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Encyclopedia > John Ray

hi John Henry Ray (September 27, 1886 - May 21, 1975) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York. ... Image File history File links Question_book-3. ...

John Ray.
John Ray.

John Ray (November 29, 1627January 17, 1705) was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray although no one knows why.[citation needed][1] Download high resolution version (807x957, 212 KB) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (807x957, 212 KB) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... is the 333rd day of the year (334th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events A Dutch ship makes the first recorded sighting of the coast of South Australia. ... is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events Construction begins on Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now often viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines of integrative organismal biology. ... Year 1670 (MDCLXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ...


He published important works on plants, animals, and natural theology. His classification of plants in his Historia Plantarum, was an important step towards modern taxonomy. Ray rejected the system of dichotomous division by which species were classified according to a pre-conceived, either/or type system, and instead classified plants according to similarities and differences that emerged from observation. Thus he advanced scientific empiricism against the deductive rationalism of the scholastics. He is also known for having coined the term "species."[citation needed] For other uses, see Plant (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... Natural theology is the knowledge of God accessible to all rational human beings without recourse to any special or supposedly supernatural revelation. ... Historia Plantarum (Latin for History of Plants) is the name by which is known an atlas of botany written by Theophrastus between the third and the second century BC. This work was organised in ten books, and is an encyclopedia of the plant kingdom, in which a draft taxonomy is... For the science of classifying living things, see alpha taxonomy. ... In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience, especially sensory perception, in the formation of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate ideas. ... Scholastic redirects here. ...

Contents

Early Life

John Ray was born in the village of Black Notley, near Braintree, in the county of Essex, in the south east of England. He is said to have been born in the smithy, his father having been the blacksmith of Black Notley near Braintree. From Braintree school he was sent at the age of sixteen to Catharine Hall, Cambridge, whence he removed to Trinity College after about one year and three-quarters. His tutor at Trinity was James Duport, Regius Professor of Greek, and his intimate friend and fellow-pupil the celebrated Isaac Barrow. Ray was chosen minor fellow of Trinity in 1649, and in due course became a major fellow on proceeding to the master's degree. He held many college offices, becoming successively lecturer in Greek (1651), mathematics (1653),and humanity (1655), praelector (1657), junior dean (1657), and college steward (1659 and 1660); and according to the habit of the time, he was accustomed to preach in his college chapel and also at Great St Mary's before the university, long before he took holy orders. Among his sermons preached before his ordination, which was not till the 23 December 1660, were the famous discourses on The Wisdom of God in the Creation, and on The Chaos, Deluge and Dissolution of the World. Ray's reputation was high also as a tutor; and he communicated his own passion for natural history to several pupils, of whom Francis Willughby is by far the most famous. Masouleh village, Gilan Province, Iran. ... Black Notley is a village and civil parish in the Braintree district of Essex, England. ... , Braintree is a town of about 42,393 people and the principal settlement of the Braintree district of Essex in the East of England. ... The traditional counties as usually portrayed. ... For other meanings of Essex, see Essex (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... For the process of shaping metal by localized compressive forces, see Forging. ... For other uses, see Blacksmith (disambiguation). ... Full name Collegium sive aula D. Catharinæ in Universitate Cantabrigiensi Motto - Named after St Catharine of Alexandria Previous names Katharine Hall (1473-1860) Established 1473 Sister College Worcester College Master Prof. ... Full name The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Motto Virtus vera nobilitas Virtue is true Nobility Named after The Holy Trinity Previous names King’s Hall and Michaelhouse (until merged in 1546) Established 1546 Sister College(s) Christ Church Master The Lord Rees of Ludlow Location Trinity Street... James Duport (1606, Cambridge - July 17th 1679, Peterborough) was an English classical scholar. ... The Regius Professorship of Greek is one of the oldest and most prestigious of the professorships at the University of Cambridge. ... Isaac Barrow (October 1630 - May 4, 1677) was an English divine, scholar and mathematician who is generally given minor credit for his role in the development of modern calculus; in particular, for his work regarding the tangent; for example, Barrow is given credit for being the first to calculate the... // Events January 30 - King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is beheaded. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... St Mary the Great with St Michael, also known as Great St Marys Church, is the church of the University of Cambridge, England. ... is the 357th day of the year (358th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events January 1 - Colonel George Monck with his regiment crosses from Scotland to England at the village of Coldstream and begins advance towards London in support of English Restoration. ... Francis Willughby (November 22, 1635 - July 3, 1672) was an English ornithologist and ichthyologist. ...


