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THE

KOYAL INSTITUTION.

IONDON: PRINTED BT

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NliW-STKEET SQUA.KB
A^D PARLIAMENT STKEET

THE

KOYAL INSTITUTION

ITS FOUNDER

and

FIRST PROFESSORS.

DR. BENCE JONES,

HONORARY SECRETARY.

LONDON:

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1871.

PREFACE.

I begin the history of the Eoyal Institution, and its
professors to the time of Faraday, with the life of
its founder, Count Eumford, because his career and
character determined its original form. I have written
short accounts of the earliest professors because the
spirit that has shown itself in them has up to this time
been the life of the Institution. Dr. Grarnett and
Dr. Thomas Young had comparatively little influence
there, because the founder took the most active part
in the establishment of his Institution ; but when
Count Rumford and Sir Joseph Banks had left and
Mr. Bernard and Sir John Hippesley were the lead-
ing managers, Professor Davy gradually became the
main supporter of the place, and to him chiefly it owes
the form which it now retains.

During the last half-century the name of Faraday
has been so blended with that of the Eoyal Institution
that few people know what Davy made it ; and fewer
still have heard what Eumford at first intended it
to be.

The following account will show that the Institution

971SG5

vi PKEFACE.

owes its origin entirely to Eumford, and would certainly
have failed but for Davy. Moreover, it will be seen that
before Faraday came there, it had been the home of Dr.
Grarnett and of Dr. Thomas Young ; Dr. Dalton had
lodged and lectured for weeks there ; Sydney Smith,
Coleridge, Sir James Smith, Dibden, Dr. Crotch,
Campbell, Landseer, Opie, and Flaxman had also
lectured there ; Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. Cavendish
had been managers, and Dr. Wollaston and Dr. Jenner
had been members.

I have searched everywhere to find new or forgotten
facts about the Institution.

For the sketch of the founder I owe much to the
Eev. Dr. Gr. E. Ellis, of Boston, who has lately written
the Life of Eumford for the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences. I have found many despatches and
letters relating to Eumford in the manuscripts of the
American War now in the library of the Eoyal Insti-
tution, and in the unpublished correspondence of Sir
Joseph Banks, in the archives of the Foreign Office,
and in the State Paper Office.

Not the least strange fact in the history of this
original man is that during his life he received no
thanks for all that he did for the Eoyal Institution.
Moreover at the present time he is scarcely known as
the finder of Davy and the founder of that place where
very many of the greatest scientific discoveries of this
century have been made.

PREFACE. vii

For the account of the origin and progress of the
Institution I have searched the minutes of the meet-
ings of the managers, the proprietors, and the mem-
bers. I am much indebted to Earl Spencer, who has
lent me from the Althorp library a printed copy of
the first prospectus of the Eoyal Institution. This
was written by Count Eumford. I have found many
forgotten things in the manuscript letters to and from
Sir Joseph Banks, to which I have had access by per-
mission of the Knatchbull family ; also in a manuscript
life of Mr. Webster, the architect of the Royal Institu-
tion theatre ; and in some letters which belonged to Mr.
Savage, the clerk and first printer at the Institution,
and for which I am indebted to his daughters.

For the sketch of the lives of Dr. Grarnett and of
Dr. Young I have been able to find very little original
matter.

For the life of Sir Humphry Davy I have met with
some new facts in his laboratory note- books. These
books give most of his daily work at the time when
he was making his great discoveries regarding chemical
electricity, the alkalies, and chlorine. I have also had
the use of the notes by Faraday of four of the last lec-
tures given by Davy at the Institution. This is the
manuscript volume sent to Davy by Faraday when he
asked to be employed at the Institution. It consists
of 386 small quarto pages. Davy at this time was
thirty-three, and Faraday was twenty-one. The one

viii PEEFACE.

was full of energy to profit by the excellence he
could follow, or to shun the evil he could foresee ; the
other had long reached the climax of his success by his
youthful popularity as a lecturer and his early renown
as a discoverer; and was about to make a rich and an
unsuitable marriage ; and before long was to suffer
from the restlessness of the failing health that ended in
fatal disease.

Whenever a true comparison between these two nobles
of the Institution can be made, it will probably be seen
that the genius of Davy has been hid by the perfection
of Faraday.

Incomparably superior as Faraday was in unselfish-
ness, exactness, and perseverance, and in many other
respects also, yet certainly in originality and in elo-
quence he was inferior to Davy, and in love of research
he was by no means his superior.

Davy, from his earliest energy to his latest feeble-
ness, loved research ; and, notwithstanding his marriage,
his temper, and his early death, he first gained for
the Royal Institution that great reputation for original
discovery which has been and is the foundation of its
success.

H. B. J.

EOTAX INSTITUTION, ALBEMARLE STREET,
October 27, 1871.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I THE LIFE OF COUNT RUMFORD BEFORE THE

FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION . 1

II. HIS LIFE AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTI-
TUTION . . • ">",. 69

III. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION, 1799-

1800 ; WITH THE LIFE OF PROFESSOR GARNETT,
1766-1802 , . . .114

IV. THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE

RESIGNATION OF PROFESSOR YOUNG, 1801-3 ;
WITH THE LIFE OF DR. THOMAS YOUNG, 1773-
1829 180

V. THE FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION

TO THE TIME OF FARADAY, 1804-14 . . . 258

TI. THE LIFE OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, 1788-1829 . . 312

X CONTENTS.

APPENDIX PAOB

I. ORIGINAL PAPERS REGARDING THE AMERICAN

WAR. . . . v . . . •' . ••$* T • • 405

II. ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM DK. THOMAS YOUNG . 417

III. INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROYAL IN-
STITUTION TO 1814 . . 425

THE

ROYAL INSTITUTION

CHAPTEK I.

LIFE OF RUMFORD BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF
THE INSTITUTION.

1753 to 1799.

AT Charlestown, Massachusetts, in t'ae .year 1G30,

\ • * i * ° t * - 1 * \

James Thompson was among Wintnrop's company! " He
settled about ten miles inland, and the place was called
Woburn. In 1752 Benjamin Thompson was there with
his father, Captain Ebenezer Thompson, and he married
Ruth Simonds, of that place. Their child, the future
Count Eumford, was born in his grandfather's farm-
house, on March 26, 1753. The house is still to be
seen near the meeting-house in North Woburn. When
the child was a year old his father died, and when he
was three years old his mother married again. 'To
the close of her life Rumford wrote to her full of
affection, and by the munificent provision which he
made for her he showed his tender, grateful regard for
her.'

THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP.

,

A small inheritance from his grandfather helped
to support and to educate the boy. By the law of
Massachusetts everyone had a good grammar-school
education, and the village school teacher at Woburn
was then a graduate of Harvard College and taught a
little Latin. From his earliest years the boy was
fickle and careless. He neglected regular work, but
liked arithmetic. He was full of energy and quick to
make what he wanted. When eleven he went to a
better school in the neighbouring town of Medford.
When thirteen Benjamin Thompson appeared unlikely
to make a farmer. He was therefore apprenticed to
an importer of British goods and a dealer in everything'
at Salem, on October 14, 1766. 'Instead of watching
for customers over the counter, he busied himself with
totals arid/ instruments under it.' When he could he
played his fiddle, and played it well. When only fourteen
ihis'lriastei'; allowed, 'him to make small ventures in
shipping goods that were paid for by a relative. He
was clever at drawing and cutting names, and he
thought he had ' invented a machine for making
motion perpetual.' When the repeal of the Stamp Act
occurred, he blew himself up with fireworks, and was
in great danger of death. His master signed the
non-importation agreement. Thus his apprentice
became useless. When sixteen he returned to his
mother. To an elder school-fellow, L. Baldwin, at
this time he wrote questions on light, heat, and the
wind.

In 1769, when seventeen, he was apprentice and
clerk to a drygoods dealer at Boston. There he went

JET. 17-20.] COUNT RUMFORD. 3

to an evening-school to learn French, paying only for
the hours he attended.

A note-book made by him about this time still exists.
It abounds in caricatures. Has receipts for different
fireworks. One of these ends with, ' Love is a noble
passion of the mind.' Contains the sum he paid for
learning French and for pew-rent, and the sums
gained by cutting and carting firewood for relatives.
Instructions for the back sword exercise, with a sketch
of two combatants ; and later there is an account of
6 what expense I have been at towards getting an
electrical machine,' and ' an account of what work I
have done towards getting an electrical machine.'

In the winter of 1770 he was ill for five weeks with
fever. Then for eighteen months off and on he boarded
with Dr. John Hay, of Woburn, and whilst with him
he learned something of anatomy, chemistry, materia
medica, surgery, and physic. During the summer,
1771, he went to Cambridge, to attend Mr. Winthrop's
lectures on Experimental Philosophy. In the winter
of 1771-2 for some weeks he was teaching in a school
at Wilmington, and in the spring he taught at Bradford.
In the summer he left Dr. Hay for good, because he was
asked by Colonel Walker to become the fixed master of
a school at Concord, New Hampshire. This place had
been called Eumford when it belonged to Essex County,
Massachusetts. The name was changed when the
disputes as to the county to which it belonged were
ended.

The Eev. T. Walker was the first minister of Concord.
He was a native of Woburn and connected with the

B 2

4 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

Thompson family. He was the chief man in Concord.
His son was a colonel and a lawyer, and his daughter,
when about thirty, was married to Colonel Rolfe, who
was sixty. She was left a rich widow in two years, and
in the middle of the following year Thompson came as
schoolmaster to Concord. He was not yet quite twenty.
His friend Baldwin describes him ' as of fine, manly
make and figure, nearly six feet high, with handsome
features, bright blue eyes and dark auburn hair. His
manners were polished and his ways fascinating, and he
could make himself agreeable. He had well used his
opportunities of culture, so that his knowledge was
beyond that of most of those around him, and he was
able to give satisfaction as a teacher.'

In the country parsonage and at Colonel Walker's
house he frequently met Mrs. Rolfe, and he told his
friend Professor Pictet that she married him rather
than he her. This was about the end of 1772, when he
was nearly twenty. He had to teach no more in school.
His marriage made him one of the chief men in Con-
cord.

After his marriage he went with his wife to Ports-
mouth, where she knew Governor Wentworth. 'He
saw in young Thompson not only the representative of
a family already known in the public and social life of
his province, but also a man of much promise, one
likely to work vigorously in whatever he took up.' The
Grovernor soon gave Thompson a commission as major
in the second provincial regiment of New Hampshire.
The young officer at once became an object of jealousy
and ill-will to all the lieutenants and captains of his

1773. JEr. 20.] COUNT EUMFOED. 5

regiment. The favour of the Governor made all his
brother officers his enemies.

The following letter to the Eev. Mr. Williams, at
Bradford, afterwards Professor at the college there,
shows the influence of Thompson with the Governor,
and also some of his scientific thoughts and aims :

Concord, Monday, January 17, 1773.

DEAR SIE, — Last Friday I had the honour to wait upon
his Excellency, Governour Wentworth, at Portsmouth,
where I was very politely and agreeably entertained for the
space of an hour and a half. I had not been in his company
long before I proceeded upon business, viz. to ask his
Excellency whether ever the White Mountains had been
surveyed. He answering me in the negative, I proceeded
to acquaint him that there was a number of persons who
had thought of making an expedition that way next
summer, and asked him whether it would be agreeable to
his Excellency. He said it would be extremely agreeable,
seemed excessively pleased with the plan, promised to do
all that lay in his power. to forward it, — said that he had
a number of Mathematical instruments (such as two or
three telescopes, Barometer, Thermometer, Compass, &c.)
at Wentworth House, (at Wolfeborough, only about thirty
miles from the mountains), all which, together with his
library, should be at our service. That he should be ex-
tremely glad to wait on us, and to crown all he promised, if
there were no public business which rendered his presence
at Portsmouth absolutely necessary, that he would take his
tent equipage and go with us to the mountain and tarry
with us, and assist us till our survey, which he said he
supposed would take about twelve or fourteen days ! ! ! —

During 1773 he was chiefly farming. Whilst on a
visit with his wife to Boston he was introduced to

6 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

Governor Gage and to several of the British officers.
Among those who worked for him on his farm were
four deserters from the grenadiers at Boston. He
persuaded them to return to their regiment. He wrote
to General Gage to beg pardon for them. He asked
that his petition might be kept secret. He wished not
to excite more enmity among his neighbours. But the
use of his influence with the Governor got known.
The bitterest feeling was working in the country.
Civil war was about to begin. Major Thompson was
suspected by the people because he was in favour with
the royal Governors. The committees of corre-
spondence and of safety listened to the reports of any
of the ' sons of liberty.' Major Thompson was called
before a committee of the people in Concord for being
' unfriendly to the cause of liberty.' He denied the
charge, and was acquitted. About this time (August
1774) he asks his friend, Mr. Loammi Baldwin, merchant
in Woburn, ' to favour him with an easy question,
arithmetical or algebraical, and he will give as good
an account of it as possible.' In October his only child,
Sarah, was born. In November the mob gathered
round his house, but by friendly warning he was able
to escape to his mother's at Woburn, fifty miles away.
Here he sought to busy himself by reading, and he
made some experiments on gunpowder; but ill-will
soon followed him, and he was driven for shelter to a
friend at Charleston. Thence he wrote to his father-in-
law at Concord :

1774. JET. 21.] COUNT RUMFORD.

December 24, 1774.

REVEREND SIR, — The time and circumstances of my leav-
ing the town of Concord have, no doubt, given yon great
uneasiness, for which I am extremely sorry. Nothing short
of the most threatening danger could have induced me to
leave my friends and family ; but when I learned from
persons of undoubted veracity, and those whose friendship
I could not suspect, that my situation was reduced to this
dreadful extremity, I thought it absolutely necessary to
abscond for a while, and seek a friendly asylum in some
distant part.

Fear of miscarriage prevents my giving a more particular
account of this affair ; but this you may rely and depend
upon, that I never did, nor (let my treatment be what it
will) ever will do, any action that may have the most
distant tendency to injure the true interest of this my
native country.

I most humbly beg your kind care of my distressed
family; and I hope you will take an opportunity to
alleviate their trouble by assuring them that T am in a
place of safety, and hope shortly to have the pleasure of
seeing them. I also most humbly beseech your prayero
for me, that under all my difficulties and troubles I may
behave in such a manner as to approve myself a true
servant of God and a sincere friend of my country.

To have tarried at Concord and have stood another trial
at the bar of the populace would doubtless have been
attended with unhappy consequences, as my innocence
would have stood me in no stead against the prejudices of
an enraged, infatuated multitude, — and much less against
the determined villany of my inveterate enemies, who strive
to raise their popularity on the ruins of my character. My
friends would have been deemed unfriendly to the cause of
Liberty, and my defence would have been treated with
contempt and disdain. It would have been vain for me io

8 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

have pretended to curb the fury or calm the rage of this
popular whirlwind ; but I must have been cast, and con-
demned to suffer punishments equal to the blackness of my
supposed transgressions.

The plan against me was deeply laid, and the people of
Concord were not the only ones that were engaged in it.
But others to the distance of twenty miles were extremely
officious on this occasion. My persecution was determined
on, and my flight unavoidable. And had I not taken the
opportunity to leave the town the moment I did, another
morning had effectually cut off my retreat.

In May his wife and her infant joined him at his
mother's home at Woburn. When there, skirmishes
took place between the people and troops at Concord,
Massachusetts, and Lexington, and in this last fight
Major Thompson is said to have taken part with the
people ; but he was soon the object of ill-feeling, and,
although he was saved from immediate arrest by his
friend Major Baldwin, a short time afterwards he was
arrested, and then he appealed from the Committee
of Correspondence of Woburn to the Committee of
Safety of the Provincial Congress. When he was
acquitted at Woburn and set free, he withdrew his
petition from the Committee of Safety. Soon after he
was with Major Baldwin at Charlestown, and pro-
bably he took part in the battle of Bunker's Hill. He
certainly helped to pack up the library at Cambridge,
and was only prevented by the officers of the New
Hampshire Militia from obtaining a commission from
Greneral Washington. When epaulets were ordered
for the non-commissioned officers, he had samples
made and sent them with the price to his friend,

1775. JET. 22.] COUNT EUMFORD. 9

then Colonel Baldwin, offering to take an order for any
number that might be wanted.

In August he again writes a long reply to his
father-in-law, in answer to letters urging him to express
his sorrow that he had done wrong and to ask forgive-
ness of the people :

Woburn, August 14, 1775.

As to my being instrumental in the return of some De-
serters, by procuring them a pardon, I freely acknowledge
that I was. But you will give me leave to say that what
I did was done from principles the most unexceptionable —
the most disinterested — a sincere desire to serve my King
and Country, from motives of Pity to those unfortunate
Wretches who had deserted the service to which they had
voluntarily and so solemnly tyed themselves, and to which
they were desirous of returning. If the designed ends
were not answered by what I did, I am sincerely and
heartily sorry. But if it is a Crime to act from principles
like these, I glory in being a Criminal.

Many other crimes which you do not mention have been
laid to my charge, for which I have had to answer both
publicly and privately. My enemies are indefatigable in
their endeavours to distress me, and I find to my sorrow
that they are but too successful. I have been driven from
the Camp by the clamours of the New Hampshire people,
and am again threaten' d in this place. But I hope soon to
be out of the reach of my Cruel Persecutors, for I am de-
termined to seek for that Peace and Protection in foreign
Lands and among strangers which is deny'd me in my
native country. I cannot any longer bear the insults that
are daily offered me. I cannot bear to be looked upon and
treated as the Aclian of Society. I have done nothing that
can deserve this cruel usage. I have done nothing with
any design to injure my countrymen, and cannot any
longer bear to be treated in this barbarous manner by them.

10 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

And notwithstanding I have the tenderest regard for my
Wife and family, and really believe I have an equal return
of love and affection from them ; though I feel the keenest
distress at the thoughts of what Mrs. Thompson and my
Parents and friends will suffer on my account, and though
I foresee and realise the distress, poverty, and wretchedness
that must unavoidably attend my Pilgrimage in unknown
lands, destitute of fortune, friends, and acquaintance, yet
all these Evils appear to me more tolerable than the treat-
ment which I meet with from the hands of my ungrateful
countrymen. 1

I am too well acquainted with your Paternal affection
for your Children to doubt of your kind care over them.
But you will excuse me if I trouble you with my most
earnest desires and entreaties for your peculiar care of my
family, whose distressed circumstances call for every in-
dulgence and alleviation you can afford them.

I must also beg a continuance of your Prayers for me,
that my present afflictions may have a suitable impression
on my mind, and that in due time I may be extricated out
of all my troubles. That this may be the case, that the
happy time may soon come when I may return to my family
in peace and safety, and when every individual in America
may sit down under his own vine, and under his own Fig-tree,
and have none to moik& him afraid, is the constant and
devout wish of

Your dutiful and affectionate son,

BENJAMIN THOMPSON.
Eev. Tim. Walker.

1 The following unpublished letter from General Howe to General
Washington, written from Philadelphia in 1776, shows what the tyranny
of the committees and people was :

' You are not ignorant that numbers even of the most respectable
gentlemen in America have been torn from their families, confined in
gaols, and their property confiscated ; that many of those in this city,
whose religious tenets secured them from suspicion of entertaining
designs of hostility, have been ignominiously imprisoned, and without

1775. JET. 22.] COUNT RUMFORD. 11

Dr. Ellis, in his admirable biography, says :

Major Thompson remained in and about Woburn two
months after writing his last letter to Mr. Walker, in
which he so deliberately avowed his intentions. He settled
his affairs with his neighbours, collecting dues and paying
debts, well assured that his wife and child would lack none
of the means of a comfortable support. Having thus made
all his preparations, he started from Woburn, October 1&,
1775, in a country vehicle, accompanied by his step-
brother, Josiah Pierce, who drove him near to the bounds
of the province, on the shore of Narragansett Bay, whence
young Pierce returned. Thompson was taken on board
the ' Scarborough,' British frigate, to Newport and from
thence to Boston.

