An eighteenth-century medical-meteorological society in the Netherlands: An investigation of early organization, instrumentation and quantification. Part 2

British Journal for the History of Science

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 49-66

  Zuidervaart, Huib J ^a  

^a Boerhaave Museum   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION; HISTORY; METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA; NETHERLANDS;

HISTORY, 18TH CENTURY; METEOROLOGICAL CONCEPTS; METEOROLOGICAL FACTORS; NETHERLANDS; SOCIETIES, SCIENTIFIC;

EID: 33644542131     PISSN: 00070874     EISSN: 1474001X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0007087405007594     Document Type: Article

References (91)

1. Bianchi's Spiral thermometer was announced in the Amsterdamsche Courant, 31 December 1778 and 9 January 1779
2. and reprinted in other newspapers, such as the Middelburgsche Courant, 12 January 1779. A copy made by Bianchi of Amsterdam is at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris;
3. see B. Bolle, Barometers in beeld, Lochem-Poperinge, 1983, Figure 462. A similar instrument at the Deutsches Museum in Munich is signed, 'Thermometre selon Reaumur inventé
4. et fait par Bianchy Vienne, 1767'. This thermometer was probably made by Jacob Bianchi, the author of the book Das merkwürdigste vom Barometre und Thermometre, Vienna, 1762, in which the spiral thermometer is not mentioned. Bianchi did not pretend to be the inventor of the spiral thermometer;
5. he only wanted to introduce the instrument to the Netherlands. Carlo Bianchi had worked in Amsterdam since 1770, first in partnership with the barometer-maker Lodewijk Primavesi, but from 1778 on with a brother and under his own name. B. Bolle, Barometers in beeld, note 350;
6. W. E. Knowles Middleton, The History of the Thermometer and Its Use in Meteorology, Baltimore, 1966, 116, 139.
7. For details see Mohr to Van Swinden, 27 September 1779, 9 November 1779, 11 January 1780, 5 April 1780, 12 June 1780;
8. Van Swinden to Mohr, 19 October 1779, 18 November 1779, 14 March 1780, 18 May 1780; Van der Weyde to Van Swinden, 20 January 1784;
9. and R. Holl to J. H. van Swinden, 18 March 1784.
10. Van Swinden to Mohr, 18 November 1779.
11. Bianchi's spiral thermometer was used by Barnings, Van Swinden, Mohr, Holl, Van de Perre and Van der Weyde. See Brunings, 'Bericht wegens de weerkundige waarnemingen op Zwaanenburg', Verhandelingen uitgegeven door de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (1780), 19, 138-42 and
12. [Van der Weydel, 'Bericht wegens de luchtgesteldheid in eenige plaatsen der Vereenigde Nederlanden, geduurende het jaar 1779' [Meteorological report of the weather in a number of places in the Netherlands during the year 1779], Verhandelingen Correspondence Sociëteit (1783), 1, 43-380.
13. Mohr to Van Swinden, 11 January 1780.
14. Elaborate tests of Bianchi's spiral thermometer by fellow instrument-makers Molteni in Amsterdam and Bochia in Leiden are mentioned in a letter of Van der Weyde to Van Swinden, 20 January 1784. In 1825 a spiral thermometer by Bianchi filled with spirit instead of mercury was auctioned in Amsterdam from the cabinet of Gerrit van Varik, lecturer in physics at the Amsterdam society 'Felix Meritis'. According to the catalogue (Catalogus... van Wis- en Natuurkundige Werktuigen... bijeen verzameld door den heer Gerrit van Varik, Amsterdam, 1825, no. 205; copy at Museum Boerhaave, Leiden) the instrument was accurate to one-three-hundredth of a degree Réaumur.
15. See the 'Hygroscopium' lemma in W. de la Bordus (ed.), Groot en volledig woordenboek der wiskunde, sterrekunde, meetkunde, rekenkunde, Amsterdam, 1758.
16. See also J. Dalencé, Verhandelingen over de barometers, thermometers, en notiometers of hygrometer, 's-Gravenhage, 1730
17. (Dutch translation of Traité des baromètres, thermomètres et notiomètres ou hygromètres, Amsterdam, 1688)
18. . 7 W. E. Knowles Middleton, Invention of the Meteorological Instruments, Baltimore, 1969, 99-100
19. (citation from Observations sur la physique (1778), 11, 421).
20. Antoine-Joseph Buissart (1737-1820) had been President of the Académie Royale d'Arras since 1780. Because of his meteorological studies he was often called by his nickname, 'Monsieur le baromètre'.