Career

Ray's quiet college life closed when he found himself unable to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity 1661, and was obliged to give up his fellowship in 1662, the year after Isaac Newton had entered the college. We are told by Dr Derham in his Life of Ray that the reason of his refusal: The Act of Uniformity was an act of Parliament, passed in 1661, prescribing the form of public prayers, administration of sacraments, and other rites of the Established Church of England. ... Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. ... William Derham (November 26, 1657 - April 5, 1735), English divine, was born at Stoulton, near Worcester. ...

"was not (as some have imagined) his having taken the 'Solemn League and Covenant', for that he never did, and often declared that he ever thought it an unlawful oath; but he said he could not declare for those that had taken the oath that no obligation lay upon them, but feared there might" The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians. ...

From this time onwards he seems to have depended chiefly on the bounty of his pupil Willughby, who made Ray his constant companion while he lived, and at his death left him 6 shillings a year, with the charge of educating his two sons.


In the spring of 1663 Ray started together with Willughby and two other pupils on a tour through Europe, from which he returned in March 1666, parting from Willughby at Montpellier, whence the latter continued his journey into Spain. He had previously in three different journeys (1658, 1661, 1662) travelled through the greater part of Great Britain, and selections from his private notes of these journeys were edited by George Scott in 1760, under the title of Mr Ray's Itineraries. Ray himself published an account of his foreign travel in 1673, entitled Observations topographical, moral, and physiological, made on a Journey through part of the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France. From this tour Ray and Willughby returned laden with collections, on which they meant to base complete systematic descriptions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Willughby undertook the former part, but, dying in 1672, left only an ornithology and ichthyology, in themselves vast, for Ray to edit; while the latter used the botanical collections for the groundwork of his Methodus planiarurn nova (1682), and his great Historia generalis plantarum (3 vols., 1686, 1688, 1704). The plants gathered on his British tours had already been described in his Catalogus plantarum Angliae (1670), which work is the basis of all later English floras. Year 1663 (MDCLXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... Montpellier (Occitan Montpelhièr) is a city in the south of France. ... George Scott can refer to: George Scott, governor of Grenada from 1762-1764 George Gilbert Scott, a Victorian architect George Gilbert Scott Junior, his son also an architect George Byng Scott, administrator of the Northern Territory of Australia from 1863-1876 George Scott, a 1960s baseball player George C. Scott...


In 1667 Ray was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1669 he published in conjunction with Willughby his first paper in the Philosophical Transactions on Experiments concerning the Motion of Sap in Trees. They demonstrated the ascent of the sap through the wood of the tree, and supposed the sap to precipitate a kind of white coagulum or jelly, which may be well conceived to be the part which every year between bark and tree turns to wood and of which the leaves and fruits are made. Immediately after his admission into the Royal Society he was induced by Bishop John Wilkins to translate his Real Character into Latin, and it seems he actually completed a translation, which, however, remained in manuscript; his Methodus plantarum nova was in fact undertaken as a part of Wilkins's great classificatory scheme. For other uses, see Royal Society (disambiguation). ... John Wilkins. ...


