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BOYLE, ROBERT (1627-1691)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 356 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOYLE, See also:ROBERT (1627-1691) , See also:English natural philosopher, seventh son and fourteenth See also:child of See also:Richard Boyle, the See also:great See also:earl of See also:Cork, was See also:born at See also:Lismore See also:Castle, in the See also:province of See also:Munster, See also:Ireland, on the 25th of See also:January 1627. While still a child he learned to speak Latin and See also:French, and he was only eight years old when he was sent to See also:Eton, of which his See also:father's friend, See also:Sir See also:Henry See also:Wotton, was then See also:provost. After spending over three years at the See also:college, he went to travel abroad with a French See also:tutor. Nearly two years were passed in See also:Geneva; visiting See also:Italy in 1641, he remained during the See also:winter of that See also:year in See also:Florence, studying the " paradoxes of the great See also:star-gazer " Galileo, who died within a See also:league of the See also:city See also:early in 1642. Returning to See also:England in 1644 he found that his father was dead and had See also:left ' in which he criticized the " experiments whereby vulgar Spagyhim the See also:manor of Stalbridge in See also:Dorsetshire, together with estates in Ireland. From that See also:time he gave up his See also:life to study and scientific See also:research, and soon took a prominent See also:place in the See also:band of inquirers, known as the " Invisible College," who devoted themselves to the cultivation of the " new See also:philosophy." They met frequently in See also:London, often at See also:Gresham College; some of the members also had meetings at See also:Oxford, and in that city Boyle went to reside in 1654. See also:Reading in 1657 of See also:Otto von See also:Guericke's See also:air-See also:pump, he set himself with the assistance of Robert See also:Hooke to devise improvements in its construction, and with the result, the " machina Boyleana " or " Pneumatical See also:Engine," finished in 1659, he began a See also:series of experiments on the properties of air. An See also:account of the See also:work he did with this See also:instrument was published in 166o under the See also:title New Experiments Physico-See also:Mechanical touching the See also:spring of air and its effects. Among the critics of the views put forward in this See also:book was a Jesuit, Franciscus See also:Linus (1595-1675), and it was while answering his objections that Boyle enunciated the See also:law that the See also:volume of a See also:gas varies inversely as the pressure, which among English-speaking peoples is usually called after his name, though on the See also:continent of See also:Europe it is attributed to E. See also:Mariotte, who did not publish it till 1676. In 1663 the " Invisible College " became the " Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge," and the See also:charter of See also:incorporation granted by See also:Charles II. named Boyle a member of the See also:council. In 168o he was elected See also:president of the society, but declined the See also:honour from a See also:scruple about oaths.

In 1668 he left Oxford for London where he resided at the See also:

house of his See also:sister, See also:Lady See also:Ranelagh, in See also:Pall Mall. About 1689 his See also:health, never very strong, began to fail seriously and he gradually withdrew from his public engagements, ceasing his communications to the Royal Society, and advertising his See also:desire to be excused from receiving guests, " unless upon occasions very extraordinary," on Tuesday and See also:Friday forenoon, and Wednesday and Saturday afternoon. In the leisure thus gained he wished to " recruit his See also:spirits, range his papers," and prepare some important chemical investigations which he proposed to leave " as a See also:kind of Hermetic See also:legacy to the studious disciples of that See also:art," but of which he did not make known the nature. His health became still worse in 1691, and his See also:death occurred on the 3oth of See also:December of that year, just a See also:week after that of the sister with whom he had lived for more than twenty years. He was buried in the See also:churchyard of St See also:Martin's in the See also:Fields, his funeral See also:sermon being preached by his friend See also:Bishop See also:Burnet. Boyle's great merit as a scientific investigator is that he carried out the principles which See also:Bacon preached in the Novum Organum. Yet he would not avow himself a follower of Bacon or indeed of any other teacher: on several occasions he mentions that in See also:order to keep his See also:judgment as unprepossessed as might be with any of the See also:modern theories of philosophy, till he was " provided of experiments " to help him See also:judge of them, he refrained from any study of the Atomical and the Cartesian systems, and even of the Novum Organum itself, though he admits to " transiently consulting " them about a few particulars. Nothing was more See also:alien to his See also:mental temperament than the See also:spinning of hypotheses. He regarded the acquisition of knowledge as an end in itself, and in consequence he gained a wider outlook on the aims of scientific inquiry than had been enjoyed by his predecessors for many centuries. This, however, did not mean that he paid no See also:attention to the See also:practical application of See also:science nor that he despised knowledge which tended to use. He himself was an alchemist; and believing the transmutation of metals to be a possibility, he carried out experiments in the See also:hope of effecting it; and he was instrumental in obtaining the See also:repeal, in 1689, of the See also:statute of Henry IV. against multiplying See also:gold and See also:silver. With all the important work he accomplished in physics—the enunciation of Boyle's law, the See also:discovery of the See also:part taken by air in the See also:propagation of See also:sound, and investigations on the expansive force of freezing See also:water, on specific gravities and refractive See also:powers, on crystals, on See also:electricity, on See also:colour, on See also:hydrostatics, &c.—chemistry was his See also:peculiar and favourite study.

