ANTHOLOGIZING THE BOOK OF NATURE: THE ORIGINS OF THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL AND CIRCULATION OF KNOWLEDGE IN LATE GEORGIAN BRITAIN

History of Science and Medicine Library

Volumn 36, Issue , 2013, Pages 119-152

  Topham, Jonathan R ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 85198735672     PISSN: 18720684     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (126)

1. [Thomas Thomson], “Preface,” Annals of Philosophy 1 (1813): [1].
2. James E. McClellan III, “The Scientific Press in Transition: Rozier’s Journal and the Scientific Societies in the 1770s,” Annals of Science 36 (1979): 425–49, esp. 433.
3. See also Thomas Broman, “Periodical Literature,” in Books and the Sciences in History, ed. Marina Frasca-Spada and Nicholas Jardine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 225–38
4. Maurice Crosland, In the Shadow of Lavoisier: The “Annales de Chimie” and the Establishment of a New Science, British Society for the History of Science Monographs, 9 ([n.l.]: British Society for the History of Science, 1994).
5. [Thomson], “Preface,” 3 and 4.
6. Royal Society of London, Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1800–1863), 6 vols (London: Royal Society of London, 1867–72).
7. James A. Secord, “Science, Technology and Mathematics,” in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. 4, 1830–1914, ed. David McKitterick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 451–59.
8. See also Alex Csiszar, “Broken Pieces of Fact: The Scientific Periodical and the Politics of Search in Nineteenth-Century France and Britain,” PhD diss., Harvard University, 2010.
9. Jonathan R. Topham, “Science, Print, and Crossing Borders: Importing French Science Books into Britain, 1789–1815,” in Geographies of Nineteenth Century Science, ed. David N. Livingstone and Charles Withers (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 311–44.
10. [Thomson], “Preface,” 1–2.
11. [Thomson], “Preface,” 3–4.
12. Roy Porter, “Lay Medical Knowledge in the Eighteenth Century: The Evidence of the Gentleman’s Magazine,” Medical History 29 (1985): 138–68
13. “Laymen, Doctors and Medical Knowledge in the Eighteenth Century: The Evidence of the Gentleman’s Magazine,” in Patients and Practitioners: Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre-industrial Society, ed. Roy Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 283–314.
14. Anon., “[Advertisement],” Gentleman’s Magazine 52 (1782): ii.
15. European Magazine 13 (1785): 409. The Annual Register (f. 1758) similarly included a regular section of ‘Useful Projects’, as well as a section of ‘Natural History’. The role of such publications in the development and communication of science in the eighteenth century clearly warrants concerted attention.
16. On the subsequent transformation of such Enlightenment miscellanies into recognizably and self-consciously ‘literary’ magazines in the years following the Napoleonic wars, see Geoffrey Cantor et al., Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical: Reading the Magazine of Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 10–13.
17. Gerald P. Tyson, Joseph Johnson: A Liberal Publisher (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1979).
18. [Alexander Chisholm], “The Annals of Chemistry, Vol. I,” Monthly Review 2nd ser. 8 (1792): 169.
19. On Chisholm’s involvement in private translation activities in this period, see Larry Stewart, “Assistants to Enlightenment: William Lewis, Alexander Chisholm and Invisible Technicians in the Industrial Revolution,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society 62 (2008): 17–29.
20. S. Lilley, “‘Nicholson’s Journal’ (1797–1813),” Annals of Science 6 (1948–50): 78–101
21. W. H. Brock and A. J. Meadows, The Lamp of Learning: Two Centuries of Publishing at Taylor & Francis (London and Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis, 1998), ch. 4.
