xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“Having discovered the existence of a new kind of rays, I of course began to investigate what they would do. … It soon appeared from tests that the rays had penetrative power to a degree hitherto unknown.”

Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923) German physicist

The New Marvel in Photography (1896)
Context: Having discovered the existence of a new kind of rays, I of course began to investigate what they would do. … It soon appeared from tests that the rays had penetrative power to a degree hitherto unknown. They penetrated paper, wood, and cloth with ease; and the thickness of the substance made no perceptible difference, within reasonable limits. … The rays passed through all the metals tested, with a facility varying, roughly speaking, with the density of the metal. These phenomena I have discussed carefully in my report to the Würzburg society, and you will find all the technical results therein stated.

“The metals are all essentially identical; they differ only in form. Now, the form brings out accidental causes, which the experimenter must try to discover and remove, as far as possible. Accidental causes impede the regular union of sulphur and mercury; for every metal is a combination of sulphur and mercury. A diseased womb may give birth to a weakly, leprous child, although the seed was good; the same is true of the metals which are generated in the bowels of the earth, which is a womb for them; any cause whatever, or local trouble, may produce an imperfect metal. When pure sulphur comes in contact with pure mercury, after more or less time, and by the permanent action of nature, gold is produced.”

Albertus Magnus (1206–1280) Dominican friar

As quoted by Francis Preston Venable, A Short History of Chemistry (1894) p. 28. https://books.google.com/books?id=fN9YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA28

“This dumb ox will fill the world with his bellowing.”

Albertus Magnus (1206–1280) Dominican friar

Attributed to Albertus Magnus in: Anne Jackson Fremantle (1962) The Great Ages of Western Philosophy : The Age of Belief : The Medieval Philosophers
Albertus Magnus, in response to other of his students calling Thomas Aquinas a "dumb ox" because of his quietude.

“Do there exist many worlds, or is there but a single world? This is one of the most noble and exalted questions in the study of Nature.”

Albertus Magnus (1206–1280) Dominican friar

Attributed to Albertus Magnus in: R.C. Bless (1996) Discovering the cosmos. p. 686.

“If the excrement of an elephant should be smeared on skin in which lice appear and left until it dries upon the skin, the lice will not remain on it but will depart immediately. If the fat of an elephant is smeared with it, it is said to cure the pain of one who suffers a headache; it is even said that if an ounce of elephant bone is drunk with ten ounces of wild mountain mint from something which a leper first touched, it does the most for a headache.”

Albertus Magnus (1206–1280) Dominican friar

Twenty-Six Books on Animals [De animalibus libri XXVI]; cited in: Plinio Prioreschi (1996) A History of Medicine: Medieval Medicine. p. 94.

“Natural science does not consist in ratifying what others have said, but in seeking the causes of phenomena.”

Albertus Magnus (1206–1280) Dominican friar

Attributed to Albertus Magnus in: Albertus Magnus; cited in: Morris Bishop (1968) The Middle Ages. p. 252.