590 WIIEATON WHEATSTONE where he practised law and wrote for the u National Advocate," a daily newspaper, on the question of neutral rights, which had given rise to the existing war with Great Britain. During the same period he was for a short time one of the justices of the marine court. In 1815 he published a "Digest of the Law of Maritime Captures or Prizes," which in reality was an exposition of the law of nations as then administered. This was received with much favor. About this time he also pub- lished "An Essay on the Means of maintaining the Commercial and Naval Interests of the United States." From 1816 to 1827 he was reporter of the decisions of the supreme court of the United States. His reports, extending to 12 volumes, are largely annotated and con- stitute a high authority. lie also published "Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1829" (2 vols. 8vo, Now York, 1821-'9). During this period ho was a constant contributor to the "American Quarterly " and the " North Amer- ican Review." His anniversary address before the historical society of New York in 1820, upon the " Science of Public or International Law," contains the germ of his works on the law of nations. In 1821 he was a delegate from New York to tho convention for forming a new constitution for the state. In 1825 ho was associated with Benjamin F. Butler, after- ward attorney general of the United States, and John Duer in a commission for revising the statute law of New York. In 1826 ho pub- lished tho " Life of William Pinknoy," and subsequently wrote an abridgment of it for Sparks's " American Biography." Ho was ap- pointed charg6 d'affaires to Denmark in 1827, and resided at Copenhagen till 1835, when ho was appointed minister resident to the court of Prussia. Two years later be was made minis- ter plenipotentiary, which office ho retained till 1846. In these posta he won great reputa- tion as a diplomatist, by his negotiations on the Sound dues, the Scheldt dues, the tolls on tho Elbe, and tho rights of naturalized citi- zens, and especially by the treaty of 1844 with Germany, though that was rejected by the senate for party reasons. In 1831 ap- peared his " History of the Northmen, from the Earliest Times to the Conquest of England by William of Normandy" (London and Phila- delphia ; translated into French by M. Guillot, Paris, 1844). At the time of his death ho was engaged upon a now and greatly enlarged edi- tion of this work. The " History of Scandi- navia " (1838) was the joint production of Mr. Wheaton and Dr. Crichton, and intended as a sequel to the " History of the Northmen." In 1836 his "Elements of International Law" appeared in England and the United States. In 1841 he wrote a prize essay for the French institute, under the title Hittoire du droit de gens en Europe, depute la paix de Weitphalie jutqu'au congret de Vienne (enlarged ed., Leip- sio and Paris, 1846), of which the English ver- sion is entitled "History of the Law of Na- tions in Europe and America, from the Ear- liest Times to the Treaty of Washington" (New York, 1845). The " Elements of International Law " has ever since its publication been re- garded throughout Europe as a standard au- thority. In 1864 a translation into Chinese was made and published at Peking by order of the imperial government. After the author's death a 6th edition (Boston, 1855), with exten- sive notes and a biographical memoir, was pre- pared at the request of Mr. Wheaton's family by W. B. Lawrence, who also edited with addi- tional notes a 7th edition (1863). An 8th edi- tion with new notes arid a new memoir, by K. 11. Dana, jr., appeared with the sanction of the family in 1866. In 1842 Mr. Wheaton published in Philadelphia "An Inquiry into the British Claim of a Right of Search of American Vessels." In 1843 ho was elected a corresponding member of the French insti- tute, and in 1844 a foreign member of the royal academy of science of Berlin. He re- turned to the United States in 1847. WHEATSTOXE, Sir Charte, an English phy- sicist, born in Gloucester in 1802, died in Paris, Oct. 19, 1875. He was from early youth a musical instrument maker, which led him to investigate the laws of sound and their appli- cation to music ; and in 1823 and subsequent- ly he published papers on tho subject in the "Annals of Philosophy" and the "Quarterly Journal of Science." In 1833 he published in tho " Philosophical Transactions " papers on Chladni's figures, and in 1834 his celebrated "Account of some Experiments to measure the Velocity of Electricity and the Duration of Electric Light." (See ELECTRICITY, vol. vi., p. 509.) In 1834 he was appointed professor of experimental philosophy in King's college, London, and in 1836 elected a fellow of the royal society, when he read a paper entitled "Contributions to the Physiology of Vision;" and this led to the invention of his stereoscope, which he first exhibited in 1888. In connec- tion with William Fothergill Cooke, he made experiments and attained results in the trans- mission of intelligence upon copper wires by means of electricity which entitle him to be regarded as one of the inventors of the elec- tric telegraph as a practical reality ; and though Morse's invention was undoubtedly of earlier date, there is no reason to suppose that he knew of Morse's discovery at the time (Juno, 1836) when his own experiments were made public. He was associated with Mr. Cooke in the first telegraph patent in England. The electro-magnetic alarum was also invented by him, as well as several instruments for regis- tering by means of electro-magnetism the in- dications of the thermometer, barometer, &c., transit observations in astronomy, and extreme- ly short intervals of time. Among his other publications were papers on the "Physiology of Vision" (1852), the "Binocular Microscope" (1853), "Fossil's Gyroscope" (1854), "Powers
