Editing Thomas Young (scientist) (section)

==Personal life==
Young belonged to a [[Quaker]] family of [[Milverton, Somerset]], where he was born in 1773, the eldest of ten children.<ref>{{cite web|title=Thomas Young|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Young_Thomas.html|publisher=School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland|access-date=30 August 2017}}</ref><ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|wstitle=Young, Thomas|inline=1|volume=28|page=940}}</ref> By the age of fourteen, Young had learned [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Latin]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Syriac language|Syriac]], [[Samaritan Hebrew]], [[Arabic]], [[Biblical Aramaic]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], and [[Geʽez|Ge'ez]].<ref name=EB1911/><ref>{{cite book |author=Singh |first=Simon |title=The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography |title-link=The Code Book |date=October 1999 |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |isbn=978-0-385-49532-5 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=207–208 |language=en |author-link=Simon Singh}}</ref>

Young began to study medicine in London at [[St Bartholomew's Hospital]] in 1792, moved to the [[University of Edinburgh Medical School]] in 1794, and a year later went to [[Göttingen]], Lower Saxony, Germany, where he obtained the degree of doctor of medicine in 1796 from the [[University of Göttingen]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Thomas Young (1773–1829)|date=5 May 2016|url=https://www.andrewgasson.co.uk/thomas-young-1773-1829/|publisher=Andrew Gasson|access-date=30 August 2017|archive-date=31 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831002910/https://www.andrewgasson.co.uk/thomas-young-1773-1829/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1797 he entered [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=YN797T|name=Young, Thomas}}</ref> In the same year he inherited the estate of his grand-uncle, [[Richard Brocklesby]], which made him financially independent, and in 1799 he established himself as a physician at 48 [[Welbeck Street]], London<ref name=EB1911/> (now recorded with a [[blue plaque]]). Young published many of his first academic articles anonymously to protect his reputation as a physician.<ref>{{cite book| last=Robinson|first=Andrew| author-link=W. Andrew Robinson | title=The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone|date=2006|publisher=[[Oneworld Publications]]|isbn=978-1851684946|page=4|title-link=The Last Man Who Knew Everything}}</ref>

In 1801, Young was appointed professor of [[natural philosophy]] (mainly [[physics]]) at the [[Royal Institution]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ri Professors|url=http://www.rigb.org/our-history/people/ri-professors|publisher=Royal Institution|access-date=30 August 2017}}</ref> In two years, he delivered 91 lectures. In 1802, he was appointed foreign secretary of the [[Royal Society]],<ref>{{cite web|title=THOMAS YOUNG (1773–1829)|url=https://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/about/history/famous//index.cfm?id=9|publisher=Emmanuel College|access-date=30 August 2017|archive-date=31 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831002017/https://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/about/history/famous//index.cfm?id=9|url-status=dead}}</ref> of which he had been elected a fellow in 1794.<ref>{{cite web|title=Portrait of Thomas Young|url=https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-11916|publisher=Royal Society|access-date=30 August 2017}}</ref> He resigned his professorship in 1803, fearing that its duties would interfere with his medical practice. His lectures were published in 1807 in the ''Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy'' and contain a number of anticipations of later theories.<ref name=EB1911/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Morgan|first1=Michael|title=Thomas Young's Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts|journal=Perception|date=2002|volume=31|issue=12|pages=1509–1511|doi=10.1068/p3112rvw|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In 1811, Young became physician to [[St George's Hospital]], and in 1814 he served on a committee appointed to consider the dangers involved in the general introduction of [[gas lighting|gas]] for lighting into London.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Weld|first1=Charles Richard|title=A History of the Royal Society: With Memoirs of the Presidents|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108028189|pages=235–237|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhoeyvuEJI4C&q=Thomas+Young+gas+lighting&pg=PA236}}</ref> In 1816 he was secretary of a commission charged with ascertaining the precise length of the [[seconds pendulum]] (the length of a pendulum whose period is exactly 2 seconds), and in 1818 he became secretary to the [[Board of Longitude]] and superintendent of the [[HM Nautical Almanac Office]].<ref name=EB1911/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wood|first1=Alexander|last2=Oldham|first2=Frank|title=Thomas Young: Natural Philosopher, 1773-1829|date=1954|publisher=CUP Archive|pages=304–308|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHc6AAAAIAAJ&q=Thomas+Young+HM+Nautical+Almanac+Office&pg=PA308}}</ref>

Young was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1822.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter Y|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterY.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=8 September 2016}}</ref> A few years before his death he became interested in [[life insurance]],<ref name="Peacock, George 1855">{{cite book | title = Life of Thomas Young: M.D., F.R.S., &c.; and One of the Eight Foreign Associates of the National Institute of France | author = Peacock, George | publisher = J. Murray | year = 1855 | url = https://archive.org/details/lifethomasyoung01peacgoog| page = [https://archive.org/details/lifethomasyoung01peacgoog/page/n417 403] }}</ref> and in 1827 he was chosen as one of the eight foreign associates of the [[French Academy of Sciences]].<ref name=EB1911/> In the same year he became a first class corresponding member, living abroad, of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences|Royal Institute of the Netherlands]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00004005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822173837/https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00004005 |title=Thomas Young (1773 - 1829) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |archive-date=22 August 2020}}</ref> In 1828, he was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=David K.C.|title=Doctors of Another Calling: Physicians Who Are Known Best in Fields Other than Medicine|date=2013|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781611494679|pages=98–101|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3NBAgAAQBAJ&q=Thomas+Young+Royal+Swedish+Academy+of+Sciences&pg=PA99}}</ref>

