Showing 9 results

Charles Berry collection of 3 notebooks: pathology, bacteriology, tropical medicine, c 1920.

The manuscripts in the collection consist of fifty-two letters written by thirty-seven scientists. They are arranged alphabetically by writer and date between 1677 and 1873. Among those which discuss scientific projects and topics is a letter, written in 1772, from Edward Bancroft (1744-1821) to Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) about preserving ships' timbers from the ravages of 'aquatic worms'. Another, 1823, from Sir John Herschel (q.v.) to Pierre Simon, Marquis de la Place (1749-1827) is concerned with Sir William Herschel's discovery of the distances and position of the double stars and the series of experiments, using binary systems, carried out by Sir John to verify the discovery. Astronomy is again the subject of a letter of 1854 from Sir George Airy (1801-1892) to Urbain Le Verrier (1811-1877) on the arrangement of an apparatus for the galvanic register of observations, simultaneously at Greenwich and Paris, for the determination of longitude. The majority of documents in this collection have, however, been collected for their autograph value. Other than the prominent scientists mentioned above, the letters include those by William Brouncker (1620-1684), 1677 and 1685; John Flamstead (1646-1719), 1695 and 1703; Nevile Maskelyne (1732-1811), 1784; Joseph Priestly (1733-1804), 1772; William Scoresby (1789-1857), 1827 and Michael Faraday (1791-1867), 1857.

Papers of Egon Kodicek, 1934-1984; comprising biographical and bibliographical items; laboratory notebooks of work at the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory, Cambridge, 1950s-1960s, and writings on nutrition research; some correspondence and photographs.

London County Council register of tramway track lengths, recording description and lengths of route, street length, track length and remarks, such as "conversion to trolleybus", "abandoned" and so on, [1912-1952], with enclosures: photocopy of map of tramways in the London County Council area, revised to 1931; and diagrams of track lengths in Leyton and Hammersmith.

Papers of Thaddeus Robert Rudolph Mann, 1938-1984; comprising biographical and bibliographical material, notebooks and reprints on enzyme research, 1938-1954; photographs of the Molteno Institute of Biology and Parasitology, Cambridge, 1925-1960.

Commonplace books of extracts and notes from works published mainly during the last quarter of the 17th century and early 18th century, relating to science, medicine and mathematics. Written mainly in Latin or Italian, but with some entries in French. Author's holograph MSS. Illustrated by numerous folding and other pen-drawn diagrams and figures, and a few wash-drawings. The numeration of the volumes has been added.

Vol. I In universam scientiam mechanicam institutiones (80 ll. 3 folding pen-and-wash drawings). II Optica. Catoptrica. Dioptrica (56 ll. 4 folding pen-drawings). III Extracts and notes mainly in Latin, but a few in French on medical, scientific, mathematical and philosophical works, mostly published between c 1685 and 1700: with notices of others on Church history and doctrine, Jansenists, etc. There is a long entry towards the end of the volume on the 'Medicina mentis' by Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhausen [1651-1708], (352 ll. 1 folding wash-drawing, 8 folding pen-drawings, wash-and pen-drawing in the text). IV A similar collection, but with a preponderance of entries in French, included in which is a long article under the title: 'La vie de demoiselle Antoinette Bourignon [1616-1680], écrite par elle-même [etc.]' Amsterdam. 1683. The date 1705 is found on the verso of the last leaf (312 ll., 5 folding pen-drawings, and a few marginal pen-drawn figures, etc.) V Notes and extracts on geometry, mechanics, optics, physics, etc. on Cartesian principles: in Italian and Latin. At the end is a long entry entitled: 'Fisica generale sopra il lume, ed i colori per il P. Mallebranche (i.e. Nicolas de Malebranche [1638-1715]) dall'Istoria dell'Accademia delle Scienze, 1699' (224 ll. 6 folding pen-drawings). VI Netwon (Sir I.). Optica: in Latin (160 ll. 11 folding pen-drawings and marginal pen-drawn figures, etc.). VII Extracts from Newton's works on astronomy: conics, mechanics, physics, etc.: in Latin (246 ll., 10 folding pen-drawn figures, etc.). VIII Extracts on astronomy, geography, geometry, and chronology: in Latin. Written in 1713 'in hoc anno'. An added note on the first page contains the date 1714 (208 ll. 8 folding pen-drawn figures, and marginal figures, 1 folding Table). IX Sanctorius (S.). Ex commentariis in Avicennam et in Aphoirismos Hippocratis (256 ll.). A note on 'Colica' in Aphorism XXV is dated 1716. X Extracts and notes from 17th cent. medical works, notes of cases, medical receipts, etc.: in Latin (196 ll.). Illustrated with a full-page pen-drawing of a male head. Against this Marmi has written: 'Exhibeo schema communicatum mihi ab excellentissimo D[octore] Schustonio [?] Practico Esslingense ... Elegantissime Burrhus eques Mediolani (i.e. Giuseppe Francesco Borri [1627-1695]) apud Tackium (Johann Tackius [1617-1675]) Phasis p. 160 uti Macrocosmi Compendium homo existimatur, ita homo sive humanus mundus in se quoque habet proprium compendium in vultu et imago nostri corporis est facies'. The illustration shows the facial nerves supposed to correspond with those of other parts of the body. XI A similar volume, mainly in Latin, but with some entries in Italian (318 ll.). There are long extracts and notes on the works of Galen and Hippocrates. A marginal note on the 6th leaf is dated Naples 1714: another entry on 'Aqua Tofana' is dated 1715 apparently at Naples.