21. J. H. van Swinden, 'Over een nieuwen vergelijkbaaren Vogtmeter', in Genees-, Natuur- en Huishoudkundig Kabinet (ed. J. Voegen van Engelen), Volume 2, 'Nieuwe uitvindingen, ontdekkingen en verbeteringen', 1781, 89-106.
22. The calibration of the instrument is discussed on 99-104. The manuscript was submitted by Van Swinden to J. Voegen van Engelen on 24 October 1780. Van Swinden's copy of the hygrometer was made in Paris by Mossy, 'according the design of Buissart'. Hygrometers of this type were made by the Rotterdam instrument-maker Anthony Christoffel Reballio (c. 1720-1801), who had worked in the Netherlands since roughly 1749. Two examples of a contra-barometer, with a thermometer and a hygrometer according to Retz and Buissart, are published by B. Bolle, Genees-, Natuur- en Huishoudkundig Kabinet, op. cit. (1), 113, 115.
23. Cf. Van Swinden to S. J. Brugmans, 7 May 1781;
24. and Van Swinden to Brunings, 10 August 1781.
25. Mohr to Van Swinden, March 1781.
26. See also Van Swinden to Mohr, 15 March 1781.
27. Van Breda to Van Swinden, 11 March 1784.
28. Holl to Van Swinden, 19 October 1780 and 17 April 1786.
29. Van Swinden to Holl, April 1786.
30. Van Swinden to Brunings, 30 August 1781. Cutbertson enjoyed some fame for his electrical machines;
31. see W. D. Hackmann, John and Jonathan Cuthbertson: The Invention and Development of the Eighteenth-Century Plate Electrical Machine, Leiden, 1973.
32. Cf. H. B. de Saussure, Essai suri 'hygrometer, Neuchâtel, 1783;
33. Van Swinden to Holl, June 1786;
34. J. A. van de Perre, 'Observationes Mettelloburgenses', in Ephemerides Societatis Meteorology Palatinae (1788), 128.
35. Van den Bosch to Van de Perre, 3 October 1783 (Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, Middelburg, Mss. KZGW, 427.).
36. Jan Golinski, Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and the Enlightenment in Britain, 1760-1820, Cambridge, 1992, 105-28;
37. and Trevor H. Levere, 'Measuring gases and measuring goodness', in Instruments and Experimentation in the History of Chemistry (ed. F. L. Holmes and T. H. Levere), Cambridge, 2000, 105-35.
38. M. J. van Lieburg and H. A. M. Snelders, De bevordering en volmaking der proefondervindelijke wijsbegeerte. De rol van bet Bataafsch Genootschap te Rotterdam in de geschiedenis van de natuurwetenschappen, geneeskunde en techniek (1769-1988), Amsterdam and Atlanta, 1989, 55-66 and 94-9.
39. Boudewyn Tieboel, 'Verhandeling over de Vaste Lucht' (1779), Verhandelingen van het Bataafsch Genootschap der Proefondervindelyke Wysbegeerte te Rotterdam (hereafter Verh. BGPW) (1781), 5, 97-192, 171-2.
40. Cf. M. J. van Lieburg, Het Bataafsch Genootschap der Proefondervindelijke Wijsbegeerte te Rotterdam 1769-1984. Een bibliografisch en documenterend overzicht, Amsterdam, 1985, 116 (Prize contest no. 11);
41. J. R. Deiman and A. Pacts van Troostwyk, 'Verhandeling over de Vaste Lucht' (1779), Verb. BGPW (1781), 5, 1-96, 61-2. Jan Deiman, a medical doctor, had been a 'member consultant' and a 'correspondent for medical affairs' of the Correspondentie Sociëteit since 1779. With his friend, the merchant Paets van Troostwyk, he was a member of the small, but very active Society of Dutch Chemists (Gezelschap der Hollandsche Scheikundigen). They made some name as early adherents of Lavoisier's system of chemistry.
42. Cf. H. A. M. Snelders, Het gezelschap der Hollandsche Scheikundigen. Amsterdamse chemici uit het einde van de achttiende eeuw, Amsterdam, 1980.
43. Both Van Marum and Paets van Troostwyk used Fontana's eudiometer. See M. van Marum and A. Paets van Troostwyk, 'Verhandeling over de schadelyke uitdarapingen' (1783), Verhandelingen Bataafsch Genootschap der Proefondervindelijke Wijsbegeerte (1787), 8, 1-61. An unpublished treatise on eudiometry by Van Marum and Paets van Troostwyk is in the archive of the Kongelige Dansk Videnskabernes Selskab at Copenhagen.
44. See G. L'E. Turner, Van Marum's Scientific Instruments in Teyler's Museum, Volume 4 of Martinus van Marum; Life and Work (ed. R. J. Forbes, E. Lefebvre and J. G. de Bruijn), 4 vols., Leiden, 1973, 245. A Dutch description of Fontana's eudiometer was published in 1780 by Jacob van Breda
