Diamond (dog)
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Diamond was, according to legend, Sir Isaac Newton's favorite dog, which, by upsetting a candle, set fire to manuscripts containing his notes on experiments conducted over the course of twenty years. According to one account, Newton is said to have exclaimed: "O Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done."[1] The story is largely apocryphal: according to another account, Newton simply left a window open when he went to church, and the candle was knocked over by a gust of wind.[2] In fact, some historians claim that Newton never owned pets.[1]
The story of "Diamond's Mischief" has been reproduced over the centuries as early as 1833 in The Life of Sir Isaac Newton by David Brewster and later in St. Nicholas magazine, Vol. 5, No. 4, (February 1878)
Nevertheless, Diamond is the subject of several anecdotes concerning Newton. In another tale, Newton is said to have claimed that the dog discovered two theorems in a single morning. He added, however, that "one had a mistake and the other had a pathological exception."[3]
See also List of historical dogs.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Alfred Rupert Hall, Isaac Newton: Eighteenth Century Perspectives, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 175. ISBN 0198503644.
- ^ Jason Socrates Bardi, The Calculus Wars: Newton, Leibniz, and the Greatest Mathematical Clash of All Times. Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006, p. 159. ISBN 1560257067.
- ^ "Historical Canines," Shepherd Software. Retrieved September 16, 2007.
