Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/181

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Moseley
175
Moseley


about Obi and Obea, thrilling tales of sharks, and an interesting history of the disastrous expeditions of General Dalling in January 1780 and of General Garth in August 1780 against the Spaniards. In 1799 he published 'A Treatise on Sugar,' which contains no scientific information of value, but the exciting story of the death of Three-fingered Jack, a famous negro outlaw slain by three Maroons, who described their encounter in 1781 to Dr. Moseley. In 1800 he published a volume of medical tracts on sugar, cow-pox, the yaws, African witchcraft, the plague, yellow fever, hospitals, goitre, and prisons. A second edition appeared in 1804. In 1808 he published in quarto 'On Hydrophobia, its Prevention and Cure.' He claims to be the first to have observed that the scratches of a mad cat will produce hydrophobia. His method of treatment, which he declares was always successful, was to extirpate the wounded part and to administer a full course of mercury. He also published many controversial letters and pamphlets on cow-pox, in which he declares himself an opponent of vaccination. In the West Indies, Where he was engaged in active practice and in observation of a series of phenomena with which he became familiar, he made some small additions to knowledge: but in England, where he was in an unfamiliar field, his observations were of less value, and his professional repute seems to have gradually diminished. The unscientific character of his mind is illustrated by the fact that he believes the phases of the moon to be a cause of haemorrhage from the lungs, because a captain in the third regiment of guards coughed up blood six times at full moon and twice just after the new moon (Tropical Diseases, p. 548). He often wrote letters in the 'Morning Herald' and other newspapers.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 368; Gent. Mag. lx. 9-11; Morning Herald, 14 Nov., 15 Dec. 1807, 25 Jan. 1808; Works.]

N. M.

MOSELEY, HENRY (1801–1872), mathematician, the son of Dr. William Willis Moseley, who kept a large private school at Newcastle-under-Lyne, and his wife Margaret (née Jackson), was born on 9 July 1801. He was sent at an early age to the grammar school of the town, and when fifteen or sixteen to a school at Abbeville. Afterwards he attended for a short time a naval school at Portsmouth, and while there wrote his first paper 'On measuring the Depth of the Cavities seen on the Surface of the Moon' (Tilloch's Phil. Mag. lii. 1818). In 1819 Moseley went to St. John's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1826, coming out seventh wrangler, and proceeded M.A. in 1836. In 1870 he was made LL.D. hon. causa.

Moseley was ordained deacon in 1827 and priest in 1828, and became curate at West Monkton, near Taunton. There, in the intervals of his clerical duties, he devoted himself to mathematics, and wrote his first book, 'A Treatise on Hydrostatics,' 8vo, Cambridge, 1830. On 20 Jan. 1831 he was appointed 'Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy' at King's College, London, and he held the post till 12 Jan. 1844, when he was appointed one of the first of H. M. inspectors of normal schools. He was also chaplain of King's College from 31 Oct. 1831 to 8 Nov. 1833. As one of the jurors of the International Exhibition of 1851 he came under the notice of the prince consort, and in 1853 he was presented to a residential canonry in Bristol Cathedral; in 1854 became vicar of Olveston, Gloucestershire, and was appointed chaplain in ordinary to her majesty in 1855. He died at Olveston 20 Jan. 1872. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in February 1839. He was also a corresponding member of the Institute of France, a member of the Council of Military Education, and vice-president of the Institution of Naval Architects.

Moseley married, on 23 April 1835, Harriet, daughter of William Nottidge, esq., of Wandsworth Common, Surrey, by whom he was father of Henry Nottidge Moseley [q. v.]

Moseley's more important works were: 'Lectures on Astronomy,' delivered when professor at King's College (8vo, London, 1839, 4th edit. 1854); the article on 'Definite Integrals' in the 'Encyclopaedia Metropolitana,' 1837; and his well-known volume on 'The Mechanical Principles of Engineering and Architecture' (8vo, London, 1843, 2nd edit. 1855), which was reprinted in America with notes by Professor Mahan for the use of the Military School at West Point, and translated into German by Professor Schefler of Brunswick.

One of the most extensively useful results of Moseley's mathematical labours was the publication of the formulas by which the dynamical stabilities of all ships of war have since been calculated. These formulae first appeared in a memoir 'On the Dynamical Stability and on the Oscillations of Floating Bodies,' read before the Royal Society, and published in their 'Philosophical Transactions for 1850.' Later in life the observed motion of the lead on the roof of the Bristol Cathedral under changes of temperature caused him to advance the theory that the