His first book on the subject was The Sceptical Chemist, published in 1661, rists are wont to endeavour to evince their See also:

Salt, See also:Sulphur and lllercury to be the true Principles of Things." For him See also:chemistry was the science of the See also:composition of substances, not merely an See also:adjunct to the arts of the alchemist or the physician. He advanced towards the modern view of elements as the undecomposable constituents 'of material bodies; and understanding the distinction between mixtures and compounds, he made considerable progress in the technique of detecting their ingredients, a See also:process which he designated by the See also:term " See also:analysis." He further supposed that the elements were ultimately composed of particles of various sorts and sizes, into which, however, they were not to be resolved in any known way. Applied chemistry had to thank him for improved methods and for an extended knowledge of individual substances. He also studied the chemistry of See also:combustion and of respiration, and made experiments in See also:physiology, where, however, he was hampered by the "tenderness of his nature " which kept him from anatomical dissections, especially of living animals, though he knew them to be " most instructing." Besides being a busy natural philosopher, Boyle devoted much time to See also:theology, showing a very decided leaning to the practical See also:side and an indifference to controversial polemics. At the Restoration he was favourably received at See also:court, and in 1665 would have received the provostship of Eton, if he would have taken orders; but this he refused to do, on the ground that his writings on religious subjects would have greater See also:weight coming from a layman than a paid See also:minister of the See also:Church. He spent large sums in promoting the spread of See also:Christianity, contributing liberally to missionary See also:societies, and to the expenses of translating the See also:Bible or portions of it into various See also:languages. By his will he founded the Boyle lectures, for proving the See also:Christian See also:religion against " notorious infidels, viz. atheists, theists, pagans, See also:Jews and Mahommedans," with the proviso that controversies between Christians were not to be mentioned. In See also:person Boyle was tall, slender and of a See also:pale countenance. His constitution was far from robust, and throughout his life he suffered from feeble health and See also:low spirits. While his scientific work procured him an extraordinary reputation among his contemporaries, his private See also:character and virtues, the See also:charm of his social See also:manners, his wit and powers of conversation, endeared him to a large circle of See also:personal See also:friends. He was never married. His writings are exceedingly voluminous, and his See also:style is clear and straightforward, though undeniably prolix.

The following are the more important of his See also:

works in addition to the two already mentioned :—Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy (1663), followed by a second part in 1671; Experiments and Considerations upon See also:Colours, with Observations on a See also:Diamond that Shines in the Dark (1663); New Experiments and Observations upon See also:Cold (1665) ; Hydrostatical Paradoxes (1666); Origin of Forms and Qualities according to the Corpuscular Philosophy (1666); a continuation of his work on the spring of air (1669) ; tracts about the Cosmical Qualities of Things, the Temperature of the Subterraneal and Submarine Regions, the Bottom of the See also:Sea, &c. with an Introduction to the See also:History of Particular Qualities (1670); Origin and Virtues of Gems (1672); Essays of the See also:strange Subtilty, great Efficacy, determinate Nature of Effluviums (1673) ; two volumes of tracts on the Saltness of the Sea, the Hidden Qualities of the Air, Cold, See also:Celestial Magnets, Animadversions on See also:Hobbes's Problemata de Vacuo (1674) ; Experiments and Notes about the Mechanical Origin or See also:Production of Particular Qualities, including some notes on electricity and See also:magnetism (1676) ; Observations upon an artificial Substance that Shines without any Preceding See also:Illustration (1678) ; the Aerial Noctiluca (1680) ; New Experiments and Observations upon the Icy Noctiluca (1682) ; a further continuation of his work on the air; See also:Memoirs for the Natural History of the Human See also:Blood (1684); See also:Short Memoirs for the Natural Experimental History of See also:Mineral See also:Waters (1685); Medicina Hydrostatica (1690); and Experiments et Observationes Physicae (1691). Among his religious and philosophical writings were: Seraphic Love, written in 1648, but not published till 1660; an See also:Essay upon the Style of the See also:Holy Scriptures (1663); Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects (1665), which was ridiculed by See also:Swift in A Pious Meditation upon a Broomstick, and by See also:Butler in An Occasional Reflection on Dr Charlton's Feeling a See also:Dog's See also:Pulse at Gresham College; Excellence of Theology compared with Natural Philosophy (1664); Some Considerations about the Reconcileableness of See also:Reason and Religion, with a Discourse about the Possibility of the Resurrection (1675); Discourse 356 of Things above Reason (1681); High Veneration See also:Man owes to See also:God (1685); A See also:Free Inquiry into the vulgarly received Notion of Nature (1686) ; and the Christian Virtuoso (1690). Several other works appeared after his death, among them The See also:General History of the Air designed and begun (1692) ; a " collection of choice remedies," Medicinal Experiments (1692—1698) ; and A Free Discourse against Customary See also:Swearing (1695). An incomplete and unauthorized edition of Boyle's works was published at Geneva in 1677, but the first See also:complete edition was that of See also:Thomas See also:Birch, with a life, published in 1744, in five See also:folio volumes, a second edition appearing in 1772 in six volumes, 4to. Boyle bequeathed his natural history collections to the Royal Society, which also possesses a portrait of him by the See also:German painter, See also:Friedrich Kerseboom (1632—1690).

End of Article: BOYLE, ROBERT (1627-1691)

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