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HALLEY, EDMUND (1656–1742)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 856 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HALLEY, See also:EDMUND (1656–1742) , See also:English astronomer, was See also:born at Haggerston, See also:London, on the 29th of See also:October 1656. His See also:father, a wealthy soapboiler, placed him at St See also:Paul's school, where he was equally distinguished for classical and mathematical ability. Before leaving it for See also:Queen's See also:College, See also:Oxford, in 1673, he had observed the See also:change in the variation of the See also:compass, and at the See also:age of nineteen, he supplied a new and improved method of determining the elements of the planetary orbits (Phil. Trans. xi. 683). His detection of considerable errors in the tables then in use led him to the conclusion that a more accurate ascertainment of the places of the fixed stars was indispensable to the progress of See also:astronomy; and, finding that See also:Flamsteed and See also:Hevelius had already undertaken to See also:catalogue those visible in See also:northern latitudes, he assumed to himself the task of making observations in the See also:southern hemisphere. A recommendation from See also:Charles II. to the See also:East See also:India See also:Company procured for him an apparently suitable, though, as it proved, See also:ill-chosen station, and in See also:November 1676 he embarked for St See also:Helena. On the voyage he noticed the retardation of the pendulum in approaching the See also:equator; and during his stay on the See also:island he observed, on the 7th of November 1677, a transit of See also:Mercury, which suggested to him the important See also:idea of employing similar phenomena for determining the See also:sun's distance. He returned to See also:England in November 1678, having by the See also:registration of 341 stars won the See also:title of the " Southern Tycho," and by the See also:translation to the heavens of the " Royal See also:Oak," earned a degree of See also:master of arts, conferred at Oxford by the See also:king's command on the 3rd of See also:December 1678, almost simultaneously with his See also:election as See also:fellow of the Royal Society. Six months later, the indefatigable astronomer started for See also:Danzig to set at See also:rest a dispute of See also:long See also:standing between See also:Hooke and Hevelius as to the respective merits of See also:plain or telescopic See also:sights; and towards the end of 168o he proceeded on a See also:continental tour. In See also:Paris he observed, with G. D.

See also:

Cassini, the See also:great See also:comet of 168o after its See also:perihelion passage; and having returned to England, he married in 1682 See also:Mary, daughter of Mr See also:Tooke, auditor of the See also:exchequer, with whom he lived harmoniously for fifty-five years. He now fixed his See also:residence at See also:Islington, engaged chiefly upon lunar observations, with a view to the great desideratum of a method of finding the See also:longitude at See also:sea. His mind, however, was also busy with the momentous problem of gravity. Having reached so far as to perceive that the central force of the See also:solar See also:system must decrease inversely as the square of the distance, and applied vainly to See also:Wren and Hooke for further elucidation, he made in See also:August 1684 that See also:journey to See also:Cambridge for the purpose of consulting See also:Newton, which resulted in the publication of the Principia. The labour and expense of passing this great See also:work through the See also:press devolved upon Halley, who also wrote the prefixed hexameters ending with the well-known See also:line Nec fas est propius mortali attingere divos. See also:surgery in the newly founded university of See also:Gottingen. He became F.R.S. in 1743, and was ennobled in 1749. The quantity of work achieved by See also:Haller in the seventeen years during which he occupied his Gottingen professorship was immense. Apart from the See also:ordinary work of his classes, which entailed upon him the task of newly organizing a botanical See also:garden, an anatomical See also:theatre and museum, an obstetrical school, and similar institutions, he carried on without interruption those See also:original investigations in See also:botany and See also:physiology, the results of which are preserved in the numerous See also:works associated with his name; he continued also to persevere in his youthful See also:habit of poetical See also:composition, while at the same See also:time he conducted a monthly See also:journal (the Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen), to which he is said to have contributed twelve thousand articles See also:relating to almost every See also:branch of human knowledge. He also warmly interested himself in most of the religious questions, both ephemeral and permanent, of his See also:day; and the erection of the Reformed See also:church in Gottingen was mainly due to his unwearied See also:energy. Not-withstanding all this variety of absorbing interests he never See also:felt at See also:home in Gottingen; his untravelled See also:heart kept ever turning towards his native See also:Bern (where he had been elected a member of the great See also:council in 1745), and in 1753 he resolved to resign his See also:chair and return to See also:Switzerland. The twenty-one years of his See also:life which followed were largely occupied in the See also:discharge of his duties in the See also:minor See also:political See also:post of a Rathhausammann which he had obtained by See also:lot, and in the preparation of his Bibliotheca medica, the botanical, surgical and anatomical parts of which he lived to See also:complete; but he also found time to write the three philosophical romances—Usong (1771), See also:Alfred (1773) and See also:Fabius and See also:Cato (1774),-111 which his views as to the respective merits of despotism, of limited See also:monarchy and of aristocratic republican See also:government are fully set forth.

About 1773 the See also:

state of his See also:health rendered necessary his entire withdrawal from public business; for some time he supported his failing strength by means of See also:opium, on the use of which he communicated a See also:paper to the Proceedings of the Gottingen Royal Society in 1776; the excessive use of the See also:drug is believed, however, to have hastened his See also:death, which occurred on the 17th of December 1777. Haller, who had been three times married, See also:left eight See also:children, the eldest of whom, Gottlieb Emanuel, attained to some distinction as a botanist and as a writer on Swiss See also:historical bibliography (1785–1788, 7 vols.). Subjoined is a classified but by no means an exhaustive See also:list of his very numerous works in various branches of See also:science and literature (a complete list, up to 1775, numbering 576 items, including various See also:editions, was published by Haller himself, in 1775, at the end of vol. 6 of the See also:correspondence addressed to him by various learned See also:friends):—(1) Anatomical:—Icones anatomicae (1743–1754); Disputationes anatomicae selectiores (1746–1752); and See also:Opera acad. minora anatomici argumenti (1762–1768). (2) Physiological: De respiratione experimenta anatomica (1747) ; Primae lineae physiologiae (1747) ; and Elementa physiologiae corporis humani (1757–1760). (3) Pathological and surgical: Opuscula pathologica (1754); Disputationum chirurg. collectio (1777) ; also careful editions of See also:Boerhaave's Praelectiones academicae in suns institutions rei medicae (1739), and of the Artis medicae principia of the same author (1769.-1774). (4) Botanical :—Enumeratio methodica stir See also:plum Helveticarum (1742); Opuscula botanica (1749); Bibliotheca botanica (1771). (5) Theological :—Briefe See also:Tiber See also:die wichtigsten Wahrheilen der Offenbarung (1772); and Briefe zur Vertheidigung der Offenbarung (1775–1777). (6) Poetical :—Gedichte (1732, 12th ed., 1777). His three romances have been already mentioned. Several volumes of lectures and Tagebucher " or See also:journals were published posthumously. See J.

G. See also:

Zimmermann, Das Leben See also:des Herrn von Haller (1755), and the articles by See also:Forster and Seiler in See also:Ersch and See also:Gruber's Encyklopadie, and particularly the detailed See also:biography (over Sao pages) by L. Hirzel, printed at the See also:head of his elaborate edition (See also:Frauenfeld, 1882) of Haller's Gedichte.

End of Article: HALLEY, EDMUND (1656–1742)

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