In the Alienation Act of the Senate of New Hampshire
in 1778 he was named among the proscribed ; and in
1781, the confiscation papers of his property call him
4 of Woburn, physician, now an absentee.'

Whilst Mr. Thompson was at Boston the American
rebellion became a revolution. General Gage was suc-
ceeded by General Howe, and to him Lord Dartmouth

even the colour of a judicial proceeding, banished from their tenderest
connections into the remotest part of another province. Nor can it be
unknown to you that many have suffered death from tortures inflicted
by the unrelenting populace under the eye of usurped yet passive
authority ; that some have been dragged to trial for their loyalty and,
in cruel mockery of law, condemned and executed ; that others are now
perishing in loathsome dungeons, and that penal edicts are daily issuing
against all who hesitate to disavow, by a solemn oath, the allegiance
they owe and wish to pay to their sovereign.'

General Howe shows the exasperation of the Royalists also. He says :

' Members of committees, collectors of arbitrary fines, &c., oppressors

of the peaceable inhabitants, have been seized by the exasperated

inhabitants of different parts of the country and delivered into my

hands.'

12 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

wrote in September 1775 : 'No room was left for any
other consideration but that of proceeding against
the twelve associated Colonies in all respects with the
utmost vigour as the open and avowed enemies of the
State,' and he spoke of the great risk and little advantage
that are to be expected from the continuance of the army
at Boston during the winter, and on the advantages of
recovering possession of New York. He tells the general
that 'the Empress of Kussia, in the fullness of her
affection for the British nation, and of gratitude for
the benefits she had received under her late difficulties,
had made the most explicit declaration and given the
most ample assurance of any number of infantry that
might be wanted.' When, ' in consequence of this
generous and magnanimous offer,' a requisition was
made to her for 20,000 men for Canada, objections
arose, and ' much embarrassment and disappointment
were the only results.'

The Cape Fear expedition failed from ignorance of
the depth of the river.

When Lord George Germain became one of his
Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, November 10,
a commission was issued under the great seal ' for the
restoration of public tranquillity among his Majesty's
deluded subjects in the affected colonies.' A proclama-
tion said : c Apprised of the fatal consequence of the con-
duct they had adopted, and seeing the determined spirit
of the nation to maintain its constitutional rights, they
will avail themselves of the means which the justice
and benevolence of the supreme legislature have held
out to them of being restored to the King's grace and

1776. JEx. 23.] COUNT RUMFORD. 13

peace.' This failed utterly, from ignorance of the depth
of opposition in the colonies. Boston was evacuated
in March 1776, and Mr. Thompson was sent to England
with the news. He was probably thought perfectly
qualified to answer every question relative to his
Majesty's service. Cuvier says, 'La bonne mine du
jeune officier, la nettete et 1'et endue des renseignements
qu'il donna, previnrent en sa faveur le secretaire d'Etat
au departement del'Amerique.' His news caused no great
distress, and his information must have reassured the
minister, for even in June Lord G. Germain and the
Prime Minister wrote to General Howe on the good
prospect of an end being put to the rebellion in one
campaign. It was the good news from Canada that
helped to deceive them.

Mr. Thompson was taken into Lord George Germain's
office, and he was appointed Secretary of the Province
of Georgia.

In the autumn of 1777 Thompson was at Bath for his
health, drinking the waters. Whilst there he made
some experiments on the cohesive strength of different
substances. These led to no great results, but he com-
municated them to Sir Joseph Banks, the new President
of the Eoyal Society.

Sir W. Howe was at this time asking for large
reinforcements. He thus wrote to Lord G. Germain
from Philadelphia :

4 From the little attention, my Lord, given to my
recommendations since the commencement of my
command, I am led to hope that I may be relieved
from this very painful service wherein I have not the

14 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

good fortune to enjoy the necessary confidence and
support of my superiors, but which I conclude will be
extended to Sir Henry Clinton, my presumptive
successor.'

In 1778 Mr. Thompson was with Lord Gr. Germain
at his house, Stoneland Lodge, Sussex. Whilst there
Thompson made experiments on testing gunpowder,
and on a new method of determining the velocity of
projectiles. The results were sent to the Royal Society,
in 1781, and were published at great length in the
4 Philosophical Transactions.' One good observation is
now of great interest. ' Being much struck with the
accidental discovery of the great degree of heat that
pieces acquire when they are fired with powder
without any bullet, and being desirous of finding out
whether it is a circumstance that obtains universally,
I was very attentive to the heat of the barrel after each
of the succeeding experiments, and I constantly found
the heat sensibly greater when the piece was fired with
powder only than when the same charge was made to
impel one or more bullets.'

In order to pursue these experiments he went in 1779,
on board of the c Victory,' of 110 guns, commanded
by his friend Sir Charles Hardy. He passed the whole
of the campaign on board of the fleet, and the result of
the observations that he then made furnished the
materials for a chapter which he contributed to
Stalkart's * Treatise on Naval Architecture.' He added
to it a code of signals for the navy, which was not
published. In his paper on gunpowder, read in 1797
to the Koyal Society, he says :

1778. JET. 25.] COUNT RUMFORD. 15

During a cruise which I made, as a volunteer, in the
' Victory/ with the British fleet, under the command of my
late worthy friend Sir Charles Hardy, in the year 1779, I
had many opportunities of attending to the firing of heavy
cannon ; for though we were not fortunate enough to come
to a general action with the enemy, as is well known,
yet, as the men were frequently exercised at the great guns
and in firing at marks, and as some of my friends in the
fleet, then captains (since made admirals), as the Honour-
able Keith Stewart, who commanded the ' Berwick,' of 74
guns, — Sir Charles Douglas, who commanded the * Duke,'
of 98 guns, — and Admiral Macbride, who was then captain
of the ' Bienfaisant,' of 64 guns, were kind enough, at my
request, to make a number of experiments, and particularly
by firing a greater number of bullets at once from their
heavy guns than ever had been done before, and observing
the distances at which they fell in the sea, — I had oppor-
tunities of making several very interesting observations,
which gave me much new light relative to the action of
fired gunpowder.

In 1778 Mr. Thompson was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society.

Great must have been the trouble in his office this
year. In October 1778, Sir H. Clinton wrote to Lord
Gr. Grermain from New York that he was about to send,
as he was ordered, ten thousand men to the West Indies
and St. Augustine. c After a wound in my humble
opinion so fatal to the hopes of any future vigour in
this army, I trust, my Lord, you cannot wish to keep me
in the mortifying command of it.' ' You cannot, I
am confident, my Lord, desire that I should remain a
mournful witness of the debility of an army at whose
head, had I been unshackled by instructions, I might

16 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

have indulged expectations of rendering serious service
to my country.'

Lord Gr. Grermain thought that much good would be
done by encouraging the provincial forces, and by pro-
mising to the provincial officers half-pay and permanent
rank in America.

On January 23, 1779, he wrote to Sir H. Clinton : c It
is likewise his Majesty's pleasure that you publish and
make known to his provincial corps, as also to all others
his loyal subjects in America, his gracious intention to
support and protect them by making the rank of the
officers permanent in America, and allowing them half-
pay upon the reduction of their regiments, in the same
manner as the officers of British reduced regiments are
paid.'

This order for promotion immediately excited the dis-
content of the officers in the army. In their memorial
to Sir H. Clinton they ask him ' to prevent our being
superseded by officers of yesterday who have served
under us.'

In 1780 proposals were made to Lord Gr. Grermain
to revive the Association of Loyalists in America, c so
that Government, at a very moderate expense, might
be served by a considerable number of men, and
Captain Murray offered on behalf of Brigadier Euggles,
who had been Brigadier-General of Provincial Forces in
America during the last war, Deputy Surveyor-Greneral
of the Woods, and late his Majesty's council in the
province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, to
raise and to command a regiment of light dragoons, to
be called the King's American Dragoons.'

1780. JET. 27.] COUNT KUMFORD. 17

Lord G. Germain wrote to Sir H. Clinton, June 7,
1780, from Whitehall:

The services of Brigadier Ruggles in the last war,
and the influence he still retains in those provinces of
North America, where his character, his honour, and his
name are respected, made me long desirous of seeing that
gentleman engaged in the King's service. The enclosed
plan of raising a regiment of dragoons was communicated
to me by Captain Murray, by authority of Brigadier
Ruggles. It appeared to me so fair and so disinterested,
that I laid it before his Majesty, and it so far met with his
royal approbation that he permitted me to transmit the
plan to you. And if the public service requires any pro-
vincial cavalry to be raised, his Majesty would be pleased
to see Mr. Ruggles placed at the head of such a corps, where
he may have an opportunity of again acting with that zeal
and spirit which formerly did him so much honour.

In September 1780 Mr. Thompson was made Under-
secretary of State for the Northern Department by Lord
George Grermain.

In May 1781 the Inspector-General of Provincial
Forces wrote to the Under-Secretary, Thompson, to say
that the distress for the want of cavalry appointments
was beyond conception. ' Had all the appointments/ he
says, ' for Brigadier-General Ruggles come out, it would
have afforded us a small temporary supply ; but only
twenty-live helmets have yet appeared.'

Lord Gr. Grermain then moved the Treasury to send
fresh and large supplies, and said he had directed Mr.
Thompson, the Deputy Inspector-General of Provincial
Forces, to procure patterns and estimates and to give
information. Lord North, Lord Palmerston, and Sir R.

c

18 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

Sutton referred the question of quality and quantity to
the Adjutant-General, who reported that ' it would be
doing injustice to Mr. Thompson not to declare that, as
far as my judgment goes, he will not only gain great
credit for himself, but at the same time essentially
serve the public by his disinterested and very attentive
execution of the trust that has been reposed in him
on this occasion.' Their lordships directed Mr. Thomp-
son forthwith to provide the several articles mentioned,
and allowed him one and a half per cent, commission.
The sum he received at this time was one hundred and
twenty pounds.

Among the exiles in London was Judge Curwen, of
Salem, Massachusetts. He kept a journal, and in it he
gives a picture of Thompson, May 23, 1781 :

•

On returning home I found a letter from Arthur Savage,

informing me of Mr. Thompson's compliments and wish to
see me at eleven o'clock to-morrow at his lodgings.

May 24. — Went early, in order to be at Mr. Benjamin
Thompson's in time, and being a little before, heard he was
not returned from Lord George Germain's, where he
always breakfasts, dines, and sups, so great a favourite is
he. To kill half an hour, I loitered to the park through
the palace, and on second return found him at his lodgings.
He received me in a friendly manner, taking me by the
hand, talked with great freedom, and promised to re-
member and serve me in the way I proposed to him [pro-
bably the securing the continuance of his allowance un-
reduced]. Promises are easily made, and genteel delusive
encouragement, the staple article of trade, belonging to the
courtier's profession, I put no hopes on the fair appear-
ances of outward behaviour, though it is uncandid to
suppose all mean to deceive. Some wish to do a service

1781. JET. 28.] COUNT RUMFOKD. 19

who have it not in their power ; all wish to be thought of
importance and significancy, and this often leads to deceit.
This young man, when a shop-lad to my next neighbour,
ever appeared active, good-natured, and sensible ; by a
strange concurrence of events, he is now Under- Secretary
to the American Secretary of State, Lord George Germain,
a secretary to Georgia, inspector of all the clothing sent to
America, and Lieutenant- Colonel Commandant of Horse
Dragoons at New York. His income arising from these
sources is, I have been told, near seven thousand a year
— a sum infinitely beyond his most sanguine expectations.
He is, besides, a member of the Royal Society. It is said
he is of an ingenious turn, an inventive imagination, and,
by being on a cruise in Channel service with Sir Charles
Hardy, has formed a more regular and better- digested
system for signals than that heretofore used. He seems to
be of a happy, even temper in general deportment, and
reported of an excellent heart ; peculiarly respectful to
Americans that fall in his way.

This statement of the income of Thompson was cer-
tainly enormously exaggerated. That about this time
he was appointed to the King's American Dragoons
the following autograph letter, now in the library of
the Royal Institution, shows :

FROM LORD GEORGE GERMAIN TO SIR H. CLINTON.

Stoneland Lodge, September 30, 1781.

SIR, — I beg leave to introduce Mr. Thompson to you,
and at the same time to thank you for the favour and pro-
tection which you have shewn him in giving him the com-
mand of a regiment of light dragoons, which, I trust, will
be raised in a manner to entitle the officers of it to your
approbation. Lieutenant- Colonel Thompson shows at least
a spirit and zeal for the service, in quitting for a time an

c 2

20 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

agreeable and profitable civil situation, in the hopes of
being useful to his country, and by his military conduct,
shewing himself not unworthy of the protection which you
have granted to him. If you do him the honour to
converse with him, you will find him well informed, and, as
far as theory goes, a good officer in whatever you may
think fit to employ him. I can answer for his honour and
his ability, and I am persuaded he will ever feel himself
attached by gratitude to you for the very kind and oblig-
ing manner in which you have protected him and the regi-
ment under his command.

I am, Sir, with great regard, your Excellency's faithful,

humble servant,

GEORGE GERMAIN.

On October 4, 1781, Colonel Thompson appointed Mr.
Fisher, a clerk in his office, as his attorney, to receive
his pay (thirteen shillings daily) and to attend to his
clothing commission. He soon after left England in the
6 Rotterdam,' a fifty-gun ship, for New York, but con-
trary winds compelled him to disembark at Charlestown
(South Carolina).

In his paper on Gunpowder he shows that he was busy
during his passage :

His Majesty having been graciously pleased to permit
me to take out with me from England four pieces of light
artillery, constructed under the direction of the late
Lieutenant- General Desaguliers, with a large proportion of
ammunition, I made a great number of interesting experi-
ments with these guns, and also with the ship's guns on
board the ships of war in which I made my passage to and
from America.

He arrived towards the end of December. Lord

1782. Ms. 29.] COUNT RUMFORD. 21

Cornwallis had surrendered, and Charles town, in Caro-
lina, was in great danger for want of reinforcements
and food.

Early in 1782 Lord G. Germain wrote to General
Leslie, who commanded at Charlestown : ' I agree
with you that mounted troops are the fittest for service
in the southern provinces, but I cannot encourage you
to expect that any will be sent from home ; I am glad,
however, you will have Colonel Thompson's assistance
in forming what you have. His offer to serve in your
army until the season for action to the northward
arrives corresponds with that public spirit and zeal for
the King's service which prompted him to quit his civil
situation and engage in the military line.'

General Leslie wrote to Sir H. Clinton, January 29 :
' The army is now well clothed and recovered from the
sickness and fatigue it underwent during the last
summer.

'The several detached corps of cavalry have been
incorporated into distinct ones under the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson. From the unwearied
attention and diligent efforts of that officer they are
become respectable, and I have everything to expect
from this improvement.'

On February 20 Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson
wrote to the Honourable Lieutenant-General Leslie
that he has not been so fortunate as to meet with the
enemy he had come in search of ; but the following
despatch was sent by him on February 25, 1782 :

22 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

Duxcent's Plantation, Monday, February 25, 1782.

SIR, — I did not expect, after the affair of yesterday, the
enemy would so soon have put it in my power to congra-
tulate you upon another defeat of their troops by those
which you have done me the honour to put under my com-
mand. We had the good fortune this morning to fall in
with a chosen corps, under the command of General Marion
in person, which we attacked and totally routed, killing a
considerable number of them, taking sixteen prisoners, and
driving General Marion and the greatest part of his army
into the Santee, where it is probable a great many of them
perished.

After resting and refreshing our horses at the plantation
where we halted last night, at nine o'clock this morning
the cavalry marched back to the Santee, to the ground
where we fell in with the enemy yesterday. The infantry
marched at the same time for this place, and we promised
to join them in the afternoon.

We had advanced about nine miles from the place we
left in the morning, when, coming in through a gate- way
to the cleared grounds of a plantation, we discovered the
enemy about three hundred yards distant, directly in front
of us, drawn up in the area between the negroe huts
belonging to the plantation.

As soon as the troops were formed I ordered a charge
to be sounded, and the line moved forwards. The enemy
also sounded a charge, but, instead of coming out to meet
us, they were discovered going off by their right in the
greatest hurry and confusion, and attempting to gain a
swamp that was upon the banks of the river on that side.
We immediately charged after them at full speed, and had
the good fortune to coine up in time to cut off a great part
of their rear. Those that gained the swamp were pursued,
and many of them were killed in attempting to get into the
river? and others were shot and drowned in attempting to

1782. JET. 29.] COUNT KUMFOKD. 23

swim to the opposite shore. We took near forty horses,
many of which are capital chargers.

After the action we collected at our leisure all the cattle
from the rebel plantations in that quarter, and have sent
them down the road with a proper escort. We shall follow
as soon as the troops are refreshed.

In this last affair with the enemy, as well as during the
whole time I have had the honour to command this detach-
ment, the troops, both officers and men, have behaved in
such a manner as to merit my warmest acknowledgment.

I have the honour to be, with perfect respect, Sir, your
most obedient and most humble servant,

R. THOMPSON.

In the general orders on March 1 the General
expressed to the army the opinion he entertained of the
merit of Colonel Thompson's conduct upon this occasion,
and of the spirited behaviour of the troops, and to Sir
H. Clinton he wrote, March 12, 1782 :

I had the honour to inform your Excellency that Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Thompson having offered his service during
his stay here, I had appointed him to the command of the
cavalry. He has put them in exceeding good order and
gained their confidence and affection. I am very happy to
inform your Excellency of his success in a late excursion
upon the Santee. [An account of the action is then given
in the despatch.] I enclose to your Excellency Colonel
Thompson's report to me of this very handsome piece of
service, and I assure your Excellency that I have much
regret to part with this enterprising young officer, who
appears to have an uncommon share of merit and zeal for
the service ; and could he and his corps be spared to act
in this part, where cavalry are so much wanted, I am con-
fident it would tend much to the benefit of his Majesty's
service.

*c4

24 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

Despatches of this date show that in council also
Thompson was as efficient as in the field.
General Leslie wrote to Sir H. Clinton :

I beg to know your Excellency's opinion with regard to
our putting arms into the hands of the negroes. I have
desired Colonel Thompson to speak with your Excellency
upon the subject, and to make known to you the particulars
of our situation in that respect.

On April 1 1 Colonel Thompson arrived at New York.

Four days afterwards Sir H. Clinton wrote to General
Leslie : ' Those parts of your letters to which you have
referred for a more full explanation to Lieutenant-
Colonel Thompson, I shall answer after consulting with
him upon the subject;' and he also says: 'With respect
to the disagreeable predicament which you mention
Lieutenant-Colonel Balfour and other officers of rank
in the Southern army stand in on account of Mr. Green's
threats for Colonel Hayne's execution, I shall consult
Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, and let you know my
sentiments by the earliest opportunity.'

At this time Sir H. Clinton was about to give up the
command he had so often petitioned to resign. He
had ' lamented that his happiness was sacrificed to pre-
vent the partial inconvenience which might have arisen
from a change,' and later he wrote: 'His Majesty's
assent to my petition will crown the many favours of
which my heart will ever retain the most grateful
remembrance.'

On February 6 General Robinson was appointed to
succeed Sir H. Clinton, and soon after Sir Guy Carleton
took the command.

1782. .ET. 29.] COUNT RUMFORD. 25

Colonel Thompson's chief business was to complete
his regiment, which was encamped about three miles
from Flushing, in Long Island. There, on August 1,
colours were presented to the regiment by Prince
William, then a boy of eighteen in the Eoyal Navy,
accompanied by Admiral Digby. On the 6th, on behalf
of himself and the officers of the King's American
Dragoons, Colonel Thompson petitoned Sir Gruy
Carleton to order them to enjoy the advantages stipu-
lated on the completion of the regiment ; and at the
end of August Sir Gruy Carleton notifies in the general
orders that Colonel Thompson and his officers are
entitled to permanent rank in America.