45. in his translation of J. Ingenhousz, Proeven op Plantgewassen (Experiments upon Vegetables), Delft, 1780, 166-71 and 263-5.
46. See also Willem van Barneveld and Joachim Fredrik Muller, 'Over het planten van boomen...', Verhandelingen van het Provinciaal Utrechtsch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen (1785), 3, 1-189, 116, 182, 185.
47. Fontana had been employed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany since 1766. He designed several eudiometers, all based on the same principle. The type most used in the Netherlands was in fact based on an older design by Fontana's colleague Marsilio Landriani. In this eudiometer plain water instead of mercury was used to separate the various gases. Levere, Verhandelingen Van Het Provinciaal Utrechtsch Genootschap Van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, op. cit. (15), 112-16.
48. J. van Breda, 'Voorbericht', in J. Ingenhousz, Verzameling van Verhandelingen over Verschillende Natuurkundige Onderwerpen (tr. J. van Breda), 2 vols., Delft, 1785, i, p. xv, and ii, 413.
49. Van Swinden to B. Tieboel, 10 August 1781, 30 December 1781 and 28 February 1783.
50. Tieboel to Van Swinden, 5 September 1781 ;
51. cf. also Levere, Verzameling Van Verhandelingen over Verschillende Natuurkundige Onderwerpen, op. cit. (15), 111.
52. Van Breda to Van Swinden, 28 October 1783.
53. Johannes Theodoras van der Kemp (1747-1811) was a medical doctor at Middelburg and a member of the local Physical Society (Natuurkundig Gezelschap). In 1798 he went to South Africa, after being ordained in London as a pastor. Van de Perre refers to him as 'my friend Van der Kemp' in a letter to C. C. H. van der Aa, 16 May 1788 (RA Noord-Holland, Haarlem, arch. HMW). Cf. J. H. Enklaar, De levensgeschiedenis van Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp, stichter van het Nederlandsch Zendeling Genootschap, Wageningen, 1972, 47.
54. See also Van de Perre to Van Breda, 8 November 1783.
55. Van de Perre to Van Breda, 28 September 1785. A similar electrical eudiometer made by John Cuthbertson was purchased in 1790 by Van Marum for Teyler's Society at Haarlem. Turner, De Levensgeschiedenis Van Johannes Theodorus Van der Kemp, Stichter Van Het Nederlandsch Zendeling Genootschap, op. cit. (18), 245-6.
56. See also W. A. Osman, 'Alessandro Volta and the inflammable air eudiometer', Annals of Science (1958), 14, 215-42.
57. W. D. Hackmann, 'Instruments and experiments: the case of atmospheric electricity in eighteenth-century Holland', Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenes der Geneeskunde, Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Techniek (1987), 10, 190-207.
58. Van Lieburg, Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenes der Geneeskunde, Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Techniek, op. cit. (17), 53 and 117.
59. The answer was crowned in 1783 and published in Verb. BGPW (1787), 8, 63-153.
60. J. G. de Bruijn, Inventaris van de prijsvragen uitgeschreven door de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen 1753-3917, Haarlem and Groningen, 1977, no. 50.
61. Cf. J. van Breda, 'Over de Electriciteit van den Dampkring' (1786), Verhandelingen uitgegeeven door de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (1788), 25, 363-456.
62. See also Van Breda's description of Volta's electrophore, Algemeende Vaderlandsche Letter-oeffeningen (1779), 1, 251-66.
63. J. Reghter, 'Beschryving van een toestel, geschikt om met een vlieger veilig electrische proeven te nemen', Vaderlandsche Letter-oeffeningen (1779), 1-II, (69-81;
64. and J. Reghter, 'Beschryving van een vrijstaande electricalen afleider", Vaderlandsche Letter-oeffeningen (1780), 2-II, 249-52.
65. See also Van der Weyde to Van Swinden, 27 March 1784 about measurements made by J. Reghter, 'habile Artiste en Delft', referring to an article in Genees- Natuur- en Huishoudkundig Kabinet (undated), 3-II, 59;
66. S. P. van Swinden to J. H. van Swinden, 1785 (KB, Coll. Meteorologie & Noorderlicht, CCCIIa). Cf. H. A. M. Snelders, 'Natuurwetenschappen [in Delft]', in De stad Delft. Cultuur en maatschappij van 1667 tot 1813, Delft, 1982, 92-6;
