Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
KIRWAN, RICHARD (1733-1812)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: KHA-KRI
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:KIRWAN, See also:RICHARD (1733-1812) , Irish scientist, was See also:born at Cloughballymore, Co. See also:Galway, in 1733. See also:Part of his See also:early See also:life was spent- abroad, and in 1754 he entered the Jesuit novitiate either at St Omer or at Hesdin, but returned to See also:Ireland in the following See also:year, when he succeeded to the See also:family estates through the See also:death of his See also:brother in a See also:duel. In 1766, having conformed to the established See also:religion two years previously, he was called to the Irish See also:bar, but in 1768 abandoned practice in favour of scientific pursuits. During the next nineteen years he resided chiefly in See also:London, enjoying the society of the scientific men living there, and corresponding with many savants on the See also:continent of See also:Europe, as his wide knowledge of See also:languages enabled him to do with ease. His experiments on the specific gravities and attractive See also:powers of various saline substances formed a substantial contribution to the methods of See also:analytical See also:chemistry, and in 1782 gained him the See also:Copley See also:medal from the Royal Society, of which he was elected a See also:fellow in 178o; and in 1784 he was engaged in a controversy with See also:Cavendish in regard to the latter's experiments on See also:air. In 1787 he removed to See also:Dublin, where four years later he became See also:president of the Royal Irish See also:Academy. To its proceedings he contributed some See also:thirty-eight See also:memoirs, dealing with See also:meteorology, pure and applied chemistry, See also:geology, See also:magnetism, See also:philology, &c. One of these, on the See also:primitive See also:state of the globe and its subsequent See also:catastrophe, involved him in a lively dispute with the upholders of the Huttonian theory. His See also:geological See also:work was marred by an implicit belief in the universal See also:deluge, and through finding fossils associated with the See also:trap rocks near See also:Portrush he maintained See also:basalt was of aqueous origin. He was one of the last supporters in See also:England of the phlogistic See also:hypothesis, for which he contended in his See also:Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids (1787), identifying phlogiston with See also:hydrogen. This work, translated by Madame See also:Lavoisier, was published in See also:French with See also:critical notes by Lavoisier and some of his associates; Kirwan attempted to refute their arguments, but they proved too strong for him, and he acknowledged himself a convert in 1791. His other books included Elements of See also:Mineralogy (1784), which was the first systematic work on that subject in the See also:English See also:language, and which See also:long remained See also:standard; An Estimate of the Temperature of Different Latitudes (1787); Essay of the See also:Analysis of See also:Mineral See also:Waters (1799), and Geological Essays (1799). In his later years he turned to philosophical questions, producing a See also:paper on human See also:liberty in 1798, a See also:treatise *on See also:logic in 1807, and a See also:volume of metaphysical essays in 1811, none of any See also:worth. Various stories are told of his eccentricities as well as of his conversational powers. He died in Dublin in See also:June 1812. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] KIRSCH (or KIRSCHENWASSER) |
[next] KISFALUDY, KAROLY |