In September Colonel Thompson's name is to be
found first on a list of six agents, selected to act for
them by those Royalists who were willing to emigrate
with their families from Long Island to Nova Scotia.

Two months later it appears, from a bill, that he was
building chimneys in the barracks at Huntingdon,
Long Island, where his regiment was stationed, when
the treaty of peace between America and England was
made in Paris without the consent and even without
the knowledge of France.

In December every preparation was made for a
sudden attack of the French upon New York, and
orders were issued by General Robinson in case that
event took place. Alarm posts for each of the different
corps and the details of the duties of each corps were
arranged. 'If an attack was made on Huntingdon,
the troops were immediately to assemble and march to
the support of Colonel Thompson.'

26 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

Early in the spring active measures were proposed
against the French in the West Indies. Peace with
France stopped these plans, and on April 11, 1783,
Colonel Thompson obtained leave of absence, in order
that he might return to London to urge the claims of
the provincial officers to rank and to half-pay.

Some original documents in the appendix to this
chapter will show the energy, the ability, and the
perseverance of Colonel Thompson when he arrived in
London.

On August 17 Sir Gruy Carleton issued an order that
all the men who wished to be discharged in America,
should hold themselves in readiness to embark for Nova
Scotia ; and in October the King's American Dragoons
were disbande'd on the lands appropriated to them,
many miles up the river St. John, on the north side of
the Bay of Fundy.

On October 25, 1783, Colonel Thompson's half-pay
began, and it continued for the remainder of his life.
He had at this time began a new career. He deter-
mined to go abroad, intending to take part in a war
which was then expected between Austria and the
Turks.

Gibbon wrote from Dover, September 17, 1783, to
Lord Sheffield :

Last night the wind was so high that the vessel could
not stir from the harbour ; this day it is brisk and fair.
We are nattered with the hope of making Calais Harbour
by the same tide in three hours and a half, but any delay
will leave the disagreeable option of a tottering boat or a
tossing night. What a cursed thing to live in an island !

1783. JET. 30.] COUNT RUMFOED. 27

this step is more awkward than the whole journey. The
triumvirate of this memorable embarkation will consist of
the grand Gibbon, Henry Laurens, Esq., President of
Congress, and Mr. Secretary, Colonel, Admiral, Philosopher
Thompson, attended by three horses, who are not the most
agreeable fellow-passengers. If we survive, I will finish
and seal my letter at Calais. Our salvation shall be as-
cribed to the prayers of my lady and aunt, for I do believe
they both pray.

Boulogne.

Instead of Calais the wind has driven us to Boulogne,
where we landed in the evening, without much noise and
difficulty. . . . Laurens has read the pamphlet, and thinks
it has done much mischief. A good sign ! l

Professor Pictet, of Geneva, has published in the
6 Bibliotheque universelle ' the notes he made of a con-
versation with Count Bumford regarding his life at
this time. He says :

A purely accidental circumstance had a decisive influ-
ence over his destiny. He arrived at Strasburg, where
the Prince Maximilian of Deux Fonts, now [1801] Elector
of Bavaria, then Field-Marshal in the service of France,
was in garrison. This prince, commanding on parade, sees
among the spectators an officer in a foreign uniform,
mounted on a fine English horse, whom he addresses.
Thompson informs him that he comes from serving in the
American war. The Prince, in pointing out to him many
officers who surround him, says, ' These gentlemen were in
the same war, but against you ; they belonged to the
Royal Regiment of Deux Fonts, that acted in America
under the orders of Count Rochambeau.'

1 The pamphlet here referred to was Lord Sheffield's ' Observations
on the Commerce of the American States.'

28 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

They engaged in conversation, which became very
animated. Colonel Thompson being invited to dine with
the Prince, met at the table a number of French officers
whom he had encountered on the field in America. They
talked at length of the events of this war. The Colonel
produced his portfolio, which contained exact plans of
the principal engagements, the forts, the sieges, and an
excellent collection of maps. One and another recognised
the place or the interesting incident which was recalled to
him. They conversed a long while, and separated promis-
ing to meet again. The Prince was passionately devoted
to his profession and intensely eager for information. He
invited the Colonel for the next day. They resumed with
the same zest the conversation of yesterday. When at last
the traveller took leave, the Prince engaged him to pass
through Munich, and gave him a friendly letter to the
Elector of Bavaria, his uncle.

The season was advanced, and he was in haste to reach
Vienna. He had promised to stop at Munich two or three
days at most ; but he passed there five days, and then did
not leave but with regret a city where the tokens of the re-
gard of the sovereign and the attentions of different classes
of society were extended to him with that frank cordiality
which so eminetly distinguishes the Bavarian nation. He
received equally at Vienna the most flattering welcome,
and was presented at Court and mingled in the first
society. There he passed a part of the winter, and, learn-
ing that the war against the Turks was not to be carried
on, he yielded to the attractive memories of Munich, and,
passing through Venice, where he stopped some weeks, and
by the Tyrol, he returned to Brompton by the end of the
winter of 1783-84.

In February he was knighted by Greorge the Third,
and he received permission to enter into the service of
the Duke of Bavaria.

1783. &T. 30.] COUNT RIHMFORD. 29

From Munich, July 6, Thompson wrote to Sir Joseph
Banks, to tell him that his Electoral Highness had
been asked to become a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He said :

I should have done myself the honour to have written
to you upon this subject some time ago, but I waited for
a favourable opportunity to speak to his Electoral Highness
about it.

It was only a few days since I came into waiting as aide-
de-camp to his Most Serene Highness. I shall continue
about his person till September, when I purpose making a
tour for a couple of months in the mountains of Tyrol, upon
the confines of Bavaria, and the dominions of the Bishop
of Saltzburg, a country extremely interesting in several
points of view.

He gave his direction as {M. le Chevalier Thompson,
colonel et aide-de-camp general au service de S.A.S.
I'j&ect. Palatin, Due de Baviere.'

He ended, ' I am, dear Sir, with sincere regard and respect,
your most obedient and most humble servant.'

He again wrote to Sir Joseph Banks on July 24.
He began by asking if he could have one of the two
hundred medals for Cook's voyages given to Fellows of
the Eoyal Society, and he ended with a postscript :

I beg you would make my best compliments to Mr.
Blagden when you see him, and tell him I hope he will
not entirely forget an old correspondent who remembers
him with great affection.

Cuvier, in his eloge of Count Eumford, says of the
Electors of Bavaria :

Les souverains agrandis a 1'epoque des guerres de

30 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

religion, par suite de leur zele pour le catholicisme, avaient
longtemps porte les marques de ce zele bien au-dela de ce
que reclame un catholicisme eclaire : ils encourageaient la
devotion et ne faisaient rien pour I'industrie ; on comptait
dans leurs etats plus de convents que de fabriques. L'armee
y etait a peu pres nulle ; 1'ignorance et 1'inertie dominaient
dans toutes les classes de la societe.

The first work in Bavaria of Sir Benjamin Thompson
was to rearrange the military service and introduce a
new system of order, discipline, and economy among the
troops. In the execution of this commission he says :
6 1 was ever mindful of that great and important truth
that no political arrangement can be really good
except in so far as it contributes to the general good
of society. I have endeavoured to unite the interest
of the soldier with the interest of civil society, and to
render the military force, even in the times of peace,
subservient to the public good.' To make soldiers
citizens, and citizens soldiers, the soldier was better
paid, better clothed, better housed, better taught,
better occupied, better amused, and, above all, allowed
to earn money and to spend it as he pleased. Fixed
garrisons were formed, and the army was used as a
means of introducing useful improvements into the
country. Thus military gardens were formed to introduce
the culture of the potato. Workhouses for manufac-
turing clothing for the army were founded, first at
Mannheim for the troops of the Palatinate and Duchies
of Juliers and Bergen, and a few months afterwards at
Munich for the fifteen Bavarian regiments. The
greatest order and economy were used in the military

JET. 30-40.] COUNT RUMFOED. 31

manufactory and magazine, and after six years Sir B.
Thompson wrote that the net profit on the various
trades and manufactures in the Munich Workhouse up
to that time was 100,000 florins ; and he could refer to
its growing reputation, its extensive connexions, which
reached even to foreign countries, to the punctuality
with which all its engagements were fulfilled, to its unim-
peached credit, and to its growing wealth. The amount
of orders executed in the sixth year of its establishment
did not fall much short of half a million of florins.

Among the various measures that occurred to Sir
B. Thompson by which the military of the country
might be made subservient to the public good in time
of peace, ' none,' he says, ' appeared to me of so much
importance as that of employing the army in clearing
the country of beggars, thieves, and other vagabonds,
and in watching over the public tranquillity.'

The beggars swarmed everywhere. They were
dissolute, sturdy, shameless, importunate robbers.

A system of mounted police was formed throughout
the country by four regiments of cavalry. Means were
taken, first, to furnish suitable employment for those
who were able to work ; and, secondly, to provide the
necessary assistance for those who, from age, sickness,
or other bodily infirmities, were unable by their
industry to provide for themselves.

' To make vicious and abandoned people happy, it
has generally been supposed necessary first to make
them virtuous. But why not reverse this order ? Why
not make them first happy and then virtuous ? '

A large building, once a manufactory, was taken in

32 TEE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

one of the suburbs of Munich ; arrangements were
made for a kitchen, an eating-room, a bakehouse,
workshops for carpenters, smiths, turners, tool-makers,
spinners of cotton wool and worsted, for weavers of
all kinds, a dyers' shop, a fulling mill, a washhouse.

Everything was done that could be desired to make
the inmates really comfortable by good food, raiment,
and cleanliness. The rooms were scrupulously clean,
well warmed, and well lighted ; the people were well fed,
well taught, and well paid for their work. 6 They had
the kindest usage from every person, from the highest
to the lowest. No ill usage, no harsh language, was
permitted ; and at the end of five years not a blow had
been given to anyone, not even to a child by its in-
structor,' and Sir B. Thompson could say : 'The pleasure
I have had in the success of this experiment is much
easier to be conceived than described ; would to Grod
that my success might encourage others to follow my
example ! If it were generally known how little
trouble and how little expense are required to do much
good (the heartfelt satisfaction which arises from
relieving the wants and promoting the happiness of
our fellow-creatures is so great), I am persuaded acts
of the most essential charity would be much more
frequent, and the mass of misery among mankind would
consequently be much lessened.'

New Year'sDay having been long specially set apart for
giving alms early that morning in 1790, three regiments
of infantry, with their officers, were stationed in the
streets, and Sir B. Thompson assembled the magistrates
and asked their assistance to take up all the beggars

JT OO

^Ex. 30-40.] COUNT RUMFORD. 38

and to provide for the poor. Accompanied by the chief
magistrate, he went into the street, and the first beggar
who asked for alms he arrested with his own hands,
and orders were given to all the other officers, who also
were accompanied with magistrates, to do the same. In
less than an hour no beggar was to be found in the
streets. They were taken to the Town Hall, inscribed
in printed lists, and then told to go to the newly-erected
Military Workhouse. An address was opened to the
public, asking for perfectly voluntary subscriptions to
put an end to begging ; monthly sums were given, and
daily supplies of bread, meat, and soup were collected.1
Several good spinners of hemp were engaged at the
House of Industry, and this was the first occupation of the
poor. Knitting, sewing, and carding wool were early oc-
cupations, but the object to be desired was woollen work
for the clothing of the army. If the poor did well,
they were rewarded ; if they came late, their food was
lessened. They slept at their own homes, and when
ill they received relief at home. Everything was
done to encourage industry and emulation. ' To incite
activity and inspire with a true spirit of persevering
industry, it was necessary to fire the poor with
emulation — to awaken in them a dormant passion
whose influence they had never felt ; the love of honest
fame ; an ardent desire to excel, the love of glory,
or by what other pompous name this passion, the most

1 So great was the economy practised that the daily expense for fire-
wood in the kitchen, where dinner was provided for 1,000 people, was
only twelve Kreutzers, or fourpence halfpenny. Sometimes 1,500 were
fed in one day.

D

34 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

noble and most beneficent that warms the human
heart, can be distinguished.'1

To excite emulation praise, distinctions, rewards
are necessary ; and these were all employed.

The House of Industry for the Poor and the Military
Workhouse were quite separate in their management,
though they were so dependent on each other that
neither of them could subsist alone ; one building
served for both.

Twice yearly small sums were given to the poor to
assist .them in paying for lodgings, and ultimately a
large house was bought and fitted up as an hospital
for those who were infirm and unable to take care of
themselves.

Means were adopted for giving relief to those who
nevar were beggars, but who, from poverty and in-
ability to provide the necessaries of life, were involved
in distresses and difficulties which they bore in silence.

Persons of distinguished birth even sent to the House
of Industry at Munich for flax, or wool, or linen, which
they manufactured into goods, and received the usual
amount of wages ; and some who had been accustomed

1 The great mistake which has been committed in most of the
attempts to introduce a spirit of industry where habits of idleness have
prevailed, has been the too frequent use of coercive measures. Force
will not do. It is address which must be used on those occasions. The
children in the House of Industry at Munich who, being placed on
elevated seats round the hall where other children worked, were made to
be idle spectators of that amusing scene, cried most bitterly when their
request to descend from their seats and mix in that busy crowd was
refused ; but they would most probably have cried still more had they
been taken abruptly from their play and forced to work. Men are but
children of a larger growth, and those who undertake to direct them
ought ever to bear in mind that important truth.

2ET. 30-40.] COUNT KUMFOKD. 35

to sumptuous fare took the soup furnished gratis from
the public kitchen to the poor.

The warming, lighting, clothing, feeding, occupying
the poor, seemed the sole object of all Sir B. Thompson
thought and of all he did. His success must be told
in his own words.

My hopes of engaging others to follow my example are
chiefly founded upon my success in the enterprise. Then
why should I not mention even the marks of affectionate
regard and respect which I received from the poor people
for whose happiness I interested myself ? And will it be
reckoned vanity if I mention the concern which the poor of
Munich expressed in so affecting a manner when I was
dangerously ill? That they went publicly in a body in
procession to the cathedral church, where they had divine
service performed, and put up public prayers for my
delivery. That four years afterwards, on hearing that I
was again dangerously ill at Naples, they of their own
accord set apart an hour each evening after they had
finished their work in the Military Workhouse to pray for
me.

Let the reader, if he can, picture my situation. Sick in
bed, worn out by intense application, and dying, as every-
body thought, a martyr in the cause to which I had devoted
myself, let him imagine, I say, my feelings upon hearing the
confused noise of the prayers of a multitude of people, who
were passing by in the streets, upon being told that it was
the poor of Munich, many hundreds in number, who were
going in procession to the church to put up public prayers
for me ; public prayers for me ! for a private person, a
stranger, a Protestant ! I believe it is the first instance
of the kind that ever happened; and I dare venture to
affirm that no proof could well be stronger than this that
the measures adopted for making these poor people happy
were really successful ; and let it be remembered that this

D 2

36 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

fact is what I am most anxious to make appear IN THE

CLEAREST AND MOST SATISFACTORY MANNER.

Cuvier says : c II convient lui-meme que cet acte
spontane de reconnaissance religieuse en faveur d'un
homme d'une autre communion lui parut la plus
touchante des recompenses j mais il ne se dissimulait
pas qu'il en avait obtenu une autre qui sera plus
durable. En effet, c'est en travaillant pour les pauvres
qu'il a fait ses plus belles decouvertes . . .

' Chacun sait que dans ses plus belles esperances on
eut pour objet la nature de la chaleur et de la lumiere,
ainsi que les lois de leur propagation ; et c'etait la
effectivement ce qu'il importait le plus de bien con-
naitre pour nourrir, vetir, chauffer et eclairer avec
economic un grand rassemblement d'hommes.'

Other measures for the benefit of the country were
carried out at the same time.

A Military Academy was formed, principally with a
view to bring forward extraordinary talents and employ
them in the civil or military public service. Anyone
was admissible. The children of the meanest mechanics
and day-labourers, provided they had very extra-
ordinary natural genius, a healthy constitution, and
a good character, were educated. It was an establish-
ment designed for the encouragement of genius, and
for calling forth into public utility talents which
would otherwise remain buried and lost in obscurity.

Measures were adopted for improving the breed of
horses and horned cattle in Bavaria and the Palatinate.
An attempt was made to put an end to usury in
Munich and to improve the highways and public

JET. 30-40.] COUNT RUMFORD. 37

roads, by employing the soldiery in repairing them and
preserving order and public tranquillity on them.

A new English Garden was formed, beginning upon
the ramparts of the town. It was nearly six English
miles in circumference. Within the Garden was a
fine and very valuable farm, with thirty of the finest cows
procured from Switzerland, Flanders, the Tyrol, and
other places. There was a public coffee-house in the
middle of the Garden for refreshment and public
resort.

The scientific work which Sir B. Thompson did
whilst in the service of the Elector of Bavaria between
1783 and 1794, shows his energy and originality, his
accuracy and his depth.

When at Mannheim in July 1785 he made experi-
ments in the presence of Professor Hemmer, of the
Electoral Academy of Sciences of Mannheim, on the
propagation of heat through various substances ; on the
increased difficulty of conduction of heat through the
torricellian vacuum ; on the effect of humidity in
increasing the conducting power of the air ; and on the
effect of air of different degrees of density. The Duke
ordered the meteorological instrument maker to the
academy at Mannheim to come to Munich, and to
spare neither labour nor expense in providing the com-
plete apparatus necessary for the experiments.

These experiments, on the relative conducting
powers of mercury, water, air, and a torricellian
vacuum, were read to the Eoyal Society, March 9,
1786.

He then proceeded to make experiments on the rela-

38 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

tive warmth of various substances used in making
artificial clothing ; relative quantities of the same
substance ; different qualities of substance chemically,
as charcoal, ashes, dust. All his experiments indicated
that the air which occupies the interstices of substances
used in forming coverings for confining heat acts a very
important part in that operation. Air is a perfect non-
conductor of heat. These experiments were chiefly
made in 1787. They were not read before the Royal
Society until January 19, 1792.

Early in the winter of 1787, as soon as the cold was
sufficiently intense, he began to repeat the experi-
ments of Dr. Fordyce ('Transactions of the Royal
Society,' vol. Ixxv.) on the weight said to be acquired
by water in the act of freezing ; and, being possessed of
a most excellent balance belonging to the Duke of
Bavaria, he soon came to the conclusion that all
attempts to discover any effect of heat upon the
apparent weights of bodies would be fruitless.

He had previously, in April 1785, convinced himself
of the errors that arose from currents of air and from
the drying of the cords by which the scales were hung.

These experiments were made into a paper entitled
6 An Inquiry concerning the Weight Ascribed to Heat.'
This was read before the Royal Society, May 2, 1799.

In May and June 1786 he made experiments on
the production of air from water exposed to light.
These were read before the Royal Society, Febuary 15,
1787.

When engaged in his experiments on the conducting
powers of various bodies with respect to heat, and

JET. 30-40.] COUNT RUMFOED. 39

particularly of such substances as are used for clothing,
he made experiments on the relation between their
conducting power and their power of absorbing moisture,
but found none. Flannel and fur, contrary to his
expectation, absorbed much more moisture from the air
than silk and cotton. On this he forms an idea of the-
good of wearing flannel. This, the weakest of his-
papers, was read to the Eoyal Society, March 22, 1787.

In the spring of 1791 a large building was erected
in the neighbourhood of Munich, on the ground
destined for the exercise of the artillery, where a most
complete apparatus was put up for measuring the
velocities of cannon bullets by the recoil of the gun, and
also by the pendulum at the same time, and with this
apparatus a great number of interesting experiments,
were made.