In 1673 Ray married Margaret Oakley of Launton; in 1676 he went to Sutton Coldfield, and in 1677 to Falborne Hall in Essex. Finally, in 1679, he removed to Black Notley, where he afterwards remained. His life there was quiet and uneventful, although he had poor health, including chronic sores. He occupied himself in writing books and in keeping up a wide scientific correspondence, and lived, in spite of his infirmities, to the age of seventy-six, dying at Black Notley on 17 January, 1705. The Ray Society, for the publication of works on natural history, was founded in his honor in 1844. 1673 (MDCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Launton is a small village, located to the east of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England. ... , Holy Trinity Church on Trinity Hill north of Sutton town centre. ... For other meanings of Essex, see Essex (disambiguation). ... is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Ray Society was founded in 1844 by John Ray. ... Jan. ...


Works

Ray's first book, the Catalogus plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium (1660, followed by appendices in 1663 and 1685), was written in conjunction with his amicissimus et individuus comes, John Nid. The 626 plants are listed alphabetically, but a system of classification differing little from Caspar Bauhin's is sketched at the end of the book; and the notes contain many references to other parts of natural history. The locations of the plants are minutely described; and Cambridge students still gather some of their rarer plants in the copses or chalk-pits where he found them. The book shows signs of his indebtedness to Joachim Jung of Hamburg, who had died in 1657, leaving his writings unpublished; but a manuscript copy of some of them was sent to Ray by Samuel Hartlib in 1660. Jung invented or gave precision to many technical terms which Ray and others at once made use of in their descriptions, and which are now classical; and his notions of what constitutes a specific distinction and what characters are valueless as such seem to have been adopted with little change by Ray. The first two editions of the Catalogus plantarum Angliae (1670, 1677) were likewise it must be remembered that the difference between the monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous embryo was detected by Nehemiah Grew. A serious fault was his persistent separation of trees from herbs, a distinction whose falsity had been exposed by Jung and others, but to which Ray tried to give scientific foundation by denying the existence of buds in the latter. At this time he based his classification, like Caesalpinus, chiefly upon the fruit, and he distinguished several natural groups, such as the grasses, Labiatae, Umbelliferae and Papilionaceae. Bauhin -- A family of physicians and scientists. ... For other uses, see Hamburg (disambiguation). ... Samuel Hartlieb (ca. ... Nehemiah Grew. ... Genera Many, see text Ref: Delta 2002-07-22 Lamiaceae, or the Mint family, is a family of plants in about 180 genera and some 3,500 species. ... Genera See text Ref: Hortiplex 2003-11-14 The Apiaceae, the carrot or parsley family, are a family of usually aromatic plants with hollow stems, including parsley, carrot, and other relatives. ... Subfamilies Faboideae Caesalpinioideae Mimosoideae References GRIN-CA 2002-09-01 The Family Fabaceae (also as Family Leguminosae) is a grouping of plants in the Order Fabales, and one of the largest families of flowering plants with 650 genera and over 18,000 species. ...


The classification of the Methodus was extended and improved in the Historia plantarum, but was disfigured by a large class of Anomalae, to include forms that the other orders did not easily admit, and by the separation of the cereals from other grasses. This vast book enumerates and describes all the plants known to the author or described by his predecessors, to the number, according to Adanson, of 18,625 species. In the first volume a chapter De plantis in genere contains an account of all the anatomical and physiological knowledge of the time regarding plants, with the recent speculations and discoveries of Caesalpinus, Grew, Malpighi and Jung; and Cuvier and Dupetit Thouars, declaring that it was this chapter which gave acceptance and authority to these authors works, say that the best monument that could be erected to the memory of Ray would be the republication of this part of his work separately. The Stirpium Europaearum extra Britannias nascentium Sylloge (1694) is a much amplified edition of the catalogue of plants collected on his own European tour. In the preface to this book he first clearly admitted the doctrine of the sexuality of plants, which, however, he had no share in establishing. Here also begins his long controversy with August Bachmann (Augustus Quirinus Rivinus) which chiefly turned upon Ray's indefensible separation of ligneous, from herbaceous plants, and also upon what he conceived to be the misleading reliance that Rivinus placed on the characters of the corolla. But in the second edition of his Methodus (1703) he followed Rivinus and Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in taking the flower instead of the fruit as his basis of classification: he was no longer a fructicist but a corollist. Augustus Quirinus Rivinus also known as August Bachmann (December 9, 1652 (Leipzig, Germany) – December 20, 1723 (Leipzig, Germany)) A German physician and botanist. ... Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (June 5, 1656 – December 28, 1708) was a French botanist. ...


