History of the Inductive Sciences

Volume 3 of Whewell's 1837 History emphasizes the convergence of mechanics and chemistry in discoveries about electricity, magnetism and thermodynamics.

Whewell's History, published in 1837, surveys the development of the physical sciences from Pythagoras to the early nineteenth century. Volume 3 highlights the convergence of mechanical and chemical theories in discoveries about electricity, magnetism and thermodynamics. It also covers the history of chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and anatomy.A central figure in Victorian science, William Whewell (1794–1866) held professorships in Mineralogy and Moral Philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, before becoming Master of the college in 1841. His mathematical textbooks, such as A Treatise on Dynamics (1823), were instrumental in bringing French analytical methods into British science. This three-volume history, first published in 1837, is one of Whewell's most famous works. Taking the 'acute, but fruitless, essays of Greek philosophy' as a starting point, it provides a history of the physical sciences that culminates with the mechanics, astronomy, and chemistry of 'modern times'. Volume 3 first covers the mechanico-chemical sciences, emphasizing the convergence of mechanical and chemical theories in discoveries pertaining to electricity, magnetism and thermodynamics. A section on chemistry surveys Becher and Stahl's phlogiston theory, Lavoisier's theory of oxygen, and Faraday's laws of electromagnetic induction. The volume also covers mineralogy, botany, zoology, and anatomy.