He observed that the force of the charge was
always sensibly increased when the gun was discharged
by firing a pistol (constructed for that use) into the
vent, instead of using a priming and a common match
for firing off the gun.

These experiments were continued in 1792, and
in 1793 they were shown to Dr. Blagden, who was in
Munich during the absence of Sir B. Thompson in
Italy for his health.

The principal objects in view were to determine the
expansive force of the elastic vapour generated in the
combustion of gunpowder in its various states of con-
densation, and to ascertain the ratio of its elasticity
to its density, and to measure the utmost force of this
fluid in its most dense state.

40 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

In order to find the most economical method of
lighting his Workhouse at Munich, he devised a new
way of measuring the relative quantities of lights by
their shadows. His arbitrary standard was a London
made Argand lamp. He first experimented on the
resistance of air to light, then on the loss of light in its
passage through different kinds of glass, and in its
reflection from a plate glass mirror, then on the
relative quantities of oil burnt by different lamps and
relative quantities of light emitted by different sub-
stances, and lastly on the transparency of flame.

He made these experiments into a paper on the
c Relative Intensities of the Light Emitted by Luminous
Bodies,' and it was read 'before the Eoyal Society,
February 6, 1794; and on February 20 another paper
was read, being an c Account of some Experiments on
Coloured Shadows,' and he came to the conclusion that
our eyes are not always to be believed, even with respect
to the presence or absence of colours.

For his national and scientific work he received
various honours between 1783 and 1794.

In 1785 he was elected member of the Bavarian
Academy of Sciences, which had been established in
1758, and he was made chamberlain to the Elector.

In 1786 the King of Poland, at the request of the
Elector of Bavaria, conferred on him the Order of St.
Stanislaus. This was done because the statutes of
Bavaria did not allow a foreigner to receive any
national honours.

In 1787, when in Prussia, he was made a member of
the Berlin Academy of Sciences.

.Ex. 30-40.] COUNT KUMFORD. 41

In 1788 the Elector made him Major-Greneral of
Cavalry and Privy Councillor of State, and he was
placed at the head of the war department.

On May 29, 1789, he was elected a foreign honorary
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
and he was made Lieutenant-General of the Bavarian
Armies and received the command of a regiment of
artillery.

In 1791, in the interval between the death of the
Emperor Joseph and the coronation of Leopold II., the
Elector of Bavaria was one of the Vicars of the Empire,
and he made Sir Benjamin Thompson a Count of the
Holy Roman Empire, and gave him the Order of the
White Eagle.

Early in the following year the wife of Count Rum-
ford, who had been a great invalid, and who had lived
with her son by her first husband and with her daughter,
the child of Rumford, died at the age of 52. Her own
property had given her every comfort that her ill
health required.

At the end of this year Count Rumford was in cor-
respondence with his early friend Colonel Baldwin,
through whom probably for some time previously he
had sent money to his mother. He wrote to Colonel
Baldwin from Munich, January 18, 1793 :

You could hardly conceive the heartfelt satisfaction it
would give me to pay a visit to my Dative country. Should
I be kindly received ? Are the remains of party spirit and
political persecutions done away ? Would it be necessary
to ask leave of the State ?

It is possible you may see me at Woburn before you are

42 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. L^HAP. I.

aware of it. I wish exceedingly to be personally acquainted
with my daughter. I wish to know her real character, and
how I must go to work to lay a solid foundation for her
future happiness. I wish once more to have the satisfac-
tion of seeing my most kind and affectionate mother. I
wish to prove to her how dear she is to me, and how grate-
ful I am for all her goodness to me. My dear, beloved
parent ! What would I give to see her, were it but for
one hour ! I should be much obliged to you for any ac-
counts you may from time to time send me of her situation,
and of others, my friends, in your neighbourhood. Desir-
ing to be remembered to all those of my old acquaintance
who interest themselves in my welfare, I am, my dear Sir,
with unfeigned regard and much esteem, yours most affec-
tionately.

Count Eumford, in theepringof 17 93, left Munich for
Italy on account of his health. He was absent sixteen
months. At Verona the directors of the two great
hospitals La Pieta and La Misericordia, containing 350
and 500 poor, accepted his offer to rebuild the kitchens.
Seven-eighths of the fire-wood were saved, and he made
arrangements to supply the poor with clothing from
the Munich House of Industry at a saving of twenty
per cent.

On May 11, 1793, Sir C. Blagden, who was travelling
with Lord Palmerston, wrote to Sir Joseph Banks from
Eome :

Count Rumford is come into Italy. I have just received
a very friendly letter from him, in which he desires me to
appoint a meeting. It will probably be at Milan.

Three months later he wrote from Augsburg :
Thompson, now Count Rumford, met me by appoint-
ment at Pavia. Volta showed us his experiments on

1793. J£T. 40.] COUNT RUMFORD. 43

animal electricity, and said he had sent off his paper for
the Royal Society about three weeks before, probably not
time enough for it to be read before the vacation. I thought
bis experiments proved that there is no particular animal
electricity, and that the animals serve only the purpose of
very delicate electrometers ; but they leave other circum-
stances unexplained.

On his return to London Sir C. Blagden wrote on
November 21 to Sir Joseph Banks :

From Italy I brought two papers by Count Rumford, one
on ' Coloured Shadows,' the other on a 'Method of Measuring
the Comparative Intensities of the Light Emitted by Lumi-
nous Bodies.' In the former he shows neatly enough that
the colours ascribed to these shadows depend entirely on
comparing them with light of another colour. The method
referred to in the second paper is that of the intensity of
the shadows produced by the different luminous bodies.
These two papers will furnish matter for nearly three
meetings of the Royal Society.

Count Rumford had another serious illness in Naples
in the early part of 1794. He returned to Munich in
August.

He left Munich for London in 1795. He had spent
the year after his return from Italy in comparative
quiet. He was unfit for public business and he chiefly
occupied himself by writing out the results that he
had obtained. He thus made a series of essays.

In order to publish these in England and to meet
his daughter, who was about to come to him from
America, and to recover further his health, he obtained
leave of absence from the Elector of Bavaria.

In his paper on Gunpowder in 1781 he said he
would make experiments on the strength of various

44 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

bodies. In 1797, when he had another paper in the
'Philosophical Transactions' on this subject, he added
this note :

Since writing the above I have met with a misfortune
which has put it out of my power to fulfil this promise.
On my return to England from Germany, in October 1795,
after an absence of eleven years, I was stopped in my post-
chaise in St. Paul's Churchyard, in London, at six o'clock
in the evening, and robbed of a trunk which was behind
my carriage, containing all my private papers and my
original notes and observations on philosophical subjects.
By this cruel robbery I have been deprived of the fruits of
the labours of my whole life, and have lost all that I held
most valuable. This most severe blow has left an impres-
sion on my mind which I feel that nothing will ever be able
entirely to remove. It is the more painful to me, as it has
clouded my mind with suspicions that never can be cleared
up.

These essays were published at different times sepa-
rately between 1796 and 1802. The two first volumes
were reprinted in 1800.

His first essay gave an account of an establishment
for the poor in Munich ; the second was on establish-
ments for the poor in general. It contains the germ
of the Royal Institution.

This was a ' proposal for forming in London by
private subscription an establishment for feeding the
poor and giving them useful employment, and also
for furnishing food at a cheap rate to others who
may stand in need of such assistance, connected
with an institution for introducing and bringing
forward into general use new inventions and improve-
ments, particularly such as relate to the manage-

1795. 2Ex. 42.] COUNT KUMFOKD. 45

ment of heat and the saving of fuel, and to various
other mechanical contrivances by which domestic
comfort and economy may be promoted, submitted to
the public by A.B.' Dated January 1, 1796. Count
Eumford begins by saying that no person shall find
means to make a job of the proposed establishment.
That the general arrangement of the establishment and
all its details shall be left to the author of these pro-
posals, who will be responsible for their success. He
engages, however, in the prosecution of this business
to adhere faithfully to the plan here proposed, and
never to depart from it on any pretence whatever.

He proposed first to establish a public kitchen with
every useful invention and improvement by which fuel
may be saved.

As soon as the measures for feeding the poor and giving
them employment are carried into execution the secondary,
object will be attended to — the formation of a grand
repository of all kinds of useful mechanical inventions,
particularly such as relate to furnishing houses and are
calculated to promote domestic comfort and economy.

He concluded thus : l The author of these proposals will
think himself most amply repaid for any trouble he may
have taken in the execution of this scheme by the heartfelt
satisfaction he will enjoy in the reflection of having been
instrumental in doing essential service to mankind.'

In the summer of 1796 a conversation took place
between the Bishop of Durham, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr.
Bernard, and the Honourable Edward James Eliot, and
in consequence of this a society was formed for
encouraging industry and promoting the welfare of the
poor.

46 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

The object of this Society was everything that con-
cerned the happiness of the poor, everything by which
their comforts could be increased ; to correct the abuses
of workhouses ; to assist the poor in placing out their
children; to add to and meliorate their means of
subsistence by public kitchens, by the union of liberal
and benevolent minds, by circulating information and
by personal assistance and influence.

The Bishop of Durham and Mr. Thomas Bernard
were the chief contributors to the funds. Mr.
Bernard was the third son of Sir Francis Bernard,
Governor of New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay. He
was a graduate of Harvard College, New England. He
was the original promoter of the School for the Indigent
Blind, of an Institution for the Protection and Instruc-
tion of Climbing Boys, of a Society for the Belief of
•Poor Neighbours in Distress, of the Cancer Institution,
of the London Fever Hospital. He was also the founder
of the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts
in the United Kingdom, and the originator of the Alfred
Club.

The first meeting of the new Society was held on
December 21, 1796, when the King declared himself
the patron of it. On February 24, 1797, the Society
resolved that, ' in consideration of the extraordinary
services of Count Eumford for the benefit of the poor,
and as a testimony, of the respect and esteem with
which this Society regards his services in the promotion
of the general objects of the institution, he be elected
and declared a member of the Society and one of the
general committee for life.'

1796. JEx. 34.] COUNT EUMFOED. 47

In consequence Count Eumford wrote to Thomas
Bernard, Esq., from Germany :

Munich, April 28, 1797.

I feel myself very highly honoured by the distinguished
mark of esteem and regard which the Society for Bettering
the Condition of the Poor has conferred on me, and I beg
leave through you to return the Society my respectful and
grateful acknowledgments.

This nattering proof of the approbation of those most
respectable persons who compose the Society will tend very
powerfully to encourage me to persevere in those endea-
vours to promote the important objects they have in view,
by which I first obtained their notice and esteem.

I am very sanguine in my expectations of the good which
will be done by this Society ; they will, however, be able to
do much more by examples — by models that can be seen and
felt — than by anything that can be said or written.

The follovying year he wrote :

Munich, May 13, 1798.

The rapid progress you are making in your most interest-
ing and laudable undertakings affords me a high degree of
satisfaction. It proves that I was not mistaken when I
concluded that, notwithstanding the alarming progress of
luxury and corruption of taste and of morals in England,
there is still good sense and energy to be found, even in
the highest classes of society, where the influx of wealth
has operated most powerfully. Go on, my dear sir, and be
assured that when you shall have put doing good in fashion,
you will have done all that human wisdom can do to
retard and prolong the decline of a great and powerful
nation that has arrived at, or passed, the zenith of human
glory.

48 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

And again :

Munich, June 8, 1798.

I have received your letter from Brighton of the 12th ult.
You can hardly imagine the high degree of pleasure and
satisfaction which I feel at your success in your most
laudable undertakings. Go on, my dear sir, and be assured
that you will contribute more essentially to the revival of
taste and morals, of energy, industry, benevolence, and
prosperity in your favoured country than all the specula-
tors and reformers in the three kingdoms.

When society is arrived at a certain degree of torpid
indifference and enervation of mind and body, which are the
unavoidable effects of wealth, luxury, and inordinate indul-
gence, mankind must either be allured or shamed into
action. Precepts and admonitions have no effect on them.

As they are too indolent to take the trouble either to
investigate or to choose, they must be led to acts of useful
benevolence as they are led in everything else — by fashion ;
when you shall have rendered it perfectly ridiculous for a
man of fashion and fortune to have the appearance of being
insensible to the most noble and most delightful of human
enjoyments — that which results from doing good — you will
have done more for the relief of the poor than all that the
Poor Laws can ever effect. Deeply impressed with the
necessity of rendering it fashionable to care for the poor
and indigent, and contribute to their relief and comfort, in
order to diffuse in England that spirit of active benevolence
you are kindling, I am apt to insist, perhaps with too much
prolixity, on that important point.

I am anxious to hear of the execution of your plan with
regard to Bridewell. A well arranged House of Industry
is much wanted in London. It is indeed absolutely neces-
sary to the success of your undertaking, for there must be
something to see and to touch, if I may use the expres-
sion, otherwise people in general will have but very faint,
imperfect, and transitory ideas of those important and
highly interesting objects with which you must make them

1796. JET. 43.] COUNT EUMFORD. 49

acquainted in order to their becoming zealous converts to
our new philosophy, and useful members of our community.
Pray read once more the 'Proposals,' published in my
second essay. I really think that a public establishment
like that there described might easily be formed in London,
and that it would produce infinite good. I will come to
London to assist you in its execution whenever you will in
good earnest undertake it.

The third essay was on ' Food and Feeding the
Poor ; Rumford Soup and Soup-Kitchens.' The fourth
on ' Chimney Fire-Places.' The fifth on ' Several
Public Institutions Founded in Bavaria ; on Nurseries
for Grenius ; for Horses and for Cattle.'

During 1797 and 1798 Rumford published in En-
gland a second volume containing four essays.

These were on the 'Management of Fire and the
Economy of Fuel;' on the 'Propagation of Heat in
Fluids,' extending to liquids, the doctrine which he
had before advanced respecting elastic fluids ; on the
' Propagation of Heat in various Substances ; ' and an
' Experimental Inquiry concerning the Source of Heat
Excited by Friction.'

An account of this last essay must be given here,
because from it Count Rumford derives his chief
scientific reputation.

Whilst directing the military affairs of the Duke of
Bavaria he had to organise the field artillery, and he
found no cannon foundry in Bavaria. The arsenal
at Munich was filled with cannon, but by far the
greater part of them were perfectly useless, being too
heavy to be moved. There was a very good foundry
at Mannheim, the capital of the Elector's dominions on

£

50 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

the Rhine, but the distance between Munich and
Mannheim is so great that it would have cost more to
have sent the Bavarian guns to Mannheim to be re-
founded and to have brought them back than was
required to defray the expense of establishing a new
manufactory for the construction of artillery in Bavaria.

A foundry was accordingly established at Munich,
and neither pains nor expense were spared to make
it as perfect as possible. A most excellent machine
was erected for boring cannon, with workshops ad-
joining to it for the construction of gun-carriages and
ammunition waggons.

Whilst engaged in superintending the boring of the
cannon he was struck by the heat produced in a brass
gun and with the still more intense heat of the
metallic chips separated by the borer.

He says : ' The more I meditated on these phenomena
the more they appeared to me to be curious and inte-
resting. A thorough investigation of them seemed
even to bid fair to give a further insight into the
hidden nature of heat, and to enable us to form some
reasonable conjectures respecting the existence or non-
existence of an igneous fluid.

4 Whence comes the heat actually produced ?

' Does it come from the metallic chips ? If so, their
capacity for heat must be changed ; but by repeated ex-
periments I found that no change of capacity was caused
by the boring. Determination of the actual heat pro-
duced and of the amount of chips showed that there was
no relation between them. That the heat did not come
from the gun itself was shown by the absence of every

1796. jET. 43.] COUNT EUMFOED. 51

sign of exhaustion in the metal, notwithstanding the
large quantities of heat given off.

' Did the heat come from the air ? Exclusion of the
air did not in the smallest degree diminish the heat.

' It would be difficult,' he says, ' to describe the sur-
prise and astonishment expressed in the countenances of
the bystanders on seeing a large quantity of cold water
heated and actually made to boil without any fire.

6 Though there was, in fact, nothing that could justly
be considered as surprising in this event, yet I acknow-
ledge fairly that it afforded me a degree of childish
pleasure which, were I ambitious of the reputation of a
grave philosopher, I ought most certainly rather to hide
than to discover.'

The amount of heat given out in a continual stream by
his borer he estimated at that of nine wax candles each
of three-quarters of an inch in diameter. This was pro-
duced by the work of two horses. ' But,' he adds, ' no
circumstances can be imagined in which this method
of procuring heat would not be disadvantageous ; for
more heat may be obtained by using the fodder neces-
sary for the support of a horse as fuel.'

He concludes thus :

'Anything which any insulated body or system of
bodies can continue to furnish without limitation
cannot possibly be a material substance, and it appears
to me to be extremely difficult, if not quite impossible,
to form any distinct idea of anything capable of being
excited and communicated in these experiments except
it be MOTION.

'I am far from pretending to know how that

E 2

52 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

particular kind of motion which has been supposed to
constitute heat is excited, continued, and propagated.
Nobody surely in his sober senses has ever pretended to
understand the mechanism of gravitation, and yet what
sublime discovery was our immortal Newton enabled to
make merely by the investigation of the laws of its
action ! '

The account of these experiments was read to the
Royal Society, January 25, 1798.

Some interesting facts regarding this paper are to
be found in the correspondence of Sir C. Blagden with
Sir J. Banks.

DEAR SIR JOSEPH, — Count Rumford's paper on Friction,
together with your letter, were safely delivered to me by
Lord Palmerston. The paper is by no means incorrect
in itself, nor has the copyist made any remarkable
blunders, and it is valuable from the large scale on which
the experiments were tried, and the quantity of heat
produced in consequence. As the result of the experi-
ments was such as the Count himself foresaw, and as
every other philosopher would have expected, they do
not furnish any new argument in favour of the opinion
he has adopted that heat is motion, though perhaps
they add force to the old ones. There is, however, an
experiment of some consequence if it can be depended upon ;
namely, that which seemed to show that the shavings cut
by the borer out of the cannon had the same capacity
for heat as the metal on which the borer had not acted ;
but I do not feel much confidence in experiments of this
nature. You will recollect that one opinion pretty much
adopted on this subject is that the heat produced in
boring a cannon depends on the compression of the metal
of the cannon by the borer, in consequence of which it
gives out heat ; on the principle that the same body has

1796. JET. 43.] COUNT EUMFOKD. 53

a less capacity for heat when it is in a denser than
when it is in a rarer state. I wish the Count had ascer-
tained whether the metal shavings he tried had really a
greater specific gravity than that of the chips of metal he
had sawed off.

Whilst in England Eumford at this time strove to
advance scientific knowledge not only by the publication
of his own discoveries, but also by his benefactions for
the promotion of discovery by others, and by the further
practical application of some of the results which he
had obtained.

On July 12, 1796, lie wrote to the Honourable
John Adams, President of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences at Boston, to offer 5,000 dollars in
the 3 per cent, stocks, 'to the end that the interest
may be spent every second year on a silver and gold
medal as a premium to the author of the most important
discovery or useful improvement on heat or on light ;
the preference always being given to such discoveries
as shall, in the opinion of the Academy, tend most
to promote the good of mankind.'

In 1829 the fund accumulated to 20,000 dollars,
and in 1870 to 37,000 dollars. The Academy applied
to the Legislature to use the money for the purchase
of books and apparatus, and to pay for experiments,
lectures, and treatises, and this was decided in 1831.
During the first fifty years only one award of the medals
was made. This was to Dr. Hare, of Philadelphia,
1839. They have been since given to Mr. Ericsson,
Professor Tread well, Mr. Alvan Clark, and Mr. Corliss.

