De Morgan Library Project: a fascinating cartoon uncovered

Augustus De Morgan’s wife Sophia noted her husband’s tendency to paste relevant cartoons at the front of books.  Cartoons are less frequent than written notes on the importance, context or rarity of volumes, however.  They are usually quite small.  The cartoon shown is the largest discovered hitherto in the process of cataloguing De Morgan’s printed books, measuring 114 x 180 mm.  It faces the title page of Francis Baily’s Experiments with the Torsion Rod for Determining the Mean Density of the Earth (London, 1843).  The astronomer Francis Baily (1774-1844), founder of the Astronomical Society, was a friend of Augustus De Morgan’s and gave him the book. The cartoon, showing De Morgan’s sense of fun, includes the words: “Let T be the torsion, R the radiation, and A the anomalies, G Cavendishes [sic] ghost, and M the mess. Between M and G eliminate R, ask A if his mother knows he’s out and tell D to wing out D the mass density required … Remember that the Union of Church and State depends upon the stability of the Earth which Laplace has shown can’t exist unless this mean density is greater than water, so bring out something handsome, as you love the Irish Bishops”. A Bishop at the top of the picture states, in a balloon pointing to the words “depends upon the stability”, “That’s a lie. The stability of the Earth depends upon the Union of Church and State”.

De Morgan Library Project pages

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