In 1804, Young married Eliza Maxwell. They had no children.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Young_Thomas.html| first1=J. J.|last1=O'Connor| first2=E. F. |last2=Robertson| title=Thomas Young|publisher=School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland| year=2006}}</ref>

Young died in his 56th year in London on 10 May 1829, having suffered recurrent attacks of "asthma". His autopsy revealed [[atherosclerosis]] of the aorta.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Bruce Fye|first1=W.|title=Thomas Young|journal=Clinical Cardiology|volume=20|issue=1|pages=87–88|year=1997|doi=10.1002/clc.4960200119|pmc=6656136|pmid=8994746|last2=Willis Hurst|first2=J.}}</ref> His body was buried in the graveyard of St. Giles Church at [[Farnborough, London|Farnborough]], in the county of [[Kent]]. [[Westminster Abbey]] houses a white marble tablet in memory of Young,<ref>'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p58: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966</ref> bearing an epitaph by [[Hudson Gurney]]:<ref>
{{cite book|author=Samuel Austin Allibone|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2MLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2904|title=A Critical Dictionary of English Literature: And British and American Authors, Living and Deceased, from the Earliest Accounts to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. Containing Thirty Thousand Biographies and Literary Notices, with Forty Indexes of Subjects, Volume 3|publisher=J. B. Lippincott & Co.|year=1871|page=2904}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wood|first1=Alexander|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHc6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA331|title=Thomas Young Natural Philosopher 1773–1829|last2=Oldham|first2=Frank|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1954|page=331}}</ref>

{{blockquote |
Sacred to the memory of Thomas Young, M.D., Fellow and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society Member of the National Institute of France; a man alike eminent in almost every department of human learning. Patient of unintermitted labour, endowed with the faculty of intuitive perception, who, bringing an equal mastery to the most abstruse investigations of letters and of science, first established the undulatory theory of light, and first penetrated the obscurity which had veiled for ages the hieroglyphs of Egypt. Endeared to his friends by his domestic virtues, honoured by the World for his unrivalled acquirements, he died in the hopes of the Resurrection of the just.&nbsp;—Born at Milverton, in Somersetshire, 13 June 1773. Died in Park Square, London, 10 May 1829, in the 56th year of his age.}}

Young was highly regarded by his friends and colleagues. He was said never to impose his knowledge, but if asked was able to answer even the most difficult scientific question with ease. Although very learned he had a reputation for sometimes having difficulty in communicating his knowledge. It was said by one of his contemporaries that, "His words were not those in familiar use, and the arrangement of his ideas seldom the same as those he conversed with. He was therefore worse calculated than any man I ever knew for the communication of knowledge."<ref>"Peacock's Life of Dr Young" by George Peacock, D.D., F.R.S., etc. Dean of Ely, Lowndean Professor of Astronomy University of Cambridge, etc. quoted in "The Living Age" by E. Littell, Second Series, Volume X, 1855, Littell, Son and Company, Boston.</ref>

=== Religious views ===
Though he sometimes dealt with religious topics of history in Egypt and wrote about the history of Christianity in [[Nubia]], not much is known about Young's personal religious views.<ref>[[Alexander Wood (physicist)|Wood, Alexander]]. 2011. ''Thomas Young: Natural Philosopher 1773–1829''. Cambridge University Press.  p. 56</ref> On [[George Peacock (mathematician)|George Peacock]]'s account, Young never spoke to him about morals, metaphysics or religion, though according to Young's wife, his attitudes showed that "his [[Quaker]] upbringing had strongly influenced his religious practices."<ref>[[Alexander Wood (physicist)|Wood, Alexander]]. 2011. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Jw9nLFVjXdEC Thomas Young: Natural Philosopher 1773–1829]''. Cambridge University Press. p. 329</ref> Authoritative sources have described Young in terms of a cultural Christian Quaker.<ref>Peacock & Leitch., ''[[iarchive:miscellaneouswo00youngoog|Miscellaneous works of the late Thomas Young]]'' (1855), London, J. Murray, p. 516: "he was pre-eminently entitled to the high distinction of a Christian, patriot, and philosopher."</ref><ref>[[Alexander Wood (physicist)|Wood, Alexander]]. 2011. ''Thomas Young: Natural Philosopher 1773–1829''. Cambridge University Press.  p. XVI</ref>

[[Hudson Gurney]] informed that before his marriage, Young had to join the [[Church of England]], and was baptized later.<ref>[[Alexander Wood (physicist)|Wood, Alexander]]. 2011. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Jw9nLFVjXdEC Thomas Young: Natural Philosopher 1773–1829]''. Cambridge University Press. p. 56</ref> Gurney stated that Young "retained a good deal of his old creed, and carried to his scriptural studies his habit of inquisition of languages and manners," rather than the habit of proselytism.<ref>[[Alexander Wood (physicist)|Wood, Alexander]]. 2011, p. 56</ref> Yet, the day before his death, Young participated in religious sacraments; as reported in [[David Brewster]]'s ''Edinburgh Journal of Science'': "After some information concerning his affairs, and some instructions concerning the hierographical papers in his hands, he said that, perfectly aware of his situation, he had taken the sacraments of the church on the day preceding. His religious sentiments were by himself stated to be liberal, though orthodox. He had extensively studied [[The Bible|the Scriptures]], of which the precepts were deeply impressed upon his mind from his earliest years; and he evidenced the faith which he professed; in an unbending course of usefulness and rectitude."<ref>Brewster, David. 1831. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=P_hSAAAAcAAJ The Edinburgh Journal of Science]''. Vol. 8, Blackwood. pp. 204;207</ref>