On the same day in 1796 Count Kumford wrote to

54 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Eoyal Society,
offering 1,000£. stock on the same conditions to the
Koyal Society of London.

Sir Joseph Banks was requested by the council to
return their sincere thanks to Count Eumford, and at
the same time to inquire c how far improvements or
discoveries in optics and chemistry might come under
the Count's views.'

Count Eumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, from
Munich, April 20, 1797 :

I think the premium should be limited to new dis-
coveries tending to improve the theories of fire, of heat,
of light, and of colours, and to new inventions and con-
trivances by which the generation and preservation and
management of heat and- of light may be facilitated. In
as far, therefore, as chemical discoveries or improvements
in optics answer any of these conditions they may, I
think, fairly be considered as being within the limits
assigned to the operation of the premium. The objects
which I had more particularly in view to encourage, are
such practical improvements in the generation and manage-
ment of heat and light as tend directly and powerfully
to increase the enjoyments and comforts of life, especially
in the lower and more numerous classes of society.

The first award of the Eumford medal was made,
in November 1802, to Count Eumford himself for his
own discoveries on heat and light. In 1870 the award
was made for the twenty-sixth time. Eleven foreigners
have received the honour, and thus added to the reputa-
tion of the prize. The greatest English discoverer on
the subject of light is not on the list, but when
sending the medal to M. Fresnel (who was on his

1796. ^T. 43.] COUNT KOIFOKD. 55

death-bed) in 1827, Young, as foreign secretary of the
Royal Society, wrote to him : ' I also should claim some
right to participate in the compliment which is tacitly
paid to myself in common with you by this adjudication,
but, considering that more than a quarter of a century
is passed since my principal experiments were made, I
can only feel it a sort of anticipation of posthumous
fame, which I have never particularly coveted.'

In order further to apply some of his scientific re-
searches to practice in the spring of 1796, on the invi-
tation of his friend Mr. Secretary Pelham, Rumford
went to Dublin.

In the house of the Dublin Society he fitted up a
laundry and a model kitchen for private families, and
also a cottage fire-place, and a model lime-kiln in the
courtyard of the house of the Society ; also in the hall
in which the meetings of the Royal Irish Academy are
held he fitted up two chimney fire-places. He
contrived a fire-place for heating one of the principal
churches in Dublin, and he promised to give a plan
for heating the superb new building destined for the
meeting of the Irish House of Commons. In the
Linen Hall at Dublin he fitted up an oblong square
boiler as a model for bleachers.

He was made a member of the Royal Irish Academy
and of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and
he received after he left the country the public thanks
of the Grand Jury of the County of Dublin, and of the
Lord Mayor of the city, as well as of the Lord
Lieutenant as the head of the Government.

Upon his return to London he superintended some

56 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

improvements at the Foundling Hospital for his friend
Mr. Bernard, who was treasurer there. Koasters and
boilers were put up, but he was obliged to return to
Munich before the kitchens were entirely finished.

His daughter left America to join her father in
England in January 1796. By her Colonel Baldwin
wrote from Woburn, January 26, 1796 :

In answer to your inquiry, I can say that it is my
opinion that you can freely return to America, either
with or without official leave from the State, as you may
choose ; and that you would realise a hearty . welcome
from all your old friends and citizens in general. I can
say, for one, that there is not a person on earth that I
should rejoice so much to see.

Kumford answered :

London, March 26, 1796.

I return you many thanks for your friendly letter, which
I received by my daughter, and I beg you would accept
my warmest acknowledgments for all the kindness you
have shown to my daughter for the many years she has
been known to you,

Her gratitude to you is without bounds, and she says
nothing on earth will ever make her forget your goodness
to her. I do not despair of being able, at some future
period, to express to you in person, by word of mouth, the
sense I entertain of your kindness to my dear child. You
will not expect that I should attempt to describe the plea-
sure I felt at seeing my dear girl after an absence of twenty
years !

Some years afterwards the daughter gave a vivid
picture of her father at this time.

Count Bumford, my father, having passed several preced-
ing years at Munich, in Bavaria, had come to England to

1796. JEr. 43.] COUNT RUMFOED. 57

have published some of his essays. He took the oppor-
tunity to send for me, my mother being dead, and I requir-
ing protection. Many were the scenes he had passed
through after leaving me as an infant, and erroneous were
the ideas I had formed of him, particularly of his appear-
ance ; we having had only a small profile of him in shade,
giving ever an imperfect idea of the person. Indeed, so
different from what I had thought were his looks, that I
could hardly fancy him the person I sought after, and would
willingly have run from him, and ended in a violent fit of
crying, which he did not consider as a compliment, asking
me afterwards what I meant by it. The playfulness of his
character (at times) secured love to my father. Witness his
laughter, quite from the heart, nothing made up about it.
The expression of his mouth, ornamented with the most
finished pearls, was sweetness itself. But to see him acci-
dentally, he did not strike one as handsome, or very agree-
able, though not exactly to the contrary. At the time I
met him, having been ill, he was very thin and pale — again
a reason of my disappointment. My opinion of him was
naturally romantic, perhaps, as young people's often are.
I had heard him spoken of as an officer. I had attached to
this an idea of the warrior, with the martial look, possibly
the sword, if not the gun, by his side. His profile being in
black, made me suppose him dark in complexion, possibly
sunburnt ; in short, in stature, size, and looks the perfect
warrior. Yet my mother often spoke of him as carroty, his
hair being red ; but later not so, a very pretty colour. My
father pretended I looked better than he expected to find
me. It is true he had had a most unfavourable likeness of
me in a small miniature.

Though it was a trying scene to meet, yet it was nothing
to finding out each other's disposition in the end, and my
father began with being much alarmed about me. He him-
self resided in a large hotel in Pall Mall, but could not have
me with him, putting me to board not far off, at a Mrs.

58 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

Lackington's. He had brought his valet, Aichner, with
him, and for me a maid, by the name of Anymeetle, both
Germans. I was to be presented to Lord and Lady Pal-
merston, Sir Charles Blagden, Sir "William Pepperell and
family (Americans), and other of his friends.

My father was often at the Royal Society, and intimate
with its president, Sir Joseph Banks. I would be invited
to the dinners Sir Joseph gave to the select ones of his
royal learned Society. Through the kindness and civility
of Lady and Miss Banks, his wife and sister, I several
times found myself one of their party. Lady Banks was
so kind, and> most likely out of civility to rny father, she
would allow me to be with her for days together, taking
me about with her, letting me see things — in short, trying
to amuse me. I recollect she took me to a Lord Mayor's
ball, where I saw the princes and royal family for the first
time. As may be supposed, the select dinners of the Royal
Society were highly interesting, and where, I think, ladies
were seldom or never admitted. I was allowed to accom-
pany Lady and Miss Banks as a mere nobody ; but this
did not prevent my making observations which never have
been and never will be forgotten. The idea of very
learned people suggests that of pedantry. At these dinners
there was nothing of the kind, differing only from other
refined societies when remarks were made to convey
perhaps new ideas, discoveries, or highly entertaining
instruction, sometimes there being no such talk at all.

The daughter wrote to Mrs. Baldwin in America,
June 13, 1796:

We should have been gone long before this time to
Germany if some business had not called my father to
Ireland.

I enjoy very good health, and am very happy. I should
think it strange if I were not to be. I am indulged in
everything I wish, and I am under the protection of a

1796. JE-r. 43.] COUNT RUMTOKD. 59

parent that I have not only reason to love, but to be proud
of.

The state of Europe at this time caused Rumford to
return to Munich. At the close of the campaign of
1794 between France and the German Empire, when
Prussia made peace with France, Bavaria desired to
be neutral. It was not until the spring of 1796 that
the Republicans under Moreau, who had crossed the
Rhine at Strasburg, threatened Munich. Rumford
was recalled. The Elector took refuge in Saxony
eight days after Rumford arrived. He had appointed
Rumford head of a council of regency and commander
of the Bavarian troops. The Austrians, defeated by
the French near Augsburg in August, retreated on
Munich. They found Count Rumford determined to
oppose them. On the arrival of the French troops he
refused to admit them also, and by his firmness and
wisdom the neutrality of Munich was preserved. The
inhabitants of the town fully recognised that they owed
the preservation of their city to Count Rumford alone.

The defeat of Jourdan on the Lower Rhine obliged
Moreau to retreat. The Bavarian territory was
evacuated, and the Elector returned to Munich. He
made Rumford head of the General Police of Bavaria,
and about 2001. of the pension which had been granted
to him was settled on his daughter for her life. She
was also received at Court as a Countess of the
Empire.

In December 1797 Rumford wrote to his friend
Baldwin from. Munich :

60 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

My daughter never ceases her solicitations to engage me
to pay a visit to my friends in America, and her wishes are
so powerfully seconded by my own feelings and longing
desires to breathe once more my native air, that I have
come to the resolution to make the journey as soon as the
restoration of peace and the arrangement of my concerns
in this country will permit it. If the public affairs of
Europe and of America take the turn I expect, and if no
unforeseen event should happen to prevent my carrying my
schemes into execution, I think you will see us in America
in fifteen or sixteen months from this time.

Meanwhile his daughter amused herself at Munich.

The Elector was old and had married a young wife,
so that there was gaiety at Court during this winter,
and the attentions of one of the aides-de-camp of her
father made rides, and dinners, and balls pleasant to
the Count's daughter ; but she says ' all her fine
castles were demolished by one blow from her father,
and Count Taxis was ordered to join his regiment in
the country.' Ill health followed, and change of air
and scene was advised. ' My father appeared to try
how agreeable he could make himself, as if wishing
to wear off by it some of the disagreeable impressions
of his late conduct in drawing so many tears from my
poor eyes. . . . When quiet and happy himself he
was, like others, agreeable ; but when perplexed with
cares and business, or much occupied, there was no
living with him.'

In the autumn of 1798, partly on account of his
health, he determined to return to England with his
daughter. The Elector of Bavaria, to show his esteem
for Eumford, appointed him Minister Plenipoten-

1798. 2En. 45.] COUNT RUMFORD. 61

tiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of St.
James.

On September 14, 1798, Lord Grrenville sent a
despatch to the Hon. Arthur Paget at Munich,
saying, ' It is, I apprehend, a thing if not wholly un-
precedented, at least extremely unusual, to appoint
a subject of the country to reside at the Court of his
natural sovereign in the character of minister from a
foreign prince. I am to direct you in the last resort
to state in distinct terms that his, Majesty will by no
means consent to receive Count Eumford in the
character which has been assigned to him. You will
observe that the circumstance of Count Rumford
having heretofore filled a confidential situation (that
of Under-Secretary of State in the American Depart-
ment) under his Majesty's Government, makes the
appointment in his person peculiarly improper and
objectionable.'

On Count Eumford's arrival on September 19 he
wrote to Lord Grenville to say that, notwithstanding
the information and the intimation which had been
communicated to him by Mr. Canning, Under-Secre-
tary of State for Foreign Affairs, he considered it his
duty formally to notify that, having been appointed
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary,
he had come to England in consequence of that
appointment, and was charged with a letter to the
King, which he ought to endeavour to obtain permis-
sion to deliver with his own hands. He therefore
asked an audience or personal interview with the
minister, to state the objects of his mission, and to

62 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

receive such information as would enable him to give
a clear, authentic, and satisfactory account to theN
sovereign who had entrusted him with the manage-
ment of his affairs.

The day but one after, Lord Grrenville shortly
answers that * he conceives it will be more agreeable
to Count Kumford that the substance of the represent-
ation with which Mr. Paget was charged should be
transmitted by Count Rumford to the Elector rather
than through any other channel.'

The same day a despatch to this effect was written
to the Hon. Arthur Paget at Munich.

No other notice was taken of Count Eumford's
appointment. He did not return to Munich, and the
following year his master, the Elector Charles
Theodore, died.

The thoughts of Eumford, when rejected as minister
of Bavaria, were directed to his native land. He thus
wrote to his friend Baldwin in America :

London, September 28, 1798.

I arrived in this city last week from Germany, and I
expect to be able to remain here several months. I have,
indeed, some hopes of being able to pay yon a visit in
America in the spring. But these hopes, though apparently
well founded, may easily be disappointed, for there are
several events, none of which are very improbable, that
would render it impossible for me to be absent from Europe
next year. It is, however, my fixed intention to pay a visit
to my friends in America as soon as ever it shall be in my
power, which most probably will be in the course of a year
or two. I have even a scheme of forming for myself a
little quiet retreat in that country, to which I can retire at

1798. JET. 45.] COUNT RUMFOED. 63

some future period and spend the evening of my life.
Perhaps you may be so good as to assist me in carrying
this plan into execution. As I am not wealthy, and prefer
comfort to splendour, I shall not want anything magnifi-
cent. From forty to one hundred acres of good land, with
wood and water belonging to it, if possible in a retired
situation, from one to four miles from Cambridge, with or
without a neat, comfortable house upon it, would satisfy all
my wishes.

Among his friends in England was the Honourable
Eufus King, the American minister.

Mr. King wrote to Colonel Pickering, the Secretary
of State in America :

London, December 8, 1798.

Count Rumford, late Sir Benjamin Thompson, whose
name and history are probably known to you, and whose
talents and services have procured the most beneficial
establishments and reforms in Bavaria, was lately named
by the Elector to be his minister at this Court. On
his arrival he has been informed that, being a British
subject, it was contrary to usage to receive him, and that
therefore he could not be acknowledged. The intrigues
and opposition against which he had for some years made
head in Bavaria probably made him desire the mission to
England. The refusal he has here met with has decided
him to return and settle himself in America. He proposes
to establish himself at or near Cambridge, to live there in
the character of a German count, to renounce all political
expectations, and devote himself to literary pursuits. His
connexions in this country are strictly literary, and his
knowledge, particularly in the military department, may
be of great use to us. The Count is well acquainted with
and has had much experience in the establishment of
cannon foundries ; that which he established in Bavaria
is spoken of in very high terms, as well as certain improve-

64 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

ments that he has introduced in the mounting of flying
artillery.

He possesses an extensive military library, and assures
me that he wishes nothing more than to be useful to our
country. I make this communication by his desire, and
my wish is that he may be well received, as I am persuaded
that his principles are good, and his talents and information
uncommonly extensive. It is possible that attempts may
be made to misrepresent his political opinions ; from the
inquiry that I have made on this head, I am convinced that
his political sentiments are correct.

Be good enough to communicate this letter to the
President.

Count Eumford soon after wrote to Mr. King :

I send you herewith a small pamphlet,1 which will
explain to you the causes which have rendered it im-
possible for me to go to America this spring, as I had
intended. I have not, however, given over all ideas of
visiting that country at some future period ; very far from
it, I really hope and expect to be able to go there next
spring, and will most certainly do so, if it should be possi-
ble, provided you should continue to advise it, and to en-
courage me with the hope of a kind reception.

The model of a field-piece 2 on a new, and I believe on
an improved construction, which I have destined as a
present to the United States, I shall pack up and send to
you, in order to its being shipped for America as soon as I
shall get it from his Royal Highness the Duke of York,
who has desired to have a copy of it.

You will recollect that in a conversation we had at your
house on the great importance to the United States of the
speedy establishment of a military school or academy, I

1 This was the prospectus of the Eoyal Institution.

2 This was a model one quarter of the full size of the new Bavarian
six-pounder with its ammunition waggon. The Elector permitted him
to present it to the United States.

1799. JEx. 46.] COUNT RUMFORD. 65

took the liberty to say that to assist in the establishment of
so useful an institution I should be happy to be permitted
to make a present to the academy of my collection of
military books, plans, drawings, and models. I now
repeat this offer, and with a request to you that you would
make it known to the Executive Government of the United
States, and that you would let me know as soon as may be
convenient whether this offer will be accepted.

Another letter written the following day to his friend
Colonel Baldwin also gives the reason why Eumford
stayed in England.

March 14, 1799.

I will not attempt to describe the painful disappoint-
ment I feel at being obliged to give up all hopes of seeing
you and the rest of my dear friends in America this year.
A small pamphlet which you will receive with this letter
will acquaint you with the reasons which have induced me
to postpone my intended voyage ; and you will, I am con-
fident, agree with me in opinion that I have done right in
sacrificing the pleasure that voyage would have afforded me
to the more important objects to which my attention has
been called. I beg you would be so kind as to give my
dear mother the earliest notice of this change in my plans,
and that you would at the same time endeavour to give
her just ideas of the very great importance of the under-
taking in which I have been called npon to give my assist-
ance, and show her how impossible it was for me to refuse
that assistance, especially as it was asked in a manner so
honourable to myself. And as the success of the under-
taking will be productive of so much good, and will place
me in so distinguished a situation in the eyes of the world
and of posterity, you will, I am persuaded, find little diffi-
culty in persuading her that I have done perfectly right,
and in reconciling her to the disappointment she will natu-

F

6(5 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.

rally feel at not seeing me arrive in America at the time
appointed.

The undertaking was the Eoyal Institution, and the
pamphlet was the ' Proposals ' for its foundation.

On September 8 Mr. King again wrote to Count
Rumford :

London, September 8, 1799.

I have more than once expressed to you a wish that
you might find leisure, as well as inclination, to revisit
your native country, where I have been persuaded you
would meet with a friendly and cordial reception, and
by your presence and advice might be of great advantage
to our public institutions, the establishment of which,
upon approved principles, is an object of the highest con-
sequence. I am happy that I have it in my power to
assure you that I have not been mistaken in these senti-
ments, and it affords me peculiar satisfaction to execute
the order that I have lately received from my Government
to invite you in its name to return and reside among us,
and to propose to you to enter into the American service.1

Count Rumford answered :

Brompton, September 12, 1799.

I am deeply sensible of the honour that has been con-
ferred upon me by the Government of the United States,
by the kind invitation they have sent me to come and
reside in my native country, and also by the other dis-
tinguished and most flattering proofs of their confidence
and esteem with which that invitation has been accom-
panied.

1 The President wrote to Secretary McHenry : ' I should not scruple
to give him any of the appointments you mention, and leave it with you
to make such proposals to him through Mr. King within the limits you
have drawn in your letter as you should think fit.'

1799. JEr. 46.] COUNT KUMFORD. 67

Nothing could have afforded me so much satisfaction as
to have had it in my power to have given to my liberal
and generous countrymen such proof of my sentiments as
would in the most public and ostensible manner have
evinced, not only my gratitude for the kind attentions I
have received from them, but also the ardent desire I feel
to assist in promoting the prosperity of my native country.

His affection for his mother, his daughter, and his
friend is seen in the following letter to Colonel Baldwin,
which he wrote the day before his daughter sailed for
America :

Brompton, near London, August 24, 1799.

I cannot permit my daughter to return to America
without charging her with a few lines for my oldest
friend and schoolfellow, the companion of my earliest
youth. In straining my recollection as much as possible,
in order to look back into that dark cloud that covers
the early period of my life, I can remember no person
distinctly, longer than yourself, except it be my mother.
I must therefore consider you as one of my oldest ac-
quaintances, and I have never ceased to regard you and
to love you as one of my best friends. A few months
ago I flattered myself with the hope of soon seeing you,
but events happened to frustrate those hopes. But though
my voyage to America is postponed, it is by no means
abandoned. On the contrary, I really think it very likely
that I shall pay you a visit next spring.

My daughter will tell you what I am doing in this
country, and will acquaint you with my plans and wishes re-
specting her establishment in America. If you can further
the execution of my schemes, I have no doubt but you will
do it. There is nothing I have so much at heart as to make
my dear mother perfectly comfortable and happy during
the remainder of her life.

F 2

68 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I.]

And a year later he wrote to Colonel Baldwin :

Royal Institution, June 9, 1800.

