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Michael E. Moran, M.D.Southwestern UrologyTucson, AZAdjunct Associate Professor of UrologyUniversity of Florida
Child Prodigies- not all become adult prodigies
Polyglot- childhood through adulthood
Polymath- comparison of Young to others
Historical significance in various areas- physics- mathematics- physiology- engineering- languages - biology- botany- medicine- acoustics/music- history and biography- invention
Child prodigies have included Mozart, Gauss and Tiger Woods
Each continued there brilliance into their adult lives
Thomas Young likewise demonstrated early reading and memory skills
He was reading by age 2
He began to memorize poetry by age 4 and started his lifelong fascination with languages (Polyglot)
He was largely self taught
By age 8 studied surveying
Formal interests in Science (all types)
From 8-17 masters chemistry, biology, physiology, botany, entomology, astronomy, geography, and philosophy
From Greek πολύγλωττος (literally, many-tongued) < πολύς (polus), many + γλῶττα (glōtta), tongue; compare to French polyglotte
Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn- Dutch scholar and linguist at Leyden 1647called similar languages “Scythian”
Sir William Jones- 1786 was a linguistic prodigy, specializing in Indian languages; noted similarity of Latin, Greek, Persian and Sanskrit
Thomas Young- prodigy, continued quest for languages all of his life
Accomplished with Latin by age 6, Greek by age 8, Hebrew by 10 or 11
French, Spanish, Italian before college (began to acquire Persian and all dialects prior to age 17)
Started the Indian languages
Wrote extensively about languages for journals
Learned German during Medical School in Edinburgh
Coined the term “Indo-European languages” for the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1816 (400 languages)
Πολυμαθής-The dictionary definition of a polymath is a very learned person, of encyclopedic knowledge. There is also the connotation of having an understanding deeper than that found in an encyclopedia, that is, an expert in many fields.
Aristotle, Da Vinci, Descartes, Leibnitz, della Porta, Kircher, Goethe, Voltaire, Fuller
"Mr Thomas Young, of Little Queen Street, Westminster, a gentleman conversant with various branches of literature and science, and author of a paper on vision published in the Philosophical Transactions".
Young presented first paper at age 19 “Observations on Vision”
Elected a fellow, the following year (15 names on certificate)
16, January 1800 “Sound and Light”
From 1804-1829 he was the Foreign Secretary for the Society
Elected to the Paris Académie des Sciences in 1827
Became the Natural Philosopher for the Royal Institution 1802-3
Gave lectures Mondays & Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and Fridays at 8 p.m.
“I shall esteem it better to seek for substantial utility than temporary
amusement…”
Count Rumford, Sir Joseph Banks and Th. Young and Humphry Davy
Banks recommended Young to Rumford
He gave 60 lectures on everything in science, math and applied mechanics
The legacy of this Herculean effort still exists in his published syllabus
Volume I- 736 pages, 43 plates on mechanics & physics
Volume II- 450 articles on mathematics
Volume III- complete bibliography 414 pages (over 20,000 references)
James Gillray’s caricature of the proceedings at the Royal Institution (National Library of Medicine)
Young considered his studiesof light his most significantcontribution
He took on the prevailing theory of Newton
Mathematically investigated reflection, refraction, and interference
Measured the wavelengths of all visible light
No one understood what he had proven, until Fresnel came along later (1816)
He presages Maxwell’s equations, Fermat’s principles and ultimately Einstein’s special theory
Lord Rayleigh “Its expositions in some branches were unexcelled even now…”
Helmholtz “[Young] was one of the most acute men who ever lived, but had the misfortune to be too far in advance of his contemporaries.”
Young’s first formal investigations were of the eye
“…the eye and the ear led him to the consideration of sound and of light.” Young
He investigated in detail the anatomy and physiology of the eye
Understood accommodation, developed the theory for astigmatism (named by Whewell), improved Christoph Scheiner’s optometer,
“On the theory of light and colors” 1802- the theory of 3 color vision
“Now, as it is almost impossible to conceive each sensitive point of the retina to contain an infinite number of particles… it becomes necessary to suppose the number limited…”
In his theory of color vision, he goes one gigantic step further, the brain processes the primary colors to produce the whole range of color vision
da Vinci
Thomas Young
1801 Thomas Young fitted a lens to a cornea with a surrounding wax collar to retain fluid behind the lens, neutralising it and thus showing that the cornea was not involved in accommodation.