67. and Thera Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ' Instrumenten voor wetenschap en vermaak', in idem, Achter de gevels van Delft, Hilversum, 1987, 262-4.
68. Van den Bosch to Van Breda, 29 January 1781 ;
69. [G. van der Weyde], ' Bericht wegens de luchtgesteldheid [voor het jaar 1781]', Verhandelingen Correspondentie Sociëteit (1786), 3-1, 5.
70. J. A. van de Perre, 'Observationes Mettelloburgenses (Sept. 1784)', in Ephemerides Societatis Meteorologicae Palatinae (1785), 550.
71. For this atmospheric electrometer see T. Cavallo, Volledige verhandeling over de Electriciteit, vertaald door J. Th. Rossijn, Utrecht, 1780, 305-12, Plate III-1. A copy of a glass atmospheric electrometer according to Cavallo is preserved in the Utrecht University Museum.
72. See W. J. Lavèn and J. G. van Cittert-Eymers, Electrostatical Instrumentes in the Utrecht University Museum: Descriptive Catalogue, Utrecht, 1967, 58, Plate xxxvii.
73. A. Paets van Troostwyk and J. R. Deiman, 'Verhandeling over de geneeskonstige electriciteit", Verb. BGPW (1787), 8, 63-153, 93. Their apparatus was a variation on Cavallo's.
74. See 73-4 and Plate II.
75. J. Kloek and W. W. Mijnhardt (eds.), 1800: Blauwdrukken voor een samenleving, Den Haag, 2001, 309-10.
76. H. A. M. Snelders, 'De natuur- en scheikundige wetenschappen in de medische tijdschriften', Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde (1981), 125, 668-73, 671 ;
77. F. Huisman, 'De correspondenten. Medici, Staat en samenleving tijdens de Nederlandse Verlichting', in Medische geschiedenis in regionaal perspectief (ed. F. Huisman and P. Santing), Groningen, 1997, 75-93, 79.
78. G. S. Rousseau and Roy Porter (eds.), The Ferment of Knowledge: Studies in the Historiography of Eighteenth-Century Science, Cambridge, 1980.
79. Van der Weyde failed to recognize the meaning of Van Swinden's earlier analyses of barometric observations, in which Van Swinden had proved that the moon's position in the sky did not influence the daily fluctuation of the barometer. See J. H. van Swinden, Mémoire sur les observations météorologiques faites à Franeker pendant le courant l'année MDCCLXXIX, Amsterdam, 1780, 34.
80. See also Th. S. Feldmann, 'Late Enlightenment meteorology', in The Quantifying Spirit in the Eighteenth Century (ed. T. Frängsmyr, J. L. Heilbron and R. E. Rider), 1990, 143-77, 171.
81. H. J. Zuidervaart, Van 'Konstgenoten' en Hemelse Fenomenen. Nederlandse Sterrenkunde in de Achttiende Eeuw, Rotterdam, 1999, 599-609. Of the remaining observers of the Correspondentie Sociëteit only Rutgerus Holl, officer of the cavalry, made both meteorological and astronomical observations.
82. Van der Weyde to Van Swinden, 4 November 1782, 23 August 1783 and 20 January 1784;
83. I. J. van den Bosch, (preface to the meteorological observations of the year 1780, dated 29 September 1785), Verhandelingen Correspondentie Sociëteit (1785), 2-1.
84. [Van der Weyde], 'Bericht wegens de luchtgesteldheid [voor het jaar 1781]' [Meteorological report of the weather in a number of places in the Netherlands during the year 1781"], Verhandelingen Correspondentie Sociëteit (1786), 3-I, 19-21, 34-8.
85. D. A. Cassidy, 'Meteorology in Mannheim: the Palatine Meteorology Society, 1780-1795', Sudhoffs Arch. (1985), 69, 8-25, 22;
86. F. Huisman, Sudhoffs Arch., op. cit. (33), 179.
87. F. W. A. van Poppel and J. P. van Dijk, ' The beginning of health statistics 1750-1870', in The Statistical Mind in a Pre-statistical Era: The Netherlands 1750-1850 (ed. P. Klep and I. H. Stamhuis), Amsterdam, 2002, 241-77, 247-9.
88. Kloek and Mijnhardt, The Statistical Mind in A Pre-statistical Era: the Netherlands 1750-1850, op. cit. (32), 310.
89. Willem Wenckebach, 'Uitkomsten uit in Nederland gedane weerkundige waarnemingen', Natuur- en Scheikundig Archief(18337), 5, 331-433, 358, 383.
90. At the time only the Societas Meteorologicae Palatina had published the observations in full. These are still used in climatological studies. Cf. A. Kington, 'The Societas Meteorologicae Palatina: an eighteenth-century meteorological society', Weather (1974), 29, 416-26.
91. M. Snellen, Beknopt geschiedkundig overzicht van de beoefening der meteorologie in het algetneen en die in Nederland in het bijzonder, Utrecht, 1897.