164. See Note167.165. Dr. William Cadogan’s “Dissertation on the Gout and all Chronic Diseases,†&c. made its appearance in America about that time; and the Rev. Mr. Barton, who had long experienced an hereditary gouty affection, then thought favourably of the Doctor’s general theory, although he could not adopt that ingenious theorist’s doctrine, denying the existence of any hereditary diseases.166. Mr. Barton and some others of Mr. Rittenhouse’s friends had repeatedly recommended to him to visit England: the former, particularly, often urged him to it, and for the reasons assigned in the text. That he had, himself, long contemplated that voyage, is apparent from the extract of his letter to Mr. Barton, of the 15th of March 1771, already quoted; and his last mentioned letter to the same gentleman shews, that, nearly a year afterwards, he still had that object steadily in view.167. In a preceding letter, Mr. Barton had sent him some Mathematical Problems, for solution. These had been furnished by a schoolmaster, in Mr. Barton’s neighbourhood; who, although reputed a pretty good mathematician, possessed but a small share of genius or invention, while he had a large portion of confidence in his own abilities. In noticing these problems, Mr. Rittenhouse could not refrain from shewing some little irritation: he thought the communications too trifling, too destitute of originality, or too useless, to merit his attention; and, accordingly, he thus expressed himself on the occasion, in a letter dated Feb. 3, 1772:“I entreat you not to insist on my measuring heads with any pragmatical schoolmaster, who is heartily welcome, for me, to divert himself with hisx. y. z’s, at which he may be very expert, and yet be, as you say, both ignorant and conceited. His first question, however, may be answered by any young algebraist: the second and third are more difficult, and will admit of various answers. The fourth contains four observations, picked out, (and carelessly enough, several of the figures being wrong,) of a set made on the comet of 1682, which I shewed your son William in about half a dozen different books; you will find them in Dr. Halley’s Astronomical Tables. Every thing relating to this comet has long ago been settled by Dr. Halley; so that, to give a complete answer to the question, I need only transcribe from him: but you cannot conceive how much I despise this kind of juggle, where no use is proposed. If your schoolmaster will give me but three good observations (I do not want four) of the comet of 1769, I will accept them with thanks, and soon undertake the laborious task of determining its orbit, which we yet know nothing about.â€To this Mr. Barton replied, in a vein of good-humoured pleasantry:“I imagine you have mistaken me, with regard to the mathematical questions. They were not sent as trials of your abilities: but, for reasons with which W. B. is acquainted, and which I have desired him to give you, in order to afford you a laugh. I shalt never “insist†on your “measuring heads†with a “schoolmaster,†of any kind; because I know full well, already, that your head is longer than all the heads of the whole tribe. Had you known what diversion your solutions would have afforded me, you would have sent them.â€168. It is not improbable, that about the time of writing the letter of the 3d of Feb. 1772, from which extracts are given in the text, he began to think seriously of marrying again. Both his natural disposition and his habits endeared to him the comforts of domestic society; and these he could not enjoy in a single state, his two only children being infants. He therefore married, in December 1772; at which time he was only in the forty-first year of his age. The lady he chose as his companion, was a sensible, prudent and valuable woman; whose family were members of the religious society of Friends, and with whose brothers Mr. Rittenhouse had long been intimately acquainted. By that marriage there was but one child, a daughter, who died in her infancy. Mrs. Rittenhouse survived her husband little more than three years. She died in October, 1799.169. See the preceding note.170. The first law of Pennsylvania, for removing rocks, sandbars and gravel, from the bed of the river Schuylkill, so as to render it passable with rafts, boats, and other small river-craft, was passed the 14th of March 1761.172. The Marks, &c. are particularly described in the Pennsylvania Act of Assembly, passed the 29th of Sept. 1779, entitled “An Act to establish and confirm the Boundary Line between this state and the state of New-York.â€173. The Law, referred to in the preceding note, states the extent of their further progress in the business at that time, which was inconsiderable.In September 1772, the Philosophical Society announced in the public prints, the receipt, by them, of sundry communications: among which were various astronomical observations, made in Canada, by this gentleman and two other military officers, from June 1765, to May 1770, (captain Holland being, at that period, surveyor-general of the district of Quebec.) These observations were communicated to the society by Mr. Rittenhouse; but, having been received after the first volume of the Society’s Transactions was published, their publication in the subsequent volumes was by some means omitted.
