(Born: Lancaster, England, 24 May 1794; Died: Cambridge, England, 6 March 1866) English physicist, mathematician and historian of science.

Whewell graduated from Cambridge in 1816, and worked as a tutor there from 1823 to 1838. In 1828, he was also appointed professor of mineralogy. In 1844, he became master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a post he held until 1866. Whewell published and edited many works in the natural and mathematical sciences, philosophy, theology, and the history of science He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1820, as well as the Geological Society for which he served as president in 1837-8.

Biographical references: Allibone, Dictionary of English Literature, 1859-71. • Annual Register. • Barr, Index to Biographical Fragments, 1973: 278. • BBA: I 1155, 226-256. • Boase, Modern English Biography, 1892-1921. • Daniels, American Science in the Age of Jackson, 1968. • DNB: 20, 1365-74. • Drugulin, Sechstausend Portraits, 1863: no. 5867. • DSB: 14, 292-5 [by R.E. Butts]. • Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition. • ISIS, 1913-65: 2, 622. • Lambrecht & Quenstedt, Catalogus, 1938: 457-8. • Poggendorff: 2, cols. 1309-11 & 3, 437. • Robson, R. and F.W. Cannon, "William Whewell, F.R.S., (1794-1866). I. Academic life by R. Robson. II. Contributions to science and learning, by W.F. Cannon", Notes & Records of the Royal Society of London, 19, (1964), no. 2, 168-91, plates 19-22. • Ruse, M., "The scientific methodolgy of WIlliam Whewell", Centaurus, 20, (1977), 227-57. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 3, 2411-2, Suppl. 1 (1986), 2, 886 & Suppl. 2 (1995), 2, 1194-5. • WBI. • Wexler, P.J., "The great nomenclator. Whewell's contributions to scientific terminology," Notes & Queries, n.s., 8 (1961), no. 1, p. 27-32. [Reviews the words coined by Whewell in the physical sciences.]. • World Who's Who in Science: 1787.

1. English, 1828.
An Essay on Mineralogical Classification and Nomenclature; with Tables of the Orders and Species of Minerals. Cambridge, 1828.

8°: [6], [i]-xxxii, [1]-71, [1] p. Page size: 209 x 126 mm.

Contents: [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; [2 pgs], Introductory notice.; [1 pg], Contents.; [1 pg], Blank.; [i]-xxxii, Essay on Mineralogical Classification and Nomenclature.; [1 pg], Tables of orders and species of minerals.; [1 pg], Blank.; [1]-71, Tables of mineral species.; [1 pg], Blank.

Rare. By the time Whewell published this essay, the mineralogical classifications proposed by Mohs and Breithaupt in which physical or external mineralogical characters determined the classes of the minerals. Berzelius, Gmelin, Beudant, and Leonhard championed arrangements according to their chemical relations. Whewell published here that if these two divergent methods are to be reconciled, it must be done through a natural history method similar to Mohs.

Bibliographical references: Annual Register. • Barr, Index to Biographical Fragments, 1973: 278. • Dana's 7th (Bibliography): 83. • DNB. • Drugulin, Sechstausend Portraits, 1863: 160, no. 5867. • DSB: 14, 292-5. • Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition. • ISIS, 1913-65: 2, 622. • Lambrecht & Quenstedt, Catalogus, 1938: pp. 457-8. • Poggendorff: 2, cols. 1309-11 & 3, 437. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 3, 2411-2. • Sarjeant, Geologists, Suppl. 1, 1986: 2, 886. • Sarjeant, Geologists, Suppl. 2, 1995: 2, 1194-5. • World Who's Who in Science: 1787.

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