Pasted down as end-papers at the beginning of Vol. IV is a small folio sheet containing an engraving of 'Triangulus australis' above a decorated wreath, which includes a small meallion-portrait of Werner XVII Comes de Hapsburgo. It is numbered 132, and is apparently extracted from an unidentified volume of engravings. The identification of the author of these MSS. is based on two entries. The first is in Vol. III is a marginal note on the verso of the 12th leaf of the entry of the 'Medicina mentis' of Tschirnhausen noted above. It begins: 'Mihi Jos. Herm. M[armi]. The expansion of 'Herm' into an Italian Christian name seems doubtful, but it could be 'Hermannus' or 'Herminius' or even 'Hermes' or 'Hermete'. The second entry is however decisive. It is found also in a marginal note on the eating of cucumbers in the summer, in connexion with the onset of bile after drinking in hot weather as observed by Galen. This is definitely signed 'I. H. Marmi'. Produced in Naples?

The collection includes material on several research projects undertaken by McCance and Widdowson, 1929-1993, as well as a small amount of personalia. There are notebooks recording the first research on analysis of foodstuffs carried out in the UK, started by McCance when at the Diabetes Department of King's College Hospital, after R D Lawrence asked him to analyse cooked foods. Widdowson joined him in 1933 and together they devised the separate methods for estimating different carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, sucrose, starch and dextrose). In 1940 their findings were published as Chemical composition of foods, the first of now regularly produced Standard Food Composition publications. There are notebooks and photographs of self-experimentation undertaken within the department, on salt-deficiency, conducted by McCance on himself, colleagues and medical students, involving not only a salt-free diet, but exposure to a hot air bath to sweat the salt out of the body, and also on absorption and excretion of iron. There is also his diary of the experimental study of rationing undertaken in 1939. There are 220 complete questionnaires from their survey of female colleagues and acquaintances for a study of physical and emotional periodicity in women, undertaken 1929-1930. There are experimental notebooks and files relating to research into body composition and development from 1944 onwards. This collection represents only a part of the diversity of research undertaken during the course of their long careers.

Responses to a questionnaire by Paul Plaut, designed as research for Die Psychologie der produktiven Persönlichkeit, from prominent scientists and artists in Germany and Austria on their views about science and creativity. There are some interesting responses from outside the German speaking countries (Miguel de Unamuno, John Galsworthy), but the bulk of the contributions represent the views of German-speaking academics and artists. Responses to the scientific questionnaire include Albert Einstein, Fritz Haber and Erwin Finlay Freundlich as well as lay figures such as Gustav Radbrüch and Wilhelm Hellpach. Communications from writers range from letters by Heinrich and Franziska Mann to a postcard from Elsa Laska-Schüler. Architects write about their work and new ideas (Erich Mendelsohn) and some of the painters give insights into their creative development, notably Wassily Kandinsky, Otto Dix and Max Pechstein.

Material collected by Thompson, 1825-1915, and removed from books within the S P Thompson Rare Books collection housed within IET Library. It comprises correspondence (1890-1915) from contemporary physicists and mathematicians such as David James Blaikley, Sir William Henry Blagg, Sir Charles Tilston Bright, Hugh Longbourne Callendar, Henry Smith Carhart, Sir John Ambrose Fleming, Sir Richard Tetley Glazebrook, Oliver Heaviside, Gisbert Kapp, Phillip Kelland, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Henry Preece, Albion T. Snell, Sir William Spottiswoode, and William Thompson, Baron Kelvin; and press cuttings, photographs, engravings, autographs and letters (1870-1916) relating to eminent scientists including Sir Cristopher Wren, Sir Isaac Newton, James Watt, William Herschel, Sir John Flamsteed, Alexander Von Humboldt, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Sir Charles Lyell, William Gilbert, Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley, Alessandro Volta, Sir Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday, Sir Charles Wheatstone, James Clerk Maxwell, Josiah Latimer Clark, Werner von Siemens, Alexander Graham Bell, Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, and many others.