Thomas Harriot and the Sine Law of Refraction

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Thomas Harriot and the Sine Law of Refraction SPECIAL ARTICLE Perish, Then Publish Thomas Harriot and the Sine Law of Refraction Ronald S. Fishman, MD talented young scientist, Thomas Harriot, wrote the first English account of the New World, “A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia,” distinguished by its serious effort to describe and understand the American Indian. Harriot went on to make innovations in mathematics and was one of the first astronomers to use the Atelescope. His largely unappreciated contribution to the history of ophthalmology was the first for- mulation of the sine law of refraction of light, found in his unpublished papers long after his death in 1621. Willebrord Snell discovered the sine law in Holland in 1621 but also died without for- mally publishing it. Rene´ Descartes first published the sine law in 1637. The sine law of refraction became not only the prime law of all lens systems but ushered in a new world of physical laws. Arch Ophthalmol. 2000;118:405-409 THE VIRGINIA EXPEDITION In that party were 2 unusual men. One was John White, an artist whose wa- In 1584, Sir Walter Ralegh (or Raleigh) re- tercolor paintings of the Indians and the ceived a monopoly charter from Queen land with its flora and fauna are still pre- Elizabeth I “to discover, search, find out, cious historical documents themselves. and view such remote heathen and bar- White’s maps remained the best available barous lands, countries, and territories, not of the area for most of the 17th century. actually possessed by any Christian prince, The other unusual man in the party nor inhabited by Christian people.”1,2(p5) was 25 years old and a recent graduate of Elizabeth did not commit government Oxford University, Oxford, England: Tho- funds herself since she was well aware that mas Harriot. No portrait of him has been Crown funds were usually abused by these found. Harriot was a naturalist (the word adventurers. She also wanted to avoid an scientist did not yet exist). He made notes official confrontation with Spain, but her of his observations on Roanoke and in name was enough to get Ralegh some pri- 1588—the year of the Armada— vate backing. published them in Latin in a small edi- With the Spanish in Florida and tion of which only 6 copies remain. In Georgia and the French in Canada, there 1590, an English version was published, was still unclaimed coastline between which included engravings made from them. In 1584, Ralegh sent a small 2-ship John White’s paintings. Harriot’s report reconnoitering party to find land far was the first English account of the New enough north to be safe from the Span- World.3,4 iards. In 1585, he mounted a full-scale ex- In the typically verbose fashion of the pedition with 10 ships under the com- time, the title page reads: mand of Sir Richard Grenville. They sailed along the Atlantic coast, found a channel A briefe and true report of the new found land through the barrier island, and landed at of Virginia, of the commodities and of the na- ture and manners of the naturall inhabitants. the island of Roanoke near 2 Indian vil- Discovered by the English Colony there seated lages (Figure 1). by Sir Richard Grenville Knight. In the Year 1585...byThomas Hariot [sic] servant to... From the Welch Institute of History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Sir Walter, a member of the Colony, and there Baltimore, Md. imployed in discovering.4 ARCH OPHTHALMOL / VOL 118, MAR 2000 WWW.ARCHOPHTHALMOL.COM 405 ©2000 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/24/2021 This is said of a party of unruly men whose leader later described them as “wild men of mine own na- tion.”1(p11) This scruffy lot of ex- soldiers had been away from their homes for many months. They were certainly in the advanced stages of that condition to which the long voy- age around Cape Horn (with its ex- tended period of enforced sexual ab- stinence) was later to give its name. “...[N]either did we care for any of theirs.”