophers and inventors were generally hailed as a source of national pride and of national prestige. Scientific society is a feature of nineteenth-century British life, the best being found in London, in the universities, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in a few scattered provincial centres.

• 1815–1840
• London science
• Mary Somerville
• french science
• physical sciences
• scientific society
• scientific women

Policies and ethics