22. Anon., “Preface,” Memoirs of Science and the Arts 1 (1793): ii and iii.
23. The attribution to Aikin was made in a contemporary advertisement (Oracle and Daily Advertiser, 1 November 1800, p. 1c). Also, when reissued in 1797 they were described as being “by a member of the Royal College of Physicians”, a description that applies to Aikin. See [John Aikin], The Philosophical Transactions Abridged; or, Memoirs of Science and the Arts. From the Works of the Learned and Œconomical Societies of Europe, Asia, and America (London: printed for the proprietors, and sold by James Wallis; Edinburgh: James Dickson; Dublin: J. Archer; Manchester: Clarke & Co.; Newcastle: Charnley & Son, and J. Bell; and Liverpool: Jones, [1797]).
24. Tyson, Joseph Johnson, p. 66
25. Arthur Aikin, “Dr. John Aikin,” Gentleman’s Magazine 93 pt. 1 (1823): 85–89
26. Lucy Aikin, Memoir of John Aikin, M. D., with a Selection of His Miscellaneous Pieces, Biographical, Moral and Critical, 2 vols (London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1823).
27. Aikin, Memoir, 1: 152 and 163. Robert Schofield considers Aikin’s epistolatory reference to such a society being instituted “here” as being likely to refer to the “very friendly and innocent club” Priestley reported he had “found” in Clapton. See Joseph Priestley, The Present State of Europe Compared with Antient Prophecies; A Sermon, Preached at the Gravel Pit Meeting in Hackney, February 28, 1794, Being the Day Appointed for a General Fast (London: J. Johnson, 1794), xiv
28. Robert E. Schofield, The Enlightened Joseph Priestley: A Study in His Life and Work from 1773 to 1804 (University Park, PA: Pennsylvanian State University Press, 2004), 305–06.
29. However, Aikin’s “here” very probably relates to London, suggesting that this might have been the Philosophical Society of London. See Ian Inkster, “Science and Society in the Metropolis: A Preliminary Examination of the Social and Institutional Context of the Askesian Society of London, 1796–1807,” Annals of Science 34 (1977): 9.
30. Aikin, Memoir, 1: 155.
31. Aikin, Memoir, 1: 92
32. Analytical Review 16 (1793): 529.
33. In the copies I have examined, the first volume is separated into two parts, each with a separate titlepage; however, it is unclear at what stage the shift from monthly to biannual publication was made. The first volume sold for £1 1s. See [John Aikin], “[Review of Memoirs of Science and the Arts],” Monthly Review 2nd ser. 13 (1794): 238.
34. Anon., “Address to the Public,” Memoirs of Science and the Arts 1 (1793): [i]
35. Analytical Review 19 (1794): 499.
36. Aikin, Memoir, 156.
37. Oracle and Daily Advertiser, 3 October 1798, p. 1b
38. [Aikin], Philosophical Transactions; and Universal Magazine 101 (1797): 382.
39. See DNB; John Martin Robinson, The Wyatts: An Architectural History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), 13–17
40. D. G. C. Allen and John L. Abbott, The Virtuoso Tribe of Arts and Sciences: Studies in the Eighteenth-Century Work and Membership of the London Society of Arts (Athens, GA, and London: University of Georgia Press, 1992), 361
41. Christopher Davy, “Southwark Iron Bridge,” Mechanics’ Magazine 16 (1831–32): 258.
42. [John Wyatt], [Prospectus for “The Repertory of Arts and Manufactures”] ([n.l.: n.p.], [1794]). A copy of the prospectus is in the John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
43. Anon., “Advertisement,” Repertory of Arts and Manufactures 1 (1794): i and iii.
44. John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, 9 vols (London: for the author, 1812–16), 9:191n. Wilkie’s name alone was given in the prospectus, but Robinson’s was added in the advertisement in The Times, 19 December 1794, p. 2a.
45. There is no reference to the Repertory in Robinson’s surviving copyright records; see G. E. Bentley, “Copyright Documents in the George Robinson Archive: William Godwin and Others, 1713–1820,” Studies in Bibliography 35 (1982): 67–110. A few other prominent booksellers were also listed on the title pages; however, these are an uncertain guide to the journal’s publishing history, since some numbers were reissued on several occasions with variant imprints.
