Abstract
In the 1687 edition of Principia there appeared an interesting statement. Labelled Hypothesis III, it asserted that all bodies can transform into one another.1 There was no commentary added, and as the Hypothesis was formulated it seemed to indicate that Newton accepted a doctrine which allowed for unrestricted transmutation. Very little has been written about this statement or about its relation to the body of Newton’s natural philosophy2 and it has remained imperfectly understood. Hypothesis III did not appear in the 1713 edition of the Principia. In its place is a statement, labelled Rule III, about the essential qualities of matter.3 How this change took place has been, because of a lack of evidence, a matter for conjecture.
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Notes
Is. Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, London, 1687, p. 402. The Latin reads: “Corpus omne in alterius cujuscunque generis corpus transforman posse, & qualitatum gradus omnes intermedios successive induere.
Only two scholars have been explicitly concerned with this problem, Professor Koyré and Professor Cohen. Vide I, Bernard Cohen, “Hypotheses in Newton’s Philosophy, Physis rivista Internazionale Di Storia Della Scienza vil. VIII Fasc. 2 1966 pp. 163 184 and
Alexandre Koyré, Newtonian Studies; “Newton’s Regulae Philosophandi”, London, 1965, p. 263;
see also Koyré’s, “Pour Une Edition Critique Des Oeuvres De Newton”, Revue D’Histoire Des Sciences Huitième Année, tome VIII, 1955, p. 32.
Isaac Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Cambridge, 1713, pp. 357–358.
Benjamin Motte, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy vol.II London 1729 p. 203.
Vide note 1 Principia p. 402.
Vide note 1, Principia, p 411 The translation is mine
Vide note 3 p. 368.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, p. 312.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, p. 312, folio 266r.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, p. 312, folio 266r.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, p. 312, folio 266r.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, pp. 341 and 342.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, p. 341.
Sir Isaac Newton, Opticks or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light Based on the Fourth Edition London. 1730 Dover Publication, Inc 1952 p 396
Isaac Newton, Opticks or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light Based on the Fourth Edition London. 1730, pp. 374–375
Bernard Cohen, “Hypotheses in Newton’s Philosophy, Physis rivista Internazionale Di Storia Della Scienza vil. VIII Fasc. 2 1966 pp. 163vide note 2P. 177
Alexandre Koyré Newtonian Studies London 1965 p. 263.
Alexandre Koyré Newtonian Studies London 1965, p. 263
Alexandre Koyré Newtonian Studies London 1965, p. 263.
Opticks, op. cit., p. 400. My italics.
Alexandre Koyré Newtonian Studies London 1965, p. 268.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, p. 341.
Opticks, op. cit., p. 394.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, p. 400.
MS. U.L.C. Add. 3965.6 folio 270r. Translated from the Latin.
Opticks, op. cit., p. 400.
A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1962, p. 307.
The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H. W. Turnbull, vol. I, Cambridge, 1959, p. 364. the brackets are in the printed text.
Ibid., p. 364.
Ibid. p. 366.
Johs. Lohne. “Newton’s Proof” of the sine Law and his Mathematical Principles of Colours”, Arch. for the History of Ex. Sc., I, p. 401 (1961). Newton imagined the earth to be like a sponge, sucking up spirituous matter from the heavens to quench its thirst. And as this stream of aethereal matter fell to the earth it propelled bodies above the earth to descend by its impact. Once in the bowels of the earth this matter sublimated, changing first into an aereal and then into an aethereal form as it rose again into the atmosphere and heavens. Correspondence, op. cit., p. 366.
Although in the 1670’s, and early 1680’s Newton had not been convinced of the periodic motions of the comets, by the time of the Principia he had shown that they move in orbits. See the correspondence with J. Flamsteed February 28, 1680/81, Correspondence, op. cit., pp. 340–347, and September 19, 1685, pp. 419–421. Since the tails of the comets when near the sun always pointed away from it, Newton concluded that they manifested a force which overcame gravity, and that their vapours could be pulled into the earth.
Principia, Motte edition, vol. II, pp. 371–372.
Ibid., p 387
W.G. Hiscock, Ed: David Gregory, Isaac Newton & their Circle, extracts from David Gregory’s Memoranda 1677–1708, Oxford, 1937 [1705].
W.G. Hiscock, Ed: David Gregory, Isaac Newton & their Circle, extracts from David Gregory’s Memoranda 1677–1708, Oxford, 1937 [1705].
W.G. Hiscock, Ed: David Gregory, Isaac Newton & their Circle, extracts from David Gregory’s Memoranda 1677–1708, Oxford, 1937 [1705].
Op. cit., note 2, p. 179.
W.G. Hiscock, Ed: David Gregory, Isaac Newton & their Circle, extracts from David Gregory’s Memoranda 1677–1708, Oxford, 1937 [1705]. pp. 175 177 and 178.
J.E. McGuire and P. M. Rattansi “Newton and the Pipes of Pan” Notes and Records of the Royal Society, Vol. 21, No. 2, 1966, pp. 1408–143
E. Anscombe and P. T. Geach, Descartes Philosophical Writings, London, 1964, p. 186. “Again a body cannot be divided into so many parts that we do not conceive of these parts as being divisible - - -.”
De Caelo, Book I, 268a, 5–10. W. D. Ross ed. The Works of Aristotle, vol. II, Oxford, 1930. Newton knew Aristotle’s De Caelo, vide Hall & Hall op. cit., p. 311.
S.P. Rigaud, Historical Essay on the first publication of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia, Oxford, 1838, p. 101.
S.P. Rigaud, Historical Essay on the first publication of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia, Oxford, 1838, p. 101.
For an account of these documents see J.E. McGuire and P. M. Rattansi “Newton and the Pipes of Pan” Notes and Records of the Royal Society, Vol. 21, No. 2, 1966, pp. 1408–143.
I do not wish to imply that Newton became disinterested in alchemy after 1690. The problem, however, of relating his private alchemical ideas to his public utterances on transmutation is difficult, and remains to be done. I am happy to say that this has now been done. See B. J. T. Dobbs, The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton’s Thought (Cambridge, University Press, 1991).
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McGuire, J.E. (1995). Transmutation and Immutability: Newton’s Doctrine of Physical Qualities. In: Tradition and Innovation. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol 56. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1581-7_7
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