Besides editing his friend Francis Willughby's books, Ray wrote several zoological works of his own, including Synopsis methodica Animalium Quadrupedum et Serpentini Generis (1693), that is to say, both mammals and reptiles, and Synopsis methodica Avium et Piscium (1713); the latter was published posthumously, as was also the more important Historia Insectorum, which embodied a great mass of Willughbys notes. Francis Willughby (November 22, 1635 - July 3, 1672) was an English ornithologist and ichthyologist. ...


Most of Ray's minor works were the outcome of his faculty for carefully amassing facts; for instance, his Collection of English Proverbs (1670), his Collection of Out-of-the-way English Words (1674), his Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages (1693), and his Dictionariolum trilingue (1675, 5th edition as Nomenclator classicus, 1706). The last was written for the use of Willughby's sons, his pupils; it passed through many editions, and is still useful for its careful identifications of plants and animals mentioned by Greek and Latin writers. But Ray's influence and reputation have depended largely upon his two books entitled The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691), and Miscellaneous Discourses concerning the Dissolution and Changes of the World (1692). The latter includes three essays on The Primitive Chaos and Creation of the World, The General Deluge, its Causes and Effects, and The Dissolution of the World and Future Conflagrations. The germ of these works was contained in sermons preached long before in Cambridge. Both books obtained immediate popularity, and the former, at least, was translated into several languages. In The Wisdom of God Ray recites innumerable examples of the perfection of organic mechanism, the multitude and variety of living creatures, the minuteness and usefulness of their parts, and many, if not most, of the familiar examples of purposive adaptation and design in nature were suggested by him, such as the structure of the eye, the hollowness of the bones, the camel's stomach and the hedgehog's armour.


Legacy

The standard botanical author abbreviation Ray is applied to species he described. Latin name redirects here. ... For other uses, see Species (disambiguation). ...



In 1844, the Ray Society [1] was founded, named after John Ray, and has since published over 160 books on natural history. The Ray Society was founded in 1844 by John Ray. ...


In 1986, to mark the 300th anniversary of the publication of Ray's Historia Plantarum, there was a celebration of Ray's legacy in Braintree. A "John Ray Gallery" was opened in the Braintree Museum. The scientific society at his old college is named the "John Ray Society" after him. Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ...


References

Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External links

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  Results from FactBites:
 
John Ray - LoveToKnow 1911 (1330 words)
RAY (or WRAY, as he wrote his name till 1670), John (1628-1705), sometimes called the father of English natural history, was the son of the flsmith of Black Notley near Braintree in Essex, where he was born on the 29th of November 1628, or, according to other authorities, some months earlier.
Ray was chosen minor fellow of Trinity in 1649, and in due course became a major fellow on proceeding to the master's degree.
Ray's quiet college life closed when he found himself unable to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity of 1661, and was obliged to give up his fellowship in 1662, the year after Isaac Newton had entered the college.
John Ray: Biography and Much More from Answers.com (2331 words)
John Ray (November 29, 1627 – January 17, 1705) was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history.
Ray rejected the system of dichotomous division by which species were classified according to a pre-conceived, either/or type system, and instead classified plants according to similarities and differences that emerged from observation.
Ray was born in the village of Black Notley, near Braintree, in the county of Essex, in the south east of England.
  More results at FactBites »

 

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