46. The Times, 8 April 1796, p. 2a and 3 January 1799, p. 2b. Between 1808 and 1811, the Repertory was sold by Wyatt’s son Walter Henry (1781–1849)—later an inventor and manufacturer—from the “Repertory and Patent Office, 9 Pickett-Street, Temple Bar”, perhaps because the father was busy forwarding his plans for Southwark Bridge. However, on reverting to the Hatton Garden office of the now sexagenarian Wyatt, publication of the journal began to be handled by the prominent periodical wholesalers Sherwood and Co., and later also by the medical specialist Thomas Underwood. See The Times, 10 January 1812, p. 2a and 8 February 1814, p. 1e. After Wyatt’s death in 1818, the journal continued under the management of the family, though renamed Repertory of Patent Inventions in 1825. In the 1830s, it was sold to James Shirley Hodson (a neighbouring publisher in Hatton Garden) and continued as a going concern until 1862.
47. [Griffiths, Ralph], “[Review of Repertory of Arts and Manufactures],” Monthly Review 2nd ser. 16 (1795): 147.
48. British Critic, 5 (1795): 535.
49. C. H. Timperley, Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote, 2 vols (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1977), 2:795
50. John Bowyer Nichols to C. Taylor, 26 May 1800, Royal Society of Arts, AD/MA/104/10/302.
51. The Times, 8 August 1801, p. 1d and 17 July 1817, p. 2b.
52. [John Wyatt], “Preface,” Retrospect of Philosophical, Mechanical, Chemical, and Agricultural Discoveries 1 (1806): [iii].
53. Morning Chronicle, 8 August 1801, p. 1d.
54. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, 9: 192n.
55. See DNB; the manuscript biography by Nicholson’s son in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS Don.e.125) sheds little light on the Journal of Natural Philosophy.
56. [William Nicholson], [Prospectus for “Journal of Natural Philosophy”], ([London: G. G. and J. Robinson], 1797), 1 and 2. A copy of the prospectus is in the John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
57. [William Nicholson], “Preface,” Journal of Natural Philosophy 1 (1797–98): [iii].
58. For instance, he commented: “it would not be difficult to point out imperfections in the works of others, and promise to avoid them”. [Nicholson], “Preface,” iv.
59. [William Nicholson], “Preface,” Journal of Natural Philosophy 2nd ser. 1 (1802): [iii]
60. [William Nicholson], “Preface,” Journal of Natural Philosophy 2nd ser. 2 (1802): [iv].
61. [William West], “Annals of Authors, Artists, Books, and Booksellers. Letter XI. Mr. Johnson, of St. Paul’s Church-Yard, and His Literary Connexions,” Aldine Magazine 1 (1839): 205.
62. Bentley, “George Robinson Archive”, pp. 93–94 and 106–107
63. Journal of Natural Philosophy 2nd ser. 33 (1813): 152.
64. Timperley, Encyclopaedia, p. 795
65. [William Nicholson], “Advertisement,” Journal of Natural Philosophy 1 (1797–98): [v].
66. An agreement was drawn up in December 1799 allowing Robinson to reprint a thousand copies each of the early numbers to make up sets. See Bentley, “George Robinson Archive,” 106.
67. Anon, “[Review of Journal of Natural Philosophy],” British Critic 12 (1798): 116–17.
68. Anon, “[Review of Journal of Natural Philosophy],” Critical Review 2nd ser. 26 (1799): 283.
69. Anon, “[Review of Journal of Natural Philosophy],” Analytical Review 28 (1798): 364 and 377.
70. [Robert Woodhouse], “[Review of Journal of Natural Philosophy],” Monthly Review 2nd ser. 29 (1799): 301–03.
