Page - 88 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 188 the textbook Institutiones physicae (Introductions to physics [1756]) by the Trnava professor and later Trenčín rector András Jaszlinszky (1715–83), howev- er, reports that the purview of Hell’s work during the Cluj years not only in- cluded the possible uses of electricity and magnetism in healing and resulted in three (now lost) treatises on the subject but also the successful treatment of three elderly men against pain in the leg, dyspepsia, and some kind of tumor by electric sparks.155 As such, then, the later engagement with Mesmer has spe- cific antecedents in Hell’s Cluj activities. The Cluj period also saw the publication of two textbooks by Hell, Varia compendia praxesque operationum arithmeticarum (Various introductions and exercises in arithmetic),156 and the first and only volume, dedicated to arith- metic and algebra, of a planned series entitled Elementa mathematica naturali philosophiae ancillantia (Basic mathematics for the aid of natural philosophy).157 In addition, he also composed a collection of exercises, published separately in Cluj as Exercitationes arithmeticae (Exercises in arithmetic) in 1755, and subse- quently as an appendix to the Elementa. Hell thus became firmly involved in the response to the recently introduced requirement by the Viennese authori- ties, already mentioned, of supporting the reform of higher education by pub- lishing standard textbooks to supplement and supersede students’ lecture notes. Even though he soon left Transylvania and quit teaching mathematics for good, the Elementa was reissued several times, in both Poznań (Posen) and Vienna, but apparently never revised. Thus, in the third edition (Vienna, 1761), we read in the exercises: A merchant in Cluj, selling a Cluj short ulna [or “ell,” a measure of length] for the same price as a long ulna was bought in Vienna, wishes to know the profit percent. Since five Cluj ulnae equal four Viennese, this means that for every four Viennese ulnae there is a gain of one Cluj ulna. Accord- ingly, the sum should be stated thus […].158 155 Andreas Jaszlinszky, Institutiones physicae (Trnava: Academia Societatis Jesu, 1756), 2:189. Cf. Heinrich, A kolozsvári csillagda, 37. Jaszlinszky was one of the scholars involved in the intense engagement with Cartesianism and Newtonianism in Trnava in the 1750s. Cf. above, 62n.69. 156 Virtually all accounts of Hell’s life and career mention this work. However, we have been unable to locate it in any library. 157 Maximilian Hell, Elementa arithmeticae numericae, et literalis seu algebrae ad prefixam in scholis nostris normam concinnata (Vienna: Trattner, 1761 [1755]). 158 Hell, Elementa arithmeticae numericae, appendix, 35.