Learning Science in 1879

Curiosities, triumphs, and horrors from a Victorian era textbook

A nineteenth-century stomach pump.

One afternoon while on vacation, I decided to wander into a used book store. Along with the usual cookbooks and paperback romances, I located a rare treasure. It was an 1879 science and technology textbook called A Natural Philosophy by G. P. Quackenbos, LL.D. I was delighted to hold in my hands a relic from that wonderful era of scientific and technological progress.

The price was only $1.50. I bought it, of course. As a history buff and science nerd, it is still my most prized book. It contains a fascinating snapshot of scientific knowledge in the late nineteenth century.

Cover and title page, scanned by the author.

Fun with Dead Bodies

Science is a human endeavor, and as such, it has a darker side. Mary Shelley published her horror classic Frankenstein in 1818. The Quackenbos textbook recounts a real-life experiment that may have been inspired by Shelley’s disturbing fantasy. In the section titled “Physiological Effects of Voltaic Electricity,” the author recounts:

A few years ago, the body of a murderer hanged in Glasgow was subjected, about an hour and…