I must begin my letter with a subject which is ever
uppermost in my mind. My daughter and my dear
mother will probably be in your neighbourhood when
this letter reaches you. I most earnestly recommend
them both to your kind attentions. I have one wish, and
one only, respecting them, which is, that they may be as
happy as possible. As I am at so great a distance from
them, I am but ill qualified to judge of their wants and
their wishes. Pray assist them in every way in which
your friendly assistance can be of use to them, or make
them comfortable and contented.

Perhaps my daughter may marry (which she has my
leave to do whenever she pleases, and with whom she
pleases).1 This may greatly alter her relative situation
with me and with my mother. She may perhaps wish at
some future period to make me another visit in Europe,
and even in this scheme I shall not oppose her inclinations,
if her heart should be set on the gratification of them. I
do not mean to be an indulgent father in theory only.

Tell me how I must act to make two persons who are
very dear to me as happy as possible.

1 Notwithstanding this his daughter said her father objected to her
marrying Sir C. "Blagden.

COUNT RUMFORD. 69

CHAPTEE II.

LIFE OF RUMFORD AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF THE
INSTITUTION.

1799 to 1814.

THE history of the life of Count Rumford in 1799,
1800, 1801 to May 1802 is chiefly the history of the
Royal Institution. The foundation of it forms an
episode which must be separated from the rest of his
career. But some of the letters and events of these
years which are more closely related to his future
life will be recorded here.

Before he began the Institution he had almost
determined to go to America, and before the building
was finished he wrote to his daughter regarding the
time ' when I shall be at liberty,' and soon after he
spoke of going to Munich, but before his plans for
the Institution were carried out he went to Paris,
where new attractions put an end to all he intended
to do in America and in England, and he never
revisited his native or his adopted country.

On June 9, 1800, Sir C. Blagden wrote to Rumford's
daughter in America :

It will give nie great pleasure to see you again either
here or in America. Do not depend upon the Count's

70 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

going to visit you there. It is indeed possible that the
fancy may suddenly strike him, and then he will set off in
an instant, almost without giving notice. But his favourite
child, the Institution, cannot yet walk alone, and, if he quits
it at the time he talks of, will be a helpless cripple, even if
it should continue to exist at all. I still see with regret his
time and powers wasted on an object so inferior, in my
opinion, to those which presented themselves to him in
America. But he views the thing in a different light, and
I suspect will be led on to stay here one year after another,
till you are worn out with expecting him, and the oppor-
tunity of distinguishing himself in a rising country will be
past.

Count Rumford thus wrote to his daughter :

Royal Institution, London. March 2, 1801.

MY DEAR CHILD, — I am still established at the Institution.
I have been exceedingly busy, but desire to be thankful that
all is now nearly completed, when I shall be at liberty.
We have found a nice able man for this place as lecturer —
Humphry Davy. Lectures are given, frequented by crowds
of the first people. Lady Palmerston and her two daugh-
ters, Frances and Elizabeth, are pretty constant attendants.

They would not receive me as minister here, but seem
disposed now to make it up to me by the respect they show
the Institution — originally and chiefly my work. Bernard
says they are crazy about it. It was certainly gratifying to
me to see the honourable list of lords, dukes, &c., as fifty-
guinea subscribers. It is a very extensive establishment,
and will cost a great deal of money ; but I hope it will be
an equal advantage to the world, as the expense and labour
of forming it have been great. To strive for good things I
view as a laudable ambition, as I hope you do, my dear
Sally. But I hope, above all, to hear of your being well
and happy, not doubting the rest.

I hope to be undisturbed by visitors this morning, or

1801. Mi. 48.] COUNT EUMFORD. 71

workmen, from my being thought to be at Harrogate,
and to be allowed quietly to fill this sheet. You can form
no idea of the bustle in which I live since I have taken up
my residence in this place. In short, the Royal Institution
is not only the fashion but the rage. I am very busy in-
deed in striving to turn the disposition of the moment to a
good account for the permanent benefit of society.

I have the unspeakable satisfaction to find that my labours
have not been in vain. In this moment of scarcity and
general alarm the measures I have recommended in my
writings for relieving the distresses of the poor are very
generally adopted, and public kitchens have been erected in
all the great towns in England and Scotland. Upwards of
sixty thousand persons are fed daily from the different
public kitchens in London.

The plan has lately been adopted in France, and a very
large public kitchen for feeding the poor was opened in
Paris three weeks since. A gentleman present tells me
that the founders of the institution did me the honour to put
my name at the head of the tickets given to the poor
authorising them to receive soup at the public kitchens.
At Geneva they have done still more to show me respect.
They have marked their tickets with a stamp on which my
portrait and my name are engraved.

I am not vain, my dear Sally, but it is utterly impossible
not to feel deeply affected at these distinguished marks of
honour conferred on me by nations at war with Great
Britain, and in countries where I have never been, or know
little of the inhabitants. But my greatest delight arises
from the silent contemplation of having succeeded in
schemes and labours for the benefit of mankind.

Sir C. Blagden wrote to Kumford's daughter, Sep-
tember 10, 1801:

Your father is indeed going to Munich, and talks of
setting out in a fortnight. I had at one time almost settled

72 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

to go with him, but he then proposed to stay there all this
winter and next summer. Two or three weeks ago he
changed his plan, and determined to make this only a pre-
paratory visit, and to return hither within three months.
For my own part I sincerely wish that he had found it
expedient to make a voyage to America instead of this
journey on the Continent. I would then certainly have
accompanied him across the Atlantic, notwithstanding the
unsettled state of affairs here. He every day talks more
and more coolly about going to America, and though I
really think that he means to make you a visit there some
time or other, yet it does not seem as if he promised him-
self much satisfaction besides.

As to his health, it is nearly the same as usual, except
that he is rather thinner, having lived long upon a very
spare diet. The constant agitation of his mind, and the
irritable constitution with which it is connected, will neces-
sarily prevent him from enjoying a regular state of good
health.

Again, in September, writing to his daughter,
Eumford says that the new Elector has invited him
to return with assurances of his warm friendship, and
6 that though many salaries and pensions have been
suspended through the war, his shall be paid.' He
says he is going to Munich, ' but that if the Elector
will excuse him he does not intend to stay long, the
Koyal Institution still requiring his oversight.'

He reached Munich by way of Mannheim, and thence
wrote to his daughter :

Munich, October 2, 1801.

MY DEAR SALLY, — I arrived here late last evening, and
early this morning went to pay my respects to the Elector,
who received me with all imaginable kindness. He appears
to have plenty of business for me in an academy he is about

1801. ^ET. 48.] COUNT KUMFORD. 73

building, but, as things are not yet in readiness to begin, I
am excused from remaining ; instead of which I return to
England, to put an end to the work begun there — that of the
Royal Institution. I owe so much to the Elector, it is my
duty to do all in my power to give him satisfaction. Besides,
he says I shall be president of the academy when done.

In another letter he speaks of the kindness he met
with in Bavaria.

He left Munich on October 13, and again wrote to
his daughter on his arrival in Paris on the 25th. His
daughter says this was her father's first visit to Paris.
The reception he met with was 'simply enchantment.'
His inventions were in common use ; his name was
familiar to everyone. He made a multitude of ac-
quaintances ; parties were made for him every day ; and
he particularly liked one lady. Two letters written to
Sir Joseph Banks from Paris in 1801 are of great

interest.

Hotel de Caraman, Paris, November 11.

MY DEAR SIE JOSEPH, — I arrived here from Munich about
a fortnight ago, and I purpose staying here three weeks
longer. My reception has been very nattering, and I find
many interesting objects of curiosity that engage my
attention. I have already made the personal acquaintance
of most of the men of eminence in science, and I have
attended several of the meetings of the National Institute.
At the last meeting of the mathematical and physical class
the First Consul came in, and, fortunately for the complete
gratification of my curiosity, he happened to come and seat
himself very near me. One person only (Lagrange) was
between us. He stayed about an hour — till the meeting was
over. Volta read a memoir on Galvanism and explained
his theory of the action of the voltaic pile or battery. His
opinion is that all the appearances that are called galvanic

74 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

are owing to the action of an electric fluid, and he says that
the simple tact of two metals — silver and zinc, for instance —
is sufficient to set the electric fluid in motion ; and if the
metals are insulated, one of them will become electrified
positively and the other negatively. This assertion was
proved by an experiment which was made before the
assembly, and this fact is the foundation on which his ex-
planation of the phenomena of the galvanic pile is established.
After Yolta had finished his memoir the First Consul de-
manded leave from the President to speak, which, being
granted, he proposed to the meeting to reward M. Volta
with a gold medal, and to appoint a committee to confer
with M. Volta on the subject of his experiments and in-
vestigations respecting galvanism, and to make such new
experiments as may bid fair to lead to further discoveries.
He delivered his sentiments with great perspicuity and dis-
played a degree of eloquence which surprised me. He is
certainly a very extraordinary man and is possessed of un-
common abilities. The expression of his countenance is
strong, and it is easy to perceive by his looks that he can
pronounce the magic words ' je le veux ' with due energy.
I was presented to him by the Bavarian minister at his last
public audience, and was received by him with marked
attention. He gave me to understand that he knew me by
reputation very well, and intimated that the French nation
had adopted several of the improvements I had re-
commended. A few minutes after I came home from the
audience I received a note from him, inviting me to come
and dine with him that day. The foreign ministers dined
with him, but no other stranger except myself was invited ;
consequently my being invited was considered as a marked
distinction. It was the next day that I saw him again at
the National Institute.

I have had opportunities of making the acquaintance of
several of the most distinguished characters now in power
in this country. I am very intimate with Chaptal, the

1801. JEn. 48.] COUNT RUMFORD. 75

Minister of the Interior, and frequently see Talleyrand, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs. I have dined with both of them,
and visit them often. Laplace and Bertholet are very civil
and attentive to me, and have each of them given me a
dinner, where I met most of the men of science of the first
distinction in Paris. Fourcroy has also given me a dinner.
In short, I am treated with the utmost civility, and I spend
my time very agreeably and very usefully. I hope to see
you in London about the 6th or 8th of December.

Ever yours most faithfully,

RUMFORD.
He again wrote :

November 22, 18ol.

MY DEAR SIR JOSEPH, — I do wrong perhaps, but I cannot
help telling you that your name is at the head of the list of
those ten persons whom the Class of Mathematics and
Physics have resolved to present to the National Institute
at their next general meeting, in order to their being elected
foreign members of the Institute. You were proposed to
the class by the Section of Botany. Your name is followed
by those of Maskelyne, Cavendish, Herschel, Priestly, Pallas,
Yolta, and three others. I was present when the ballot of
the class was taken, and had the satisfaction to see that all
the votes agreed in placing your name at the head of the
list. I was politely told that my name would have been
near that of my friend, had it not been that the second class
of the Institute had claimed me as belonging to them and
had placed me on their list. The three first names on that
list are, I am told, Mr. Jefferson, President of the United
States, Count Rumford, and Major Rennell ; the others I
did not learn.

I was proposed to the class by the Section of Political
Economy. The classes propose to the Institute, and the
Institute elects at a general meeting. The number of
foreign members is limited to twenty-four. As the election
will not take place for some weeks to come, I beg you would

76 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

make the most prudent use of the information I have
given you. I shall not mention the subject to anybody but
yourself.

I hope to see you in London in about three weeks from
this time.

My health is much improved, and is still improving every
day. My stay in Paris has afforded me much amusement,
but I begin to be impatient to see my friends in England.
I hope everything is going on well at the Royal Institu-
tion.

I am, my dear Sir Joseph, with unalterable esteem and
attachment, yours most faithfully,

RUMFORD.

In another letter to his daughter, written January
15, 1802, he says that he returned to Brompton on
December 20, and that he was three months on the
Continent and seven weeks of the time in Paris. He
spoke of his intention to enjoy again the delights of
the French capital on his way, in the course of the
summer, to Munich and to get excused from any
longer residence at Munich. The Elector continued
friendly to him, and had lately written to him
a very gracious letter, in which he expresses his
pleasure at the cordiality extended towards Rumford
in France, and advises him to cultivate an acquaint-
ance with a certain lady there, who, among other
attractions, was said to have great wealth. When he
made this second visit to Paris, the Count accepted an
invitation which he had received to stay with the
Bavarian ambassador.

Before he left England again, May 9, 1802, he pub-
lished the third volume of his essays.

1802. JEx. 49. J COUNT RUMFORD. 77

His tenth essay was on 'Kitchen Fire-Places and
Utensils ; ' his eleventh on ' Chimney Fire-Places.'

His twelfth on the ' Salubrity of Warm Eooms in
Cold Weather ; ' his thirteenth on the ' Salubrity of
Bathing and the Construction of Warm Baths.' His
fourteenth consisted of 'Supplementary Observations
on the Management of Fires ; ' his fifteenth was on
the ' Use of Steam for Transporting Heat.'

In May 1802 he also published a volume of his
philosophical papers, with a dedication to his Most
Serene Highness Maximilian Joseph, Elector Palatine
of Bavaria. In this he says he must ever feel himself
greatly indebted to his Most Serene Electoral High-
ness

for the kind assurances yon gave me of your esteem, pro-
tection, and friendship on your succeeding to your present
Bavarian dominions on the death of your late uncle, my kind
friend and benefactor ; but I am bound to you still more, if it
be possible, by the nattering invitation you have lately given
me to come to you and reside at your Court and assist in
the local work of carrying into execution the vast plans you
have formed for promoting the prosperity of your subjects.

From Brompton, May 6, 1802, he writes to his
daughter : ' In three days I shall set out for Dover, on
my way to Paris, where I expect to stay four or five
weeks, and then to proceed to Munich.' He sent by
way of Holland two carriages and much "baggage;

On May 20 Sir C. Blagden wrote from Paris to Sir
Joseph Banks : ' Count Rumford arrived here last
Friday (the 14th) in remarkably good health. Travel-
ling agrees with him, and he seems very happy. WTe

78 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

purpose to set out for Bavaria before the middle of
next month.'

Writing to his daughter, June 25, Eumford says : ' I
did not propose to stay here long, but the Elector has
written commissioning me to transact some business
for him of a political nature in which he is much in-
terested.'

On June 8 Sir C. Blagden writes to Sir Joseph Banks :
6 1 was preparing everything to set off for Germany,
and had even applied to Mr. Merry for a passport,
when Count Rumford told me he had received permis-
sion from the Elector to stay a few weeks longer at
Paris. This considerably deranges my plans.'

On July 19 Eumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks :

Kue de Clichy, 356, July 19, 1802.

MY DEAR SIR JOSEPH, — The print1 you sent me has afforded
me much amusement, and, even more than that, it has given
me real satisfaction. It is just that ' those who take up the
sword should perish by the sword.' I never had a doubt
who was the author of another print which certainly was
not designed to give me pleasure. Although it has long
been said, and I believe with truth, that those who render
themselves conspicuous by their superior genius, their
talents, and, above all, by their usefulness to society, must
necessarily be exposed to the shafts of envy and to the
hatred of all bad men, yet, much as I am desirous of de-
serving the approbation of mankind, so far from feeling
any secret satisfaction at seeing myself distinguished by
those miscreants, who may justly be considered as the ver-
min of society, I lament that I am not permitted to finish.

1 Probably the caricature by Grilray of the Eoyal Institution and
Sir John Hippesley, published on May 23. Count Kumford was carica-
tured on June 12, 1800.

1802. JET. 49.] COUNT RUMFORD. 79

my days in peace and quietness. But the established order
of things cannot be changed, and I must endeavour to sup-
port with patience and dignity all those evils which cannot
be avoided.

I continue to pass my time here in Paris very agreeably.
The society in which I live most is very pleasant, and I am
surrounded by a great variety of interesting objects of
curiosity. I have very often the satisfaction of hearing
your name mentioned, and always in terms of the highest
possible respect. No individual was ever in more complete
possession of the enlightened world than yourself. It is in-
deed true that no man ever deserved it more.

An extraordinary meeting of the first class of the Insti-
tute was held on Saturday last for the purpose of deciding
a dispute which had arisen among the Ingenieurs des Fonts
et Chaussees relative to an intended canal from Cambray to
St. Quentin, to form a communication by water between the
Belgique and the interior of France. Two plans had been
proposed, one by a M. Laurent and the other by M. Vicque.

Laurent proposed to form the junction by one straight
subterranean canal about six French leagues in length ;
Vicque proposed to avail himself of a valley, in order to
diminish the length of the subterranean passage to about
three leagues. The latter was almost unanimously approved
by the Institute, though the total length of the canal of
Vicque is more than a third greater than that of Laurent,
and though it has two subterranean passages instead of one.
The First Consul was present at the discussion of this ques-
tion by the Institute, and took a very active part in the
debate. He displayed very uncommon abilities. He is in-
deed a very extraordinary man. He hears with patience
and with the utmost attention every argument opposed to
his own opinions, and he states the question in dispute in
so clear a light, and divests it so completely from every
consideration that is not essential, that every difficulty seems
to be removed and the decision rendered quite plain and
obvious.

80 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

I was at the public audience of the 14th of July, and
dined with the First Consul, and also stayed and spent the
evening at the Tuileries. We sat down to table about
240 persons, and about 60 or 80 of the company stayed and
spent the evening. There were a few card tables — not more
than four or five. The First Consul did not play, but walked
about and talked to the company. He went out two or
three times upon an elevated terrace, or rather large open
platform, on the level of the apartment we were in to see
the illuminations of the gardens. As often as he appeared,
the crowd below saluted him by clapping hands.

He went to the opera the next evening, and, instead of
occupying his private box, which is grille, he went and took
his place in the front of Madame Bonaparte's box, where he
was exposed to the view of the whole house. The applause
he received was quite enthusiastic and lasted near a quarter
of an hour. ' Vive Bonaparte ! ' was heard from every part
of the theatre, and the actors were obliged to stop for some
time. These applauses were again repeated when he went
away. He came to the meeting of the Institute on Satur-
day without any guards, and accompanied only by his
brother-in-law, General Murat. I followed him down the
stairs when he went away. I found his carriage waiting for
him, surrounded by about ten or twelve grenadiers, who kept
the crowd at a small distance from the carriage and formed
a line from the foot of the staircase. He was received by
the populace with shouts of applause, and he drove away
without guards and with a single footman behind his
carriage, which was a coach.

Thursday Morning, July 31.

This letter will be forwarded by M. d'Ifeffel, the Elector's
charge d'affaires at London, who will leave Paris this
evening. My stay at Paris is very uncertain ; I fancy,
however, that I shall set out for Munich in the course of three
or four weeks. The Elector writes me the kindest and most
nattering letters, and I have the satisfaction to think that

1802. M-c. 49.] COUNT RUMFORD. 81

my stay here has been of some use to him. I avoid most
carefully every appearance of interfering in public business,
but I now and then find opportunities of putting in a word
privately where it is not lost. I fancy the Elector will be
well treated in the general arrangement which is about to
take place.

I thank you for the information you have given me re-
lative to the Royal Institution. It is impossible for me not
to feel very deeply interested in its fate. I hope it will
prosper ; I know it will if you can support and protect it.
It would grieve me to see it fall to the ground. My health
is much improved since I have been in France. I am, in-
deed, now quite well. I continue to spend my time here very
agreeably. If there should be anything I could do for you
here, I hope and trust that you will have no scruples in
favouring me with your commands.

I am, and shall ever be, my dear Sir Joseph, with un-
alterable attachment, yours most faithfully,

EUMFORD.

On August 10, Tuesday, Sir C. Blagden writes : CI am
on the point of setting out with Count Eumford for
Munich. We go first to Mannheim, and I expect to be
there next Sunday ; afterwards, perhaps, through that
tract of country bordering on Switzerland which will
be ceded to the Elector as a compensation, so as to
reach Munich about the latter end of this month.'