71. Anon, “Society of Arts,” Universal Magazine 2nd ser. 11 (1809): 344.
72. In addition to the DNB see Anon., “Memoir of Alexander Tilloch,” Imperial Magazine 7 (1825): 208–22
73. [Thomas Byerley?], “Alexander Tilloch, LL.D.,” Literary Chronicle 7 (1825): 141–42
74. Anon., “Alexander Tilloch, LL.D.,” Annual Biography and Obituary 10 (1826): 320–34.
75. Brock and Meadows, Lamp of Learning, 90–97
76. Inkster, “Science and Society”; and Paul Weindling, “The British Mineralogical Society: A Case Study in Science and Social Improvement,” in Metropolis and Province: Science in British Culture, 1780–1850, ed. Ian Inkster and Jack Morrell (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983), 120–50.
77. [Alexander Tilloch], “Prospectus of a New Periodical Work, Intitled, The Philosophical Magazine,” Star, 29 June 1798, p. 1a–b.
78. “Nec aranearum sane textus ideo melior, quia ex se sila gignunt. Nec noster vilior, quia ex alienis libamus ut apes.” I am indebted for the translation to Ann Moss, “The Politica of Justus Lipsius and the Commonplace-Book,” Journal of the History of Ideas 59 (1998): 424.
79. [Alexander Tilloch], “Preface,” Philosophical Magazine 1 (1798): [iii].
80. [Tilloch], “Prospectus”.
81. Monthly Magazine 6 (1798): 52
82. D., “Cursory Character of the Magazines,” Universal Magazine 2nd ser. 1 (1804): 361.
83. Printing Ledgers of R. Taylor & Co., 1803–10 and 1804–15; Printing Journals of R. & A. Taylor, 1815–26 and 1827–54 (‘Journal 1829’), Taylor & Francis archive, St Bride Printing Library, London. Even making some rather conservatively questionable assumptions about printing costs, Brock and Meadows estimated an annual profit of £264; Brock and Meadows, Lamp of Learning, 101.
84. Thomas Constable, Archibald Constable and His Literary Correspondents: A Memorial, 3 vols (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1893), 1: 353
85. John Murray papers, National Library of Scotland, MS 41908, p. 152; Brock and Meadows, Lamp of Learning, ch. 4.
86. The earliest advertisement I have located (announcing “this day is published”) is Morning Chronicle, 29 June 1801, p. 2a; the earliest review dates from November 1801 (Anon, “Annals of Philosophy”, Critical Review 2nd ser. 33 (1801): 252–58).
87. On Garnett see DNB; Henry Bence Jones, The Royal Institution: Its Founder and Its First Professors (London: Longmans, Green, 1871), 162–79
88. Thomas Garnett, Popular Lectures on Zoonomia or the Laws of Life, in Health and Disease (London: for the benefit of the author’s children, 1804), v–xxii
89. S. G. E. Lythe, Thomas Garnett (1766–1802) (Glasgow: Polpress, 1984). The published outlines of Garnett’s new lecture courses on chemistry and natural philosophy were advertised alongside the Annals. See Morning Chronicle, 10 November 1801, p. 2a.
90. Jones, Royal Institution, 141, 153–56, 181–83, and 188
91. Archives of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in Facsimile: Minutes of Managers’ Meetings, 1799–1900, ed. Frank Sulloway, 15 vols in 7 (Menston: Scolar Press in association with the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 1971–76), 1: 112, and 2: 42, 183, and 185.
92. [Thomas Garnett], “Preface,” Annals of Philosophy 1 (1801): [i]–ii.
93. Anon, “Garnett’s Annals of Philosophy and Arts,” British Critic 20 (1802): 157 and 164–65.
94. Anon, “Annals of Philosophy,” Critical Review 2nd ser. 33 (1801): 255–56.
95. Theodore Besterman, ed., The Publishing Firm of Cadell & Davies: Select Correspondence and Accounts, 1793–1836 (Oxford: Oxford University Press and London: Humphrey Milford, 1938), 172
96. Anon, “Preface,” Annals of Philosophy 2 (1802), p. v
97. Anon, “Annals of Philosophy,” British Critic 22 (1803), 307.
98. The initial prospectus (in the John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford) suggested that, in providing a systematic survey, the review would present the reader with “an uninterrupted history of the annual advancement of science”. [Arthur Aikin], Prospectus of a New Work, to be Entitled “The Annual Review, or Register of Literature” ([London]: printed by T. Gillet, [1802]), 2–3. Somewhat confusingly, Arthur Aikin also assisted Thomas Thomson in editing his Annals of Philosophy in 1818–19.
