According to volume XXIII of the impressive and always-useful "Enciclopedia
Vniversal Ilvstrada: Europeo Americana" [Barcelona: Hijos de J. Espasa
Editores, 1924], Thomas Falkner was born in 1707 (!), in Manchester, and
died at Plowden-Hall (near Winterest) in 1784. All what I read, suggests
that Thomas Falkner was NOT a student of Newton -- a possibility which is
almost ruled out on chronological grounds.
This long encyclopedia article (based on [1]) reads, in passing, that
Falkner studied medicine in London, and certainly was a disciple of the
noted physician Richard Mead (1673-1754).
It might be worth taking a look at the following books written by
Guillermo Furlong Cardiff:
[1] "Tomas Falkner", Buenos Aires, 1920.
[2] "La personalidad y la obra de Tomas Falkner", Publicaciones del
Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas (Universidad Nacional de Buenos
Aires); no. 48, Buenos Aires: J. Peuser, 1929.
[3] "Tomas Falkner y su "Acerca de los patagones", Escritores coloniales
rioplatenses, no. 5, Buenos Aires: Libreria del Plata, 215 pages, 1954.
Um abraco, Julio
At 07:20 AM 14/09/1998 -0300, Ubiratan D'Ambrosio wrote:
| Alguien puede decirme algo sobre el Padre Thomas Falkner,
| discipulo de Newton, que se establecio en Argentina en 1730?
Later, on 21 Sep 1998, Ubiratan D'Ambrosio remarked:
| These are the only two references I have seen of Thomas Falkner
| [translation from Portuguese and Spanish are mine]:
|
| "Falkner had been a disciple of Newton and established himself in 1730 in
| Argentina."
| Inacio Strieder, "A Filosofia Brasileira Pre-Academica no Contexto
| Latino-Americano", Anais do V Congresso Brasileiro de Filosofia, 3-8
| setembro 1995, Instituto Brasileiro de Filosofia, Sao Paulo; p.92.
|
| "... and the physician Thomas Falkner, who joined the jesuit order in
| Argentina and travelled in our land for forty years published in English,
| in 1774, a book which was translated in 1911 with the title 'Descripcion de
| la Patagonia y de las partes contiguas de la America del Sur, in which
| there is a description of the people that were then the inhabitants of the
| patagonian plains and of the 'magallanicos' archipelagoes."
| Jose Babini: "Historia de la Ciencia en la Argentina", Ediciones Solar,
| Buenos Aires, 1986; p. 53.