astygmatism
His interest in sound was first in music
It was said he learned to play virtually every instrument, including the Scottish pipes
Developed theories of music
Circular Well temperament (perfect tuning)
He was fascinated by sound (waves)
Developed the “ripple tank”
Studied the speed of sound
Hearing (all aspects of the ear)
Studied the human voice
Fit nicely with his study of language
Developed universal alphabet (language)
Young heard about the Rosetta Stone
Given his intense Interest in languages he became interested
He only had time to work on it during holidays and some evenings
First modern human to decipher the cartuche and some numbers
Published a dictionary of Coptic language
Champollion subsequently went on to decipher the entire hieroglyphic language
The rift between the English claim vs. a French claim at precedence followed
Young stated, “…if he [Champollion] did borrow an English key, the lock was so dreadfully rusty, that no common arm would have the strength to turn it…”
The Rosetta Stone- 1801 Napoleon
Most of Young’s previous biographers consider this area, Dr. Young’s one area of weakness
He first attended the Hunter’s lectures (1792), medical student at St. Bartholomew’s, Edinburgh Medical School, the degree from Göttingen, finished with a degree from Oxford
His thesis at Göttingen was De corporis humani viribus conservatricibus
Croonian Lecture- Functions of the heart and arteries- 1809
Appointed to St. George’s Hospital in 1811 and gave 36 lectures there
Wrote Introduction to Medical Literature, including a System of Practical Nosology- 1813
Used measurement of haloes of light to measure minute structures “blood and pus”
Young’s Rule- calculating dose of drugs for children
A Practical and Historical Treatise on Consumptive Diseases- 1815
Eriometer
Optometer- improved greatly
Color Diagram Charts (Triangle of Young)
Co-tidal maps*
Kymograph Recorder
Ripple Tank
Sound recorder
Multiple new mathematics equations (Young’s Modulus)
First to measure the size of a molecule
Major contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica- between 1817 & 1825 contributed over 70 sections
Subjects as expert (often with original contributions) included: cohesion, chromatics, Egypt, hydraulics, annuities, bridges, languages, roadmaking, weights & measures, tides, double refraction, calculus, medicine, etc…
And Young himself wrote: “It is probably best for mankind that the researches of some investigators should be conceived within a narrow compass, while others pass more rapidly through a more extensive sphere of research.”
During his encyclopediaperiod, asked to be RoyalNaval advisor by the Admiralty- new ship building- Copely Medal
Asked to be consultant for Life Insurance Co.s
Royal Commission on Weights and Measures- developed new standards
1818 Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac and Secretary of the Board of Longitude
On top of all of these things he was involved with his family, friends and extensive correspondence as the foreign secretary for the Royal Society
“History is unkind to polymaths. No biographer will readily tackle a subject whose range of skills far exceeds his own, while the rest of us, with or without biographies to read have no mental ‘slot’ in which to to keep polymath’s memory fresh. So the polymath gets forgotten or, at best, squashed into a category we can recognize, in the way that Goethe is remembered as a poet, despite his claim to have been a scientist, or Hume as a philosopher, for all the six dumpy volumes of his History of England.” - Alexander Murray
1. Wood, A: Thomas Young: Natural Philosopher 1773-1829. Cambridge Univ Press, London 1954
2. Pettigrew,TJ: Biographical Memoirs of the most celebrated Physicians, Surgeons, etc. Whittaker &Co, London, 1839
3. Robinson,A: The Last Man Who Knew Everything. Pi Press, NY 2006
4. Young,T: A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts. 1807
5. Young,T: An Introduction to Medical Literature, including a System of Practical Nosology. 1813
6. Young,T: A Practical and Historical Treatise on Consumptive Diseases. 1815
7. Arago,M: Biographical Memoir of Dr. Thomas Young. Edin New Phil J 20:213-241,1836
8. Hilts,VL: Thomas Young’s “Autobiographical Sketch.” Proc Am Phil Soc 122:248-260,1978
9. Dr. Young. Lancet 2:255 (23 May 1829)
10. Larmor,J: Thomas Young. Nature 133:276-9,1934
11. Rowell,HS: Thomas Young and Göttingen. Nature 88:516,1912
12. Rubinowicz,A: Thomas Young and the theory of diffraction. Nature 180:160-2, 1957
13. Oldham,F: Thomas Young. Br Med J 4:150-52,1974
14. Cantor,GN: Thomas Young’s lectures at the Royal Institution. Notes and Records R Soc Lond 25(1):87-112,1970
15. Mollon,JD: The origins of the concept of interference. Phil Trans R Soc Lond 360:807-819,2002