99. Morning Chronicle, 18 May 1805, p. 2c
100. Thomas Rees, Reminiscences of Literary London from 1779 to 1853, with Interesting Anecdotes of Publishers, Authors, and Book Auctioneers of that Period, &c., &c. (London: Suckling and Galloway, 1896), 62.
101. See the “Prospectus” on the paper wrapper of the first issue, present in the copy at the Senate House Library, London, which is also quoted in Universal Magazine 2nd ser. 3 (1805): 459.
102. Morning Chronicle, 18 May 1805, p. 2c.
103. See, for example, Anon, “Berthollet on Chemical Affinities, &c.,” Imperial Review 4 (1805), 297
104. Anon, “Clausen’s Russian Anecdotes,” Critical Review 3rd ser. 4 (1805), 181.
105. Caledonian Mercury, 26 December 1808, p. 1d.
106. [Alexander Walker], [Prospectus for] Archives & Review of Universal Science ([n.l.: n.p.], [1809?]).
107. See the copy, dated November 1809, in the John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the account of Walker’s lectures in the Caledonian Mercury, 30 April 1810, p. 1a.
108. Retrospect of Philosophical, Mechanical, Chemical, and Agricultural Discoveries 1 (1806): [iii].
109. [John Wyatt], [Prospectus for “Retrospect of Philosophical Discoveries”] ([London]: printed by C. Spilsbury, [1806]); a copy is in the John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
110. Universal Magazine 2nd ser. 21 (1814): 60
111. [Robert Woodhouse], “[Review of Retrospect of Philosophical Discoveries],” Monthly Review 2nd ser. 51 (1806): 220.
112. Retrospect of Philosophical Discoveries 3 (1808): [i]; 9 (1809): iv.
113. Retrospect of Philosophical Discoveries 1 (1806): iv; 3 (1808): ii; 4 (1809): [ii].
114. See also Topham, “Science, Print, and Crossing Borders”.
115. Universal Magazine, 2nd ser. 21 (1814): 60.
116. [Woodhouse], “Review of Journal”, 301–03.
117. By contrast, a significant archive has permitted a detailed reconstruction of Marc-Auguste Pictet’s practice as editor of the Bibliothèque Britannique. David Bickerton, Marc-Auguste and Charles Pictet, the “Bibliothèque Britannique” (1796–1815), and the Dissemination of British Literature and Science on the Continent (Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1986). See also Crosland, “In the Shadow”.
118. Royal Society, Catalogue of Scientific Papers.
119. Georges Cuvier and Alexandre Brongniart, “Memoir on the Mineralogical Geography of the Environs of Paris,” Philosophical Magazine 35 (1810): 36–58
120. John Farey, “Geological Remarks and Queries on Messrs. Cuvier and Brogniart’s Memoir on the Mineral Geography of the Environs of Paris,” Philosophical Magazine 35 (1810): 113–39
121. Martin J. S. Rudwick, Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 494–95.
122. Lilley, “Nicholson’s Journal”.
123. See Secord, “Science, Technology and Mathematics,” pp. 451–59
124. Csiszar, “Broken Pieces of Fact”, esp. introduction and ch. 1.
125. [Thomas Thomson], “Preface,” Annals of Philosophy 3 (1814): [iii]–iv.
126. [Robert Thomson?], “Biographical Notice of the Late Thomas Thomson,” Glasgow Medical Journal 5 (1857): 138–39.