On August 30, from Munich, Sir C. Blagden wrote
to Sir Joseph Banks :

I wrote to you from Paris on the day of our departure,
and left the letter to be sent by post next day. Our journey
hither was made during the hottest time of this summer ;
we had the thermometer in the carriage one day at 93°,
and several days within a degree or two of it ; but this great

G

82 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

heat did not injure our health or materially impair our
spirits or appetite.

It is really pleasant to see with what respect and affec-
tion Count Rumford is treated here by all ranks of people.
I do not mean to say that he is without enemies, for surely
he has many, but all, as far as I can learn, from envy,
jealousy, or competition of interests. The great mass of
the people consider him as a public benefactor, and would
rejoice to see the government of the country thrown into
his hands. This, however, as far as I can judge from what
he says, as well as from his actions, is by no means his own
wish, and, indeed, I think he can do as much good, leading
at the same time a vastly pleasant life, if he remains simply
as the Elector's friend. In our way we called at a convent
in Bavaria, and it was surprising to see how much attach-
ment the monks show to him, though they must consider
him as a heretic. In spite of religious differences he has
found the means to persuade them of his general good in-
tentions. The Elector and every person in his family be-
have to the Count with great respect, and are extremely
gracious to me, evidently for the purpose of showing regard
to his introduction.

On September 1, Eumford wrote to his daughter that
lie found his English Garden grown more beautiful
than ever, the Elector sparing no expense upon it.
But his House for the Poor had not been well attended
to, though there were few or no beggars to be met with
in the streets. The Count says that he was received
by the public with the most nattering marks of esteem
and respect. The Emperor of Russia sent him an invita-
tion to visit St. Petersburg, but the Count could not
make up his mind to the undertaking. He writes :

My health requires that I should keep more quiet. It is

1803. J£T. 50.] COUNT KUMFOKD. 83

all I ask here. I have and ask no augmentation of ap-
pointments. Many cannot understand why I am not more
anxious for places and money. People even pretend I am
going to be Minister of State ; but for a certainty I am not,
neither do I desire to be. I want only quiet.

In her summary of a letter from her father, dated from
Mannheim, November 30, 1802, his daughter says that
' he alludes to his love concern : says he has got into
full employment at Munich, but would rather be in
Paris ; and the certain lady would rather have him
there.'

At Christmas he was still at Mannheim, and thence
he wrote to the clerk at the Institution : ' As I have
no correspondent but you who can inform me how
you are going on at the Koyal Institution, you will
oblige me very much by writing to me now and then,
and letting me know what you are doing, and how the
Institution stands in the public opinion. You will
easily believe that I must be very anxious to hear of
its welfare and prosperity.' He said that he hoped to
be back in April or May. In January he sent his
compliments to Dr. Young and to Mr. Davy.

Writing to his daughter again from Munich, January
22, 1803, Eumford says he is unsettled there, and
therefore that he cannot conveniently have her with
him, but that at a future time, not far distant, he
will attempt it. He spoke of the style in which he
was living, having his servants, the Aichners, with him,
with his carriages. While- he was at Munich he was
joined by Madame Lavoisier.

G 2

84 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

Sir C. Blagden wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

Paris, October 15, 1802.

As a good occasion of making the journey to Paris pre-
sented itself, I left Munich about a week sooner than I
originally intended, and have now been some days in this
capital.

Count Rumford was in very good health, and proposed
to spend the winter at Munich ; he was going into a mag-
nificent house, or rather palace, lent him by one of the no-
bility, an old friend, in which he meant to give concerts as
he used to do. The Elector continued to treat him with
the most marked distinction, but he did not seem to be
engaging in any public business. Indeed, the country was
rather in a state of alarm, on account of the menacing ap-
pearances of the Emperor, who evidently wants part of
Bavaria as a further compensation to the Grand Duke.
The Count's opinion when I quitted him was that he should
be in Paris next spring, and thence return to England.

Two months later Sir C. Blagden said : ' The Count
finds the climate of Mannheim much milder and more
suitable to his constitution than that of Munich, which
is really sharp and trying.' And afterwards he wrote
regarding the French Institute :

s

Count Rumford has been removed from the third class to
the first, a change which I believe he very much desired. In
consequence there is now only one vacancy to be filled up in
the first class, and I think that Volta will be the man chosen
at the next election.

Unless we are all sent away by the war, I shall probably
stay near a fortnight longer than the 5th of April.

The Count expects to be in England some time in the
summer. He is very busy making experiments on heat,
and says his new-invented instruments have already put
him in possession of several new and interesting facts.

1803. JEfr. 50.] COUNT KUMFOKD. 85

Sir C. Blagden wrote to Eumford's daughter from
London, August 8, 1803:

When my letter of last June was written I thought your
father pretty much fixed at Munich, and therefore ventured
to suggest to you that it might contribute to your happiness
if you were to be established at that Court. But I learn
since that the Elector has set him more at his liberty, and
that in consequence he intends to return to England this
autumn. Political difficulties may possibly stand in the
way of this journey, but he hopes to avoid them. I am still
as much at a loss as I was in June to answer your question
whether your father be going to marry. He is now, as I
told you in that letter, making the tour of Switzerland with
a very amiable French lady. But I have no reason to think
that they have any idea of matrimonial connexion. When
the Count comes to England she is to return to Paris ; at
least so he writes me word.

He wrote to Sir Joseph Banks :

Count Rumford has sent me a letter from Mannheim,
dated the 13th of September. He had applied for leave to
pass through France to England, but was refused. I sup-
pose the French Government thought that he too would
act the spy.1

He professes himself still uncertain whether he should
not attempt the journey by the north of Germany, but I
am myself pretty well satisfied that he will not. In the
meantime he desires me to assure you that he will certainly
contrive to send the paper on Heat before Christmas. The
King and Queen of Sweden were then at Mannheim. He
had been presented to and had dined with them.

Later he wrote :

Soho Square, September 29.

My last letter from Count Rumford was of July 31, but
I have learned otherwise that he was at Geneva about the
1 Blagden himself had just been accused of being a spy.

86 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

20th of August, setting out for a tour to the icy mountains
of Savoy. He has permission, therefore, to travel in that
part of the French territory. Whether he will be allowed
to return to England through France, or whether he will
come at all, I do not yet know.

Whilst in Switzerland Eumford wrote ' Some Observa-
tions on the Glaciers of Chamotmi, and on the Propa-
gation of Heat in Liquids.' This paper was sent to the
Royal Society, of which he was then vice-president,
December 15. It was published in the 'Philosophical
Transactions ' for 1804.

On December 5, 1803, Sir C. Blagden again wrote
to Rumford's daughter :

All I can tell you about your father is this : He continued
travelling with the French lady till about the middle of
September, when she left him at Mannheim and returned
to Paris. Your father had applied to the French Govern-
ment for leave to come to England through France, but
was refused. In consequence he remained at Mannheim
till the middle of October, when, having by some means, I
do not know how, induced the French Government to
change their resolution, and allow him to travel in France,
he set out for Paris ; and I know that he was in that city
on the 1st of November. In the last letter I received from
him, which, was written the day before he set out from
Mannheim, he said that he had great hopes of being in
England before the end of this year. Since that time I
have heard nothing from him. He continues very intimate
with the lady, but whether it will end in a marriage I
cannot say. My own opinion is rather inclined to the
negative, yet I have no good foundation for it.

Since this was written I have received a letter from your
father, dated at Paris, November 11. By this it is evident
that he expects to marry the French lady, though nothing
is yet finally determined.

1804. MT. 51.] COUNT RtTMFOKD. 87

i

On March 12, 1804, he again writes from Liverpool :

The last account I received of your father was dated the
19th of January. He was then at Paris, very assiduous in
his attentions to the French lady, with whom, indeed, he
spent most of his time. But I believe she had not then
determined to marry him, and I am still inclined to think
she never will. In the meantime he is entirely losing his
interest in the country. His residence at Paris this winter,
whilst we were threatened with an invasion, is considered
by everyone as very improper conduct, and his numerous
enemies do not fail to make the most of it. He has
quarrelled with Mr. Bernard and others of his old friends
at the Royal Institution, and they do all they can to render
him unpopular. Probably he has written to you more than
once by American ships since his residence at Paris. To
me he wrote on the 12th of November, about a fortnight
after his arrival there. But I expect no other letter from
him, as it would certainly be imprudent in him to keep up
a correspondence with this country during his residence in
France.

On January 22, 1804, Rumford wrote to his daughter :

I shall withhold this information from you no longer. I
really do think of marrying, though I am not yet absolutely
determined on matrimony. I made the acquaintance of
this very amiable woman in Paris, who, I believe, would
have no objection in having me for a husband, and who in
all respects would be a proper match for me. She is a
Avidow, without children, never having had any, is about
my own age, enjoys good health, is very pleasant in society,
has a handsome fortune at her own disposal, enjoys a most
respectable reputation, keeps a good house, which is fre-
quented by all the first philosophers and men of eminence
in the science and literature of the age, or rather of Paris,
and, what is more than all the rest, is goodness itself. . . .
She is very clever (according to the English signification of

88 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

the word) ; in short, she is another Lady Palmerston. She
has been very handsome in her day, and even now, at forty-
six or forty-eight, is not bad-looking ; of a middling size,
but rather en Ion point than thin. She has a great deal of
vivacity and writes incomparably well.

He soon after writes again of the lady : ' She is
fond of travelling, and wishes to make the tour of
Italy with me. She appears to be most sincerely at-
tached to me, and I esteem and love her very much.'

On February 7, 1804, the Count writes again from
Paris. He and Madame Lavoisier were then making
preparations for their marriage. She deposited in his
name one hundred and twenty thousand livres in the
five per cent. French funds, which was to go to the sur-
vivor of the three — herself, himself, or his daughter.
An income of six thousand a year out of her own pro-
perty was secured to Madame Lavoisier. Her house
in Paris, as well as the Count's at Brompton, was to re-
vert to the survivor of the two.

On July 2 he said :

MY DEAE SALLY, — This letter, which will be entirely
devoted to very serious and important business, will, no
doubt, obtain your serious attention.

In order to be able to complete in a legal manner some
domestic arrangements of great importance to me and to
you, I have lately found, to my no small surprise, that cer-
tificates of my birth and of the death of my former wife are
indispensably necessary. You can, no doubt, very easily
procure them — the one from the town clerk of Woburn,
the other from the town clerk of Concord. And I request
that you would do it without loss of time, and send them
to me under cover, or rather in a letter addressed to me
and sent to the care of my bankers in London. As an

1805. J&n. 52.] COUNT RUMFOKD. 89

accident may possibly happen to that letter, I beg you
would at the same time send another set of these certificates
directly to Paris, addressed to me, rue de Clichy, No. 356.

On July 3 he wrote to Mr. Savage, the clerk of the
Royal Institution :

With regard to the outstanding bills which you mention,
as I intend and expect to come to England SOOD, they may
as well stand on till my arrival. Some of the charges
require examination. It gives me great pleasure to hear
that my house is kept in good order. I hope to inhabit it
next winter.

On August 10 the Count left Paris for Munich.
On May 1, 1805, he wrote to the clerk of the Eoyal

Institution :

Munich, May 1.

I have written to Mr. Herries respecting the letting or
selling of my house. I hear that the Royal Institution is
become a great favourite with the public. I am sorry,
however, to find that the Journals of the Institution have
not been continued. I desire you would make my compli-
ments to Mr. Davy, and tell him that I am still employed
in my researches on heat and light. I should be glad to
know what he is doing, for I am sure he cannot be idle.
It is now more uncertain than ever when I shall have it in
my power to visit England.

To his daughter he wrote, June 18, from Munich :

I left Paris the 9th of June, and arrived here the 16th.
My stay here is uncertain, for many things are yet wanting
that are indispensably necessary for the success of such an
establishment as the Academy of Arts and Sciences.1 I

1 It was not until May 1, 1807, that King Maximilian Joseph, 'having
extended the bounds of his kingdom, gave a new constitution to the
Bavarian Academy, proportioned to the existing state of science and to
his new empire.' The first public meeting was held on July 27.

90 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

continue to pursue my philosophical researches, and that
will ever be the most pleasing occupation I can have.

On September 17 lie was again in Paris.
He wrote to his daughter :

Eue d'Anjou, No. 39, Paris, October 25, 1805.

You will have intelligence by the papers of the events
that have lately taken place in Germany. Foreseeing the
storm, I left Munich the day before the Elector left it. I
have brought Aichner and his whole family, not being will-
ing to leave them behind. I succeeded in so winding up my
affairs in Bavaria as in the future to be able to live where I
please. I shall, of course, go from time to time to pay my
respects to the Elector, for he has ever treated me with too
much respect for me to be negligent on that account towards
him.

I have informed you before of the arrangements Madame
Lavoisier and I had made in case of our marriage, which,
in fact, took place yesterday.

I have the best-founded hopes of passing my days in
peace and quiet in this paradise of a place, made what it is
by me — my money, skill, and directions. In short, it is all
but a paradise, removed from the noise and bustle of the
street, facing full to the south, in the midst of a beautiful
garden of more than two acres, well planted with trees and
shrubbery. The entrance from the street is through an
iron gate, by a beautiful winding avenue, well planted, and
the porter's lodge is by the side of this gate ; a great bell to
be rung in case of ceremonious visits.'

The daughter's comment on this letter is: 'It seems
there had been an acquaintance between these parties
of four years before marriage. It might be thought a
long space of time enough for perfect acquaintance.
But?jah Providence ! thy ways are past finding out.'

1805. JET. 52.] COUNT RUMFORD. 91

Dr. Ellis, the biographer of Eumford, says :

An interval, though a very brief one, of cheerfulness and
satisfaction was enjoyed by the Count after his marriage.
There were but two letters to his daughter recognising
this state of content and pleasant anticipation. He informed
her that he left Munich under the pleasantest relations with
the Bavarian sovereign and his friends at that Court. He
had received a letter from Maximilian, congratulating him
on his marriage and approving of his settling himself in
France, and at the same time adding four thousand florins
a year to his pay.

One letter was dated from Paris, December 20, 1805,
two months after his marriage :

I gave up my lodgings on quitting Munich, and managed
so as to settle all concerns of business. I flatter myself I
am settled down here for life, far removed from wars and
all arduous duties, as a recompense for past services, with
plenty to live upon and at liberty to pursue my own natural
propensities, such as have occupied me through life — a life,
as I try to fancy, that may come under the denomination
of a benefit to mankind.

Next spring we are going to travel into Italy and the
south of France, to be gone two years, so you must
patiently stay where you are for the present.

You will wish to know what sort of a place we live in.
The house is rather an old-fashioned concern, but in a plot
of over two acres of land, in the very centre and finest part
of Paris, near the Champs Elysees and the Tuileries and
principal boulevards. I have already made great alter-
ations in our place, and shall do a vast deal more. When
these are done I think Madame de Rumford will find it in
a very different condition from that in which it was, that
being very pitiful with all her riches.

Our style of living is really magnificent. Madame is
exceedingly fond of company, and makes a splendid figure in

92 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

it herself. But she seldom goes out, keeping open doors ;
that is to say, to all the great and worthy, such as the
philosophers, members of the Institute, ladies of celebrity,
&c.

On Mondays we have eight or ten of the most noted of
our associates to dinner. Thursdays are devoted to even- „
ing company, of ladies and gentlemen, without regard to
numbers. Tea and fruits are given, the guests continuing
till twelve or after. Often superb concerts are given, with
the finest vocal and instrumental performers.

At this time Sir C. Blagden wrote to Sir Joseph
Banks :

I have received a letter, dated November 22, from a lady
in Paris, which contains no kind of news except the follow-
ing article about Count Rumford and his lady : ' Madame
Lavoisier s'appelle a present Madame de Rumford. J'ai
vu Madame de Rumford [the writer of the letter has been
returned to Paris only two days]. Us ne donnent ni 1'un
ni 1'autre aucun detail sur leur mariage ni sur 1'epoque ; un
jour ils Font dit a leurs amis, et il n'y a pas eu plus de for-
malite que cela. Ils sont sur un pied fort amical, mais ils
etaient ainsi depuis longtemps. La maison de Mdme. de
Rumford est charmante. Elle rembellit tons les jours et
avec beaucoup de gout.'

On January 15, 1806, Rumford wrote to his daughter :

The newspapers will acquaint you with the other par-
ticulars of this peace, which will occasion a great change in
the political state of Germany, as, in fact, of all Europe. I
hope that I shall not, and I do not think that I shall, lose
by any of these changes. At all events the Elector, or
rather the new King, has just written me a very kind
letter, giving me hopes, rather than suggesting fears of any-
thing of a disagreeable nature. But dependencies like
mine can never be otherwise than uncertain, as I feel it,
notwithstanding my marriage. I may make a change,

1806. JET. 53.] COUNT RUMFORD. 93

after all, but never certainly to the disadvantage of any-
one. Between you and myself, as a family secret, I am not
at all sure that two certain persons were not wholly mis-
taken, in their marriage, as to each other's characters.
Time will show. But two months barely expired, I fore-
bode difficulties. Already I am obliged to send my good
Germans home — a great discomfort to me and wrong to
them.

On March 8, 1806, Sir C. Blagden, who had quar-
relled with his friend because he thought that Count
Rumford had not defended him from the imputation
of acting as a spy in Paris in 1803, wrote to Rumford's
daughter regarding the marriage :

They are now living together in Paris, and, as far as I
can learn, very happily. I know nothing of it from your
father himself, which is not surprising, as I some time since
intimated to him my wish that our correspondence should
cease. We are not, to the best of my knowledge, on terms
of enmity, but it is not likely that any kind of confidence or
friendship should subsist between us again.

In 1806 and 1807 Count Rumford sought for relief
by the pursuit of science. He published in the
Memoirs of the mathematical class of the Institute a
continuation and extension of his investigations on
light and heat. These were in the sixth, seventh, and
eighth volumes, and made nine papers. 1. <A Descrip-
tion of a New Thermoscope or Differential Thermo-
meter.' 2. ' Researches on Heat, Showing the Effect
of Difference of Surface on Radiation.'5'' 3. 'Farther
Experiments on the Effect of Blackening the Surface.'
4. ' Researches Continued on the Different Properties
of Bodies with Respect to Radiation and to Conducting

94 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

Powers.' 5. 'Further Eesearches on the Passage of
Heat through Solids.' 6. ' Experiments on the Heat
of the Solar Bays.' 7. ' Eemarks on the Temperature
of Water at the Maximum Density.' He made it 41°
F. or 5° C. This paper was published in the ' Philo-
sophical Transactions.' 8. On the 'Dispersion of the
Light of Lamps by Screens of Ground Glass, Silk, and
so forth, with a Description of a New Lamp.' He had an
illuminator constructed and presented to the Institute.
This paper was published in England as his sixteenth
essay on the ' Management of Light in Illuminations.'
9. On the ' Cooling of Liquids in Vases of Porcelain, Gilt
or not Gilt.'

In October 1806 he gave this sad account to his
daughter :

MY DEAR CHILD, — This being the first year's anniversary
of my marriage, from what I wrote two months after it,
you will be curious to know how things stand at present.
I am sorry to say that experience only serves to confirm me
in the belief that in character and natural propensities
Madame de Rumford and myself are totally unlike, and
never ought to have thought of marrying. We are, besides,
both too independent, both in our sentiments and habits of
life, to live peaceably together — she having been mistress
all her days of her actions, and I, with no less liberty,
leading for the most part the life of a bachelor. Very
likely she is as much disaffected towards me as I am towards
her. Little it matters with me, but I call her a female
dragon — simply by that gentle name ! We have got to
the pitch of my insisting on one thing and she on another.

