audiobooks
Cover of Selection of 19th Century Scientific Verse

Selection of 19th Century Scientific Verse

Various

Length
47 min
Chapters
13
Language
English

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)

Chapters

From LibriVox, read by volunteers and in the public domain. LibriVox page (opens librivox.org), all files on the Internet Archive (opens archive.org).