Science And Technology In The 19Th Century

Essay, Research Paper

PART I

Royal Society of London:

Along with the evolution of Science in the fifteenth Century appeared a desire to gather the founders of the intriguing experiments and windfalls. Such gatherings assured the sharing of scientific information as well as its understanding and critics. The Royal Society was founded in 1660 by a number of scholars, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle and Robert Moray. King Charles II granted the Society its first Charter on 15 July 1662. The Intelligencia ,or people who studied science and created knowledge were the key members of the Royal Society of London. Meetings to discuss the then new experiments, had been held since 1645 in London and Oxford. There, members discussed experiments based on the principle ‘Nullius in verba’, taken from Horace, the determination of early Fellows to verify all statements by an appeal to facts. Up to 1847 Fellowship was open to all those interested in the `new philosophy’, but from 1848 elections have been limited in number and to those distinguished for original scientific work. Not only was the Royal Society a way to gather British scientists, but most importantly, it was the first gateway to attract the public s interest and involvement in Science.

Phrenology:

The modern urge to study humankind on a new, scientific basis took many, often interesting forms in the nineteenth Century. Developed by the Austrian,Franz Josephe Gall (1758-1828), and J. C Spurzheim (1776-1832), Phrenology held that the brain was the organ of thought and will, that its determined character, and that its configurations revealed personality. The brain was a jigsaw of separate organs occupying specific cortical areas and shaping the personality. An organ s size governed the exercise of its functions; the contours of the skull signaled the brain configurations beneath, while the overall balance of the bumps determined personality. The modern urge to study humankind on a new, scientific basis took many, often strange, forms in the nineteenth century. Little by little, the concept of Phrenology introduced a judgment by the sight for example, when the archvillain, Moriarity, meets his adversary Sherlock Holmes for the first time, his immediate comment was, “You have less frontal development that I should have expected.” The prognathous (protruding) jaw became a sign of lower development and of a closer relationship to primitive man. It also became the basis of much racial stereotyping of the Irish, and phrenologists argued that the working classes were more prognathous than the upper.

Wissenshaft:

In the 1800s, after Napoleons defeat, Prussia felt the need to bring reformed ministries in order to educate people better therefore, create more universities. In 1810 as gymnasiums were also reformed, and more schools established , a need for more teachers appeared. The university system expanded enormously. With this educational expansion, came the new concept of Wissenshaft , that education should not be pedagogical and technical, but instead the notion that people needed to be trained to be better people and citizens. According to that concept, citizens (specially students) would need to acquire a true education to achieve a proper education by learning philosophy and history. Along with that concept, came the idea of unity of knowledge, and the statement that it is not enough to know what, but we have to know how and why. The result of this doctrine was the appearance of resource seminar, and a stress on original research by students and professors. Scientist start to defend their studies in the terms of Wissenschaft. Along with this concept appeared the first university research library introduced by Justus Lieben in (1803-1873) .

Pierre Louis

Pierre Louis (1787-1872) was a young French Scientist who developed La m thode num rique . The concept of his research was to use simple arithmetic to put therapies to the test, for it is precisely because of the impossibility of judging each individual case with any sort of mathematical accuracy that it is necessary to count (Online Student Library). According to his study, a single case taught nothing, but it two large batches of blindly selected patients underwent distinct treatments, differential mortality figures would assume genuine significance. In invoking arithmetic to evaluate therapeutics, Louis paved the way for the clinical trial, while providing models for the social statistics and more sophisticated biometrics.

PART II

Prior to the eighteenth century, Science was already undergoing many changes that allowed it to develop. However, before that period, As Science was viewed as a luxury, Scientific studies and projects were mostly reserved to the upper-level social class that had the time and money for experiments. Mostly everywhere throughout Europe, education was only offered to the upper-level social class and there weren t any funds nor were there facilities for scientific education. It is important to mention Napoleon Bonaparte s era, since it brought many changes to the world of Science.

In France, the reign of Napoleon helped promote science in some interesting ways. His regime created a network of pre-fixes and sub-prefixes as well as maires, who each depended on his patronage. Such an organization allowed schools to be organized, standardized and centralize