It is possible that, had the war ceased raging, and had
we gone into Italy, where she is dying to go, and with me
too, she having heard me speak much of the delights of

1807. JEx. 54.] COUNT EUMFOED. 95

that country, she having been very happy, too, in travelling
with me in Switzerland, it might have suspended diffi-
culties, but never have effected a cure. That is out of the
question. Indeed, I have not the least idea of continuing
here, and, if possible, still less the wish, and am only
planning in. my mind what steps I shall take next — to be
hoped more to my advantage. Communication with
England is prohibited, and it makes me sad.

He wrote more pitiably a year later :

Rue d'Anjou, Paris, October 24, 1807.

I can do no more, my dear Sally, than simply give you
the latest news upon this the anniversary of my marriage,
for I am still here, and so far from things getting better
they become worse every day. We are more violent and
more open, and more public, as may really be said, in our
quarrels. If she does not mind publicity, for a certainty I
shall not. As I write the uncouth word quarrels, I will
give you an idea of one of them.

In the first place be it known that this estate is a joint
concern. I have as good a right to it as Madame, she
having paid rather more in the beginning, but I an im-
mensity of money in repairs and alterations, &c. &c.,
besides a great deal of my own time and care spent while
we have been here.

I am almost afraid to tell you the story, my good child,
lest in future you should not be good ; lest what I am
about relating should set you a bad example, make you
passionate, and so on. But I had been made very angry.
A large party had been invited I neither liked nor approved
of, and invited for the sole purpose of vexing me. Our
house being in the centre of the garden, walled around,
with iron gates, I put on my hat, walked down to the
porter's lodge and gave him orders, on his peril, not to let
anyone in. Besides, I took away the keys. Madame went
down, and when the company arrived she talked with them,

96 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. .[CHAP. II.

she on one side, they on the other, of the high brick wall.
After that she goes and pours boiling water on some of
my beautiful flowers.

And the wretched climax came the next year :

Rue d'Anjou, St. Honor6, No. 39, Paris, April 12, 1808.

After what you know, my dear Sally, of my domestic
troubles you will naturally be anxious to know the present
state of things. There are no alterations for the better.
On the contrary, much worse. I have suffered more than
you can imagine for the last four weeks ; but my rights are
incontestable, and I am determined to maintain them. I
have the misfortune to be married to one of the most im-
perious, tyrannical, unfeeling women that ever existed, and
whose perseverance in pursuing an object is equal to her
profound cunning and wickedness in framing it.

It is impossible to continue in this way, and we shall
separate. I only wish it was well over. It is probable I
shall ^ake a house at Auteuil, a very pleasant place, with
the Seine on one side and the Bois de Boulogne on the
other, about a league from Paris. I have seen a very
handsome house there which I can have — rather dear, but
that matters little can I but find quiet. It would be truly
unfortunate, after the King of Bavaria's late bounties joined
to former ones, if I could not live more independently than
with this unfeeling, cunning, tyrannical woman.

Little do we know people at first sight ! Do you preserve
my letters ? You will perceive that I have given very
different accounts of this woman, for lady I cannot call her.

Now, my dear Sally, as soon as I get settled, enjoying
again independence, I shall wish you to join me.

In the meantime believe me your affectionate Father.

The Count bought the lease of his villa at Auteuil
in April 1808.

For the last two or three months of his most miserable

1809. JEa:. 56.] COUNT EUMFORD. 97

married life he was seriously ill. The nature of his ill-
ness is seen by the remedies that benefited him.
He told his daughter that the King of Bavaria,
having knowledge of his domestic discomforts, had re-
cently written him a letter that had done him much
good. ' He speaks most kindly to me, and encourages
me to bear my misfortunes like a man of firmness who
has nothing to reproach himself with.'

The separation took place amicably on June 30,
1809. He soon after wrote to his daughter :

I find myself relieved from an almost insupportable
burden. I cannot repeat too much how happy I am,
gaining every day in health, which, from vexations, had
become seriously deranged. I am persuaded it is all for
the best. After the scenes which I have recently passed
through I realise, as never before, the sweets of quiet,
liberty, and independence. My household consists of the
most faithful, honest people, attached to me, without dis-
sension, bribery, or malice. And, above all, that eternal
contradiction. Oh ! happy, thrice happy, am I to be my
own man again !

Later he wrote :

Madame de Bumford is well. I see her sometimes,
though very seldom. After what is past a reconciliation
is impossible. She now repents of her conduct, but it is
too late. The less I see her the better. I now enjoy peace
and tranquillity, and my health improves every day.

Again :

Auteuil, October 24, 1809.

DEAR SALLY, — The c Mentor ' arrived some weeks since,
when I was expecting you. Without doubt the reason you
did not come was owing to your not finding proper protec-

H

98 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

tion, and in these terrible times of war you cannot be too
particular. This unfortunate war chains me to the spot,
for I am so situated between three governments that I am
obliged almost to turn into a cypher. It is to England I
want to go, but dare not risk it. And it is there I should
much prefer receiving you than here.

By the date of^ this letter you will perceive it to be the
anniversary of my wedding-day with Madame Lavoisier
to-day four years. I own I make choice of this day to
write to you, in reality to testify joy, but joy that I am
away from her, as has been the case for the last six months.
It would be difficult to describe what I suffered there for
the last year. I often wished for you, but am now ex-
ceedingly glad you did not come, as it would have made
you unhappy and perhaps have done me no good. I was
made quite ill at last, but now, thank Heaven, I am re-
covering my health and spirits fast. I am like one risen
from the dead. Adieu, my dear child. You will hear
from me soon again, and I hope to see you soon. I have
some pretty rooms prepared for you. I had one of the
Aichners to come and wait upon you, but she did not
exactly please me, and I sent her back again. My old
servants, her father and mother, are nicely established,
owing to mine and the Elector's kindness, at Munich, and
are very happy.

Auteuil, November 12, 1809.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER, — Here is another month past, and
you do not come. I know all the difficulties of travelling
either by sea or by land, so do not blame you ; am only
sorry. Sorry on several accounts — on one account that
I want to see you. For do you recollect, my dear, that it
is many years since we saw each other ? We will not say
how many, lest the time should seem longer. And little
did I think, when you quitted me at Brompton, it would
have been for such a length of time, nor would it have
been but for this unfortunate marriage. Never were there

1810. JET. 57.]

COUNT RUMFORD.

99

two more distinct beings than this woman (for I cannot
call her a lady) before and after marriage. But un-
doubtedly she was pushed on by those looking forward to
her fortune, fearing some of it would light on me. She is
the most avaricious woman I ever saw, and the most
cunning — things which I could not possibly know before
marriage.

I suffered more for the last fourteen months — indeed, the
whole three years and a half that I lived with her — than I
had an idea I could have gone through. Luckily I have
money enough of my own, but war and these terrible times
prevent me from receiving money from Bavaria, or my
half-pay from England. Yet I am obliged to keep up a
certain consequence, besides being disgusted with every-
thing. I am afraid you will have to quit the world if you
stay with me.

Auteuil, January 10, 1810.

Here month after month arrives, but you do not come.
I am very impatient to see you, but I am more anxious
lest something should happen to you on the way, for dis-
cord reigns everywhere.

Later lie said :

I am absolutely obliged to set out for Munich, so if you
come in the time you must make yourself comfortable.
If I find you here on my return, it will give me much
pleasure.

The King has been in Paris, and invited me so kindly I
thought it my duty to .go ; but he assures me I shall not be
detained there on any business of importance.

On his arrival in Munich he wrote :

My reception here has been most kind and nattering.
The whole town is in expectation of seeing me again fixed
here and employed in the public affairs of the country.

H 2

100 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

But I know positively, and it is my greatest consolation,
that I shall be permitted to return quietly to my retreat at
Auteuil.

Adieu, my dear Sally. I shall write to you again, I
think, before leaving Munich ; but you had better not write
me, lest I should be already set out on my return.

My health is perfectly good, and I am very happy. All
my late sufferings are forgotten. I feel as if just relieved
from an insupportable weight. God be thanked for my
delivery! All your friends here have desired to be re-
membered to you. Adieu, my dear Sally ; make yourself
as comfortable and happy as you can, and be assured that
I have at length quite recovered my reason, and that I am
now persuaded that all that has happened to me has been
most fortunate for me. I am now a free man.

Munich, October 24, 1810.

You will perceive that this is the anniversary of my
marriage. I am happy to call it to mind, that I may
compare my present situation with the three and a half
horrible years I was living with that tyrannical, avari-
cious, unfeeling woman. You can have no idea, my dear
Sally, what I had to suffer during the last fourteen months —
indeed, during the whole three years and a half I lived in
that house — but the closing six months was a purgatory
sufficiently painful to do away the sins of a thousand years.

The Prince Royal was married on the 12th, and we have
had continued fetes and rejoicings. The English Garden
is in high beauty ; no expense is spared upon it. I am
allowed to dine with the King pretty much as often as I
wish, but to-morrow I take leave of him, of Munich, and
the rest of my friends ; so you will soon, my dear Sally,
see me at Auteuil.

In December 1811 his daughter arrived at Auteuil,
and found him in excellent health. She writes :

1811. ^!T. 58.] COUNT EUMFORD. 101

I had not been many days at Auteuil before we had a
visit from his separated lady, for they seemed to be on good
terms — at least on visiting terms. The lady was gracious
to me, and I was charmed with her, nor did I ever after find
reason to be otherwise, for she was truly an admirable
character. Their disagreements must have arisen from
their independence of character and mein£>;'>K*ii/g' used;
always to having their own ways. Their pursuits in some
particulars were different. He was fond of nis
and she of company.

A picture of Madame de Rumford was thus drawn
by M. Gruizot in 1841, five years after her death :

Soit affection pour son mari, soit disposition naturelle,
Madame Lavoisier s'associa a ses travaux comme un com-
pagnon ou un disciple. Ceux-la meme qui ne 1'ont connue
que bien loin de la jeunesse ont pu demeler que sous une
apparence un peu froide et rude, et presque uniquement
preoccoupee de sa vie de societe, c'etait une personne capable
d'etre fortement saisie par un sentiment, par une idee, et de
s'y adonner avec passion. Elle vivait dans le laboratoire de
M. Lavoisier, 1'aidait dans ses experiences, ecrivait ses ob-
servations sous sa dictee, traduisait, definait pour lui. Elle
apprit a graver, pour qu'il rut sur d'un ouvrier exact jus-
qu'au scrupule, et les planches du * Traite de Chimie ' furent
bien reellement 1'ceuvre de ses mains. Elle publia, parce
qu'il le desirait, la traduction d'un ouvrage du chimiste
anglais Kirwan sur l la Force des Acides et la Proportion
des Substances qui composent les Sels neutres,' et elle avait
acquis, de la science qu'ils cultivaient ensemble, une intel-
ligence si complete que lorsqu'en 1805, onze ans apres la
niort de Lavoisier, elle voulut reunir et publier ses memoires
scientifiques, elle put se charger seule de ce travail et 1'ac-
complit en effet, en y joignant une preface parfaitement
simple, ou ne se laisse entrevoir aucune ombre de prevention.

Un interieur aussi anime par affection reciproque et des

102 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

occupations favorites, une grande fortune, bean coup de
consideration, une bonne maison a 1* Arsenal, recherchee par
les homines les plus distingues, tous les plaisirs de 1'esprit,
de la richesse, de la jeunesse, c'etait la, a coup sur, une ex-
istence brillante et douce. Cette existence fut frappee,
foudroyee par la Revolution, comme toutes celles qui 1'en-
toursciehit.: ^E)n fl794 Mdme. Lavoisier vit monter le meme
jour surTechafar.drSon pere et son mari, et elle n'echappa
'.eUe-Ei&rJe, ftpfc&Si n'n emprisonnement assez court, qu'en
"plongeant avec la patience la plus perseverante dans la plus
complete et silencieuse obscurite.

Quand les proscriptions cesserent, quand 1'ordre et la
justice revinrent apaiser et ranimer en meme temps la
societe, Mdme. Lavoisier reprit sa place dans le monde, en-
touree de toute une generation de savants illustres, les
amis, les disciples, les successeurs de Lavoisier, Lagrange,
Laplace, Berth ollet, Cuvier, Prony, Humboldt, Arago, char-
mes en honorant sa veuve de trouver dans sa maison, en
retour de 1'eclat qu'ils y repandaient, les agrements d'une
hospitalite elegante. M. de Rumford 'arriva parrni eux.
II etait alors au service du roi de Baviere et jouissait dans
le public d'une grande popularite scientifique ; son esprit
etait eleve, sa conversation pleine d'interet, ses manieres em-
preintes de bonte. II plut a Mdme. Lavoisier; il s'accordait
avec ses habitudes, ses gouts, on pourrait presque dire avec
ses souvenirs. Elle espera recommencer en quelque sorte
son bonheur. Elle 1'epousa le 22 October, 1805, heureuse
d'offrir a un homme distingue une grande fortune et la
plus agreable existence.

Leurs caracteres ne se convinrent point. A la jeunesse
seuie il est facile d'oublier au sein d'un tendre bonheur la
perte de 1'independence. Des questions delicates furent
elevees, des susceptibilites s'eveillerent. Mdme. de Rumford
en se remariant avait formellement stipule dans son contrat
qu'elle se ferait appeler Madame Lavoisier de Rumford.
M. de Rumford, qui y avait consenti, finit par le trouver

1812. JET. 59.] COUNT RUMFORD. 103

mauvais. Elle persista. ' J'ai regarde comme un devoir,
comme une religion,' ecrivait-elle en 1808, 'de ne point
quitter le nom de Lavoisier. . . . Comptant snr la parole de
M. de Rumford je n'en aurais pas fait un article de mes
engagements civils avec lui, si je n'avais voulu laisser un acte
public de mon respect pour M. Lavoisier et une preuve de
la generosity de M. de Rumford. C'est un devoir pour moi
de tenir a une determination qui a toujours ete une des
conditions de notre union ; et j'ai dans le fond de mon ame
Tintime conviction que M. de Rumford ne me desapprou-
vera pas et qu'apres avoir pris le temps d'y reflechir . . .
il me permettra de continuer a remplir un devoir que je
regarde comme sacre.'

Ce fut encore la une esperance trompee. Apres des agi-
tations domestiques, que M. de Rumford avec plus de tact
eut rendues inoins bruyantes, la separation devint neces-
saire, et elle eut lieu a 1'aimable le 30 juin, 1809.

Depuis cette epoque et pendant vingt-sept ans aucun
evenement, on pourrait dire aucun incident, ne derangea
plus Mdme. de Rumford dans sa noble et agreable fa£on de
vivre. Elle n'appartint plus qu'a ses amis et a la societe,
tantot etendue, tantot resserree, qu'elle recevait avec un
melange assez singulier de rudesse et de politesse, toujours
de tres-bonne compagnie et d'une grande intelligence du
monde meme dans ses brusqueries de langage et ses fan-
taisies d'autorite.

In February 1812 Count Rumford gave his mother
10,000 dollars in 3J per cent, stock as a free gift, and
he wrote to her :

I desire that you will accept of it as a token of my dutiful
affection for you, and of my gratitude for the kind care you
took of me in the early part of my life. I have the
greatest satisfaction in being able to show my gratitude for
all your goodness to me, and to contribute to your ease and
comfort. I request that you will consider this donation as

104 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

being perfectly free and unconditional, and that yon would
enjoy and dispose of what is now your property just as you
shall think best and most conducive to your happiness and
to your satisfaction, without any regard to any former
arrangements you have made at my request.

My health continues to be good, and I yet feel none of
those infirmities of age which sometimes render the evening
of life painful. I have the satisfaction to think that I have
done my duty through life, and that is a great consolation
to me as I approach the end of my course. I shall never
cease to be, my dear mother, your dutiful and affectionate
child,

BENJAMIN.

On January 23 he had a paper read before the
Royal Society which he published as his seventeenth
essay. It was an ' Inquiry Concerning the Source of
the Light which is Manifested in the Combustion of
Inflammable Bodies.'

His object was to prove by decisive experiments
that the light which accompanies the complete com-
bustion of any given quantity of pure inflammable
matter is variable, and therefore light cannot be one
of the chemical products of combustion.

If light were a substance, as has been supposed, it seems
highly probable that means would long since have been
found to discover where and how it exists ; but if it be
nothing more than a blow given to the eye by the
repercussion of an ethereal fluid which touches that organ
and at the same time every other body in the universe, it is
evident that all attempts to discover it in a state of com-
bination must be vain.

Nobody, I imagine, ever thought of searching for sound
in a fulminating powder. Is it more reasonable to search
-there for the light that accompanies the combustion of sub-
stances ?

1812. JET. 59.] COTJOT RUMFORD. 105

The greatest light may be obtained by preserving the
heat of the flame. Thus several flat flames placed together,
in order that they may mutually cover and defend each
other against the powerful cooling influence of surrounding
'bodies, form a lamp that has answered far beyond my most
sanguine expectation.

I lose no time in giving an account of the principles on
which it is constructed, in hopes that others may be induced
to assist in improving it.

So far from being jealous of their success I shall rejoice
in it, and shall ever be most ready to contribute to it by all
the means in my power.

On February 24 be had a paper read before the
French Institute on the 'Heat Manifested in the Com-
bustion of Inflammable Substances.'

On August 1 be published his last essay, tbe eight-
eenth, of the 'Excellent Qualities of Coffee and tbe
Art of Making it in tbe Highest Perfection.

In 1813 the founder of tbe Eoyal Institution once
more met Davy, then the great discoverer who by
his eloquence and genius had saved tbe Eumford In-
stitution from an early death.

In the ' Life of Davy,' by Dr. Paris, it is said, probably
on the authority of Mr. Underwood, ' On November
10 they (Underwood and Davy) dined at Auteuil with
Count Rumford, at tbis time a prisoner in France, who
showed his laboratory to Davy. This was exactly eight
months before the poor, broken-hearted Count sank
into tbe grave, the victim of domestic torment and of
tbe persecutions of the French savans, instigated by
his wife, tbe widow of the celebrated Lavoisier.'

The following account of Count Rumford's life at
Auteuil was probably also written by his friend Mr.

106 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

Underwood. It was published in the 'Gentleman's
Magazine 'in 1814 :

After the death of his worthy friend, the illustrious
Lagrange, he saw only his next-door neighbour, the Senator
Leconteux Caneleux ; Mr. Underwood, a member of the
Royal Institution, who assisted him in his experiments ;
and an old friend, Mr. Parker, a learned American, who
possesses a splendid mansion in Paris and a very fine
landed estate and. agricultural establishment in its environs.
He ceased to attend the sittings of the National Institute ;
but for the perpetual secretary, Cuvier, a man as morally
estimable as his talents are superior to his French fellow-
members, he always preserved the highest admiration and
esteem.

One object of his later occupations was a work — not yet
finished, though it has been constantly going on for more
than twenty years — on the ' Nature and Effects of Order,'
which, had he been spared to finish it, would probably have
been one of the most valuable presents ever made to
domestic society. No man in all his habits had more the
spirit of order ; everything was classed ; no object was ever
allowed to remain an instant out of its place the moment
he had done with it, and he was never behind his time in
an appointment a single instant.

He was also latterly employed on a series of experiments
on the propagation of heat in solids. He had by him
several unpublished works, particularly one of considerable
interest on Meteorolites, in which he demonstrated that
they came from regions beyond the atmosphere of the earth.
He has left several memoirs in French (of which he had a
few copies printed for the use of his friends) on the quantity
of heat obtained by the combustion of various substances
and the relative quantity of light from others, with a
description of different improvements in the construction
of lamps, which he had the satisfaction of seeing very
generally adopted in Paris. His admirable paper on the

1813. ^ET. 60.] COUNT RUMFORD, 107

* Advantages of Broad Wheels to Carriages ' is well known.
He put this in practice in his own chariot; but, though
there could be no doubt of their advantages, they were not
used by others, the Count's being the only carriage in Paris
that had them. Nor did anyone follow (which is not to
be wondered at) his whimsