Leibniz and Newton's Principia Mathematica

Author(s): E. A. Fellmann
Source: Isis, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Summer, 1971), p. 230
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/229246 .
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230
After a thorough study and lucid
description thereof'9 Sorokin was con-
vinced that his theory was correct. He
went further and mentioned the following
effort:
To find out what organsand what animals
producefiliform-botryoidstructureswhen
they disintegrate,we asked the zoologists,
Doctor of Biological Sciences F. D.
Mordukhai-Boltovskiiand Doctor of
Biological Sciences D. V. Naumov to
examine preparationsof Krassinikoviae
and expresstheiropinionsas to the nature
of these structures.They both indepen-
dently came to the same conclusionsthat
the given structuresare colloblasts-the
sticky cells of the raptorial tentacles of
ctenophores. Kukenthal's manual of
zoology (1923), Chun'swork (1880), and
a special investigationby Hertvig (1880)
show that the colloblasts of the tentacles
areidenticalwithKrassilnikoviae.20
Sorokin briefly mentioned these find-
ings in the Journal du Conseil,21 and this
19Ibid., pp. 365-369.
20 Ibid.,p. 369.
21
J. J. Sorokin, "A QuantitiveStudy of the may be led astray, as the Science Citation Index
Microflora in the Central Pacific Ocean," cites Sorokinvariouslyas J. I. and Y. I.
LEIBNIZ AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA MA THEMATICA
In the history of science, an unanswered
question has been whether Leibniz
actually studied Newton's Principia,
when he may have done so, and-above
all-how carefully and completely he may
have examined the work. Leibniz referred
in print to the summary of the Principia,
which appeared in the Acta Eruditorum
(6, 1688) soon after the publication of the
first edition of this epochal book. There
is a hint, however, in a letter written by
Leibniz to Huygens in October 1960
* Arnold Bocklinstrasse37, CH-4000 Basel,
Switzerland.
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DONALD J. McGRAW
article, as it was originally published in
English, is often cited when the Kras-
silnikoviae matter comes to the fore.
P. A. Tyler and K. C. Marshall make ref-
erence to Sorokin's original rebuttal,22but
although he is often cited on other sub-
jects,23 a literature search reveals that
neither he nor Kriss and Mitskevich have
been cited to any extent regarding the
Krassilnikoviae matter. That this should
be so seems rather surprising since the
proposal of an entire class of bacteria,
especially on rather poorly supported
grounds, is no mean matter among prac-
titioners in the field. But it is interesting
to note that Kriss in his other published
works to date does not clearly state his
agreement that the Krassilnikoviae are
in fact not bacteria after all.
International Council for Exploration of the
Sea, Journal du Conseil, 1964, 29(1): 25-40.
22 P. A. Tyler and K. C. Marshall, "Pleo-
morphyin StalkedBuddingBacteria,"Journalof
Bacteriology,1967,93(3):1132-1136.
23 Those unfamiliarwith the Russian language
By E. A. Fellmann*
that he was not content with a mere sum-
mary of Newton's book.'
In the fall of last year I discovered,
privately owned in Switzerland, a copy
of the first edition of Newton's Principia
containing about three dozen marginal
notes and underlinings in the hand of
Leibniz, some of them quite extensive.
The transcription of these marginalia is
finished, and a complete publication is
being prepared.2
1 Christiaan Huygens, Oeuvres, Vol. IX,
p. 523.
2 My book on Leibniz is to be published in
1971by Vrin(Paris).