? This is such a bare-faced unlikelihood, and since we know that Harriot was not an obtuse man, we assume that he was being deliberately misleading. He was putting the best face on what was essentially an ad- vertisingorpropagandabrochure.Far from being a true report, the whole Figure 1. The island of Roanoke and its approaches in the 1585 expedition to Virginia, reproduced in “A book is guarded, selective, remark- Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia,” 4 the first English account of the New World, able for what it does not say. There written by Thomas Harriot. is no hint that the colony became a The dedication, written by De its, religion, and social organiza- shambles. The gentlemen-adventur- Bry, the publisher in 1590, in- tion, writing what would now be ers had come for gold, not farming. cludes 2 pages of fulsome praise for called ethnology or cultural anthro- The party became dependent on the Ralegh with only a slight mention of pology. Harriot actually learns some- Indians for food, and eventually made Harriot and no mention of John thing of the Algonkin Indian lan- enemiesofthem.After10months,the White at all. Ralegh himself never guage and evidently converses with English feared for their lives. Ralegh’s crossed the Atlantic at this time. His them after a fashion. He shows them resupply ships were late. When Sir big sacrifice was financial; he was a Bible and tries to explain it, but he FrancisDrakeunexpectedlyappeared saved from bankruptcy by Gren- is chagrined that it is the physical na- on his way home from a privateering ville’s capture of a Spanish treasure ture of the book itself that im- expedition, the party leaped at the ship on the way home. Privateering presses them. chance to leave. at this time was much more profit- Worst of all, the lesson was not And although I told them the book ma- learned. Ralegh sent another party of able than colonizing. terially and of itself was not of any such Despite Harriot’s servant sta- virtue, as I thought they did conceive, colonists to the New World in 1587. tus, the book shows a modern mind but only the doctrine therein con- Although this group was recruited at work—curious, inquiring, and ob- tained; yet would many be glad to touch from farmers and artisans with skills servant. Harriot inventories the it, to embrace it, to kiss it, to hold it to more useful for sustaining them- land’s resources, and the whole ac- their breast and head, and stroke over selves, this group was also undersup- count is characterized by the same all their body with it, to show their hun- plied and unwisely, even treacher- effort shown by the other leaders of gry desire of that knowledge which was ously, landed at the same Roanoke 3(p761) the expedition: the urge to show how spoken of. site. These were the unlucky souls the land could be commercially ex- Here Harriot is deceiving him- who inherited the ill will fostered by ploited, the more quickly the bet- self. The reaction of the Indians is Harriot’s party. They became known 1,2 ter. Harriot takes note of minerals the same as that of the isolated as the lost colony of Roanoke. As such as iron ore, but we can as- mountain-dwelling natives of New for the Indians, they eventually felt sume what a disappointment the Guinea during World War II, who the full civilizing effects of smallpox meager amount of precious metal ascribed supernatural qualities to the and other contagion already seeded is—some copper plates, some sil- strange contents of crashed cargo by the Englishmen. But the adven- ver earrings in an Indian chief’s ears planes. Any advanced technology ture was a good career move for Har- and, worst of all, no gold. True, the seems like magic to the more primi- riot. When he returned to England, climate is good, and the soil is fer- tive one. Harriot also writes: Ralegh introduced him to the Earl of tile. There are many game animals Northumberland, and both men sup- and many valuable trees that could Some people could not tell whether to ported Harriot’s career as the first En- make masts for ships. The natives are think us gods or men...there was no glish scientist. man of ours known to die, or that was spe- already farmers of peas, barley, oats, cially sick. [Actually 4 of the 108 English- and corn (good for making beer). men left at Roanoke for 10 months did HARRIOT’S LATER CAREER Best of all to the modern sen- die of illness.]... They noted also that sibility, Harriot shows himself to be we had no women among us, neither that Harriot never left England again. He a serious student of the Indians’ hab- we did care for any of theirs.3(p762) remained Ralegh’s friend even after ARCH OPHTHALMOL / VOL 118, MAR 2000 WWW.ARCHOPHTHALMOL.COM 406 ©2000 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/24/2021 Ralegh became a victim of the para- and True Report of the New Found F noid politics of the time and was for Land of Virginia,” were unpub- D some years imprisoned in the Tower lished at the time of his death in of London. Harriot contributed to 1621. Just a few days before his Ralegh’s defense in what was a trav- death, probably in agony, he made i esty of a trial and visited Ralegh of- his will, named his literary execu- ten, bringing books and gossip.
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