A Selection of 19th Century Scientific Verse
by VARIOUS ( - )Lines Written Under the Conviction that it is Not Wise to Read Mathematics in November After One's Fire is Out
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was common for discoveries in branches of science such as botany, astronomy and medicine to be described in book-length treatises in verse. By the end of the 19th century this mode of popularising science was falling from favour as the studies of science and the humanities diverged and study became more specialised.This small selection of somewhat lighter-hearted verse written by distinguished scientists and mathematicians of the day includes poems by James Clerk Maxwell, William J. Macquorn Rankine and James Joseph Sylvester. (Summary by Ruth Golding)
Listen next episodes of A Selection of 19th Century Scientific Verse:
A Problem in Dynamics , In Memory of Edward Wilson: Rigid Body , Lectures to Women on Physical Science , Molecular Evolution , The Infant Metaphysician , The Mathematician in Love , The Three-foot Rule: a Song about Standards of Measure , To a Missing Member of a Family Group of Terms in an Algebraical Formula , To the Chief Musician upon Nabla , To the Committee of the Cayley Portrait Fund , Valentine by a Telegraph Clerk (Male) to a Telegraph Clerk (Female)