164. See Note167.
164. See Note167.
165. Dr. William Cadogan’s “Dissertation on the Gout and all Chronic Diseases,†&c. made its appearance in America about that time; and the Rev. Mr. Barton, who had long experienced an hereditary gouty affection, then thought favourably of the Doctor’s general theory, although he could not adopt that ingenious theorist’s doctrine, denying the existence of any hereditary diseases.
165. Dr. William Cadogan’s “Dissertation on the Gout and all Chronic Diseases,†&c. made its appearance in America about that time; and the Rev. Mr. Barton, who had long experienced an hereditary gouty affection, then thought favourably of the Doctor’s general theory, although he could not adopt that ingenious theorist’s doctrine, denying the existence of any hereditary diseases.
166. Mr. Barton and some others of Mr. Rittenhouse’s friends had repeatedly recommended to him to visit England: the former, particularly, often urged him to it, and for the reasons assigned in the text. That he had, himself, long contemplated that voyage, is apparent from the extract of his letter to Mr. Barton, of the 15th of March 1771, already quoted; and his last mentioned letter to the same gentleman shews, that, nearly a year afterwards, he still had that object steadily in view.
166. Mr. Barton and some others of Mr. Rittenhouse’s friends had repeatedly recommended to him to visit England: the former, particularly, often urged him to it, and for the reasons assigned in the text. That he had, himself, long contemplated that voyage, is apparent from the extract of his letter to Mr. Barton, of the 15th of March 1771, already quoted; and his last mentioned letter to the same gentleman shews, that, nearly a year afterwards, he still had that object steadily in view.
167. In a preceding letter, Mr. Barton had sent him some Mathematical Problems, for solution. These had been furnished by a schoolmaster, in Mr. Barton’s neighbourhood; who, although reputed a pretty good mathematician, possessed but a small share of genius or invention, while he had a large portion of confidence in his own abilities. In noticing these problems, Mr. Rittenhouse could not refrain from shewing some little irritation: he thought the communications too trifling, too destitute of originality, or too useless, to merit his attention; and, accordingly, he thus expressed himself on the occasion, in a letter dated Feb. 3, 1772:“I entreat you not to insist on my measuring heads with any pragmatical schoolmaster, who is heartily welcome, for me, to divert himself with hisx. y. z’s, at which he may be very expert, and yet be, as you say, both ignorant and conceited. His first question, however, may be answered by any young algebraist: the second and third are more difficult, and will admit of various answers. The fourth contains four observations, picked out, (and carelessly enough, several of the figures being wrong,) of a set made on the comet of 1682, which I shewed your son William in about half a dozen different books; you will find them in Dr. Halley’s Astronomical Tables. Every thing relating to this comet has long ago been settled by Dr. Halley; so that, to give a complete answer to the question, I need only transcribe from him: but you cannot conceive how much I despise this kind of juggle, where no use is proposed. If your schoolmaster will give me but three good observations (I do not want four) of the comet of 1769, I will accept them with thanks, and soon undertake the laborious task of determining its orbit, which we yet know nothing about.â€To this Mr. Barton replied, in a vein of good-humoured pleasantry:“I imagine you have mistaken me, with regard to the mathematical questions. They were not sent as trials of your abilities: but, for reasons with which W. B. is acquainted, and which I have desired him to give you, in order to afford you a laugh. I shalt never “insist†on your “measuring heads†with a “schoolmaster,†of any kind; because I know full well, already, that your head is longer than all the heads of the whole tribe. Had you known what diversion your solutions would have afforded me, you would have sent them.â€
167. In a preceding letter, Mr. Barton had sent him some Mathematical Problems, for solution. These had been furnished by a schoolmaster, in Mr. Barton’s neighbourhood; who, although reputed a pretty good mathematician, possessed but a small share of genius or invention, while he had a large portion of confidence in his own abilities. In noticing these problems, Mr. Rittenhouse could not refrain from shewing some little irritation: he thought the communications too trifling, too destitute of originality, or too useless, to merit his attention; and, accordingly, he thus expressed himself on the occasion, in a letter dated Feb. 3, 1772:
“I entreat you not to insist on my measuring heads with any pragmatical schoolmaster, who is heartily welcome, for me, to divert himself with hisx. y. z’s, at which he may be very expert, and yet be, as you say, both ignorant and conceited. His first question, however, may be answered by any young algebraist: the second and third are more difficult, and will admit of various answers. The fourth contains four observations, picked out, (and carelessly enough, several of the figures being wrong,) of a set made on the comet of 1682, which I shewed your son William in about half a dozen different books; you will find them in Dr. Halley’s Astronomical Tables. Every thing relating to this comet has long ago been settled by Dr. Halley; so that, to give a complete answer to the question, I need only transcribe from him: but you cannot conceive how much I despise this kind of juggle, where no use is proposed. If your schoolmaster will give me but three good observations (I do not want four) of the comet of 1769, I will accept them with thanks, and soon undertake the laborious task of determining its orbit, which we yet know nothing about.â€
To this Mr. Barton replied, in a vein of good-humoured pleasantry:
“I imagine you have mistaken me, with regard to the mathematical questions. They were not sent as trials of your abilities: but, for reasons with which W. B. is acquainted, and which I have desired him to give you, in order to afford you a laugh. I shalt never “insist†on your “measuring heads†with a “schoolmaster,†of any kind; because I know full well, already, that your head is longer than all the heads of the whole tribe. Had you known what diversion your solutions would have afforded me, you would have sent them.â€
168. It is not improbable, that about the time of writing the letter of the 3d of Feb. 1772, from which extracts are given in the text, he began to think seriously of marrying again. Both his natural disposition and his habits endeared to him the comforts of domestic society; and these he could not enjoy in a single state, his two only children being infants. He therefore married, in December 1772; at which time he was only in the forty-first year of his age. The lady he chose as his companion, was a sensible, prudent and valuable woman; whose family were members of the religious society of Friends, and with whose brothers Mr. Rittenhouse had long been intimately acquainted. By that marriage there was but one child, a daughter, who died in her infancy. Mrs. Rittenhouse survived her husband little more than three years. She died in October, 1799.
168. It is not improbable, that about the time of writing the letter of the 3d of Feb. 1772, from which extracts are given in the text, he began to think seriously of marrying again. Both his natural disposition and his habits endeared to him the comforts of domestic society; and these he could not enjoy in a single state, his two only children being infants. He therefore married, in December 1772; at which time he was only in the forty-first year of his age. The lady he chose as his companion, was a sensible, prudent and valuable woman; whose family were members of the religious society of Friends, and with whose brothers Mr. Rittenhouse had long been intimately acquainted. By that marriage there was but one child, a daughter, who died in her infancy. Mrs. Rittenhouse survived her husband little more than three years. She died in October, 1799.
169. See the preceding note.
169. See the preceding note.
170. The first law of Pennsylvania, for removing rocks, sandbars and gravel, from the bed of the river Schuylkill, so as to render it passable with rafts, boats, and other small river-craft, was passed the 14th of March 1761.
170. The first law of Pennsylvania, for removing rocks, sandbars and gravel, from the bed of the river Schuylkill, so as to render it passable with rafts, boats, and other small river-craft, was passed the 14th of March 1761.
172. The Marks, &c. are particularly described in the Pennsylvania Act of Assembly, passed the 29th of Sept. 1779, entitled “An Act to establish and confirm the Boundary Line between this state and the state of New-York.â€
172. The Marks, &c. are particularly described in the Pennsylvania Act of Assembly, passed the 29th of Sept. 1779, entitled “An Act to establish and confirm the Boundary Line between this state and the state of New-York.â€
173. The Law, referred to in the preceding note, states the extent of their further progress in the business at that time, which was inconsiderable.
173. The Law, referred to in the preceding note, states the extent of their further progress in the business at that time, which was inconsiderable.
In September 1772, the Philosophical Society announced in the public prints, the receipt, by them, of sundry communications: among which were various astronomical observations, made in Canada, by this gentleman and two other military officers, from June 1765, to May 1770, (captain Holland being, at that period, surveyor-general of the district of Quebec.) These observations were communicated to the society by Mr. Rittenhouse; but, having been received after the first volume of the Society’s Transactions was published, their publication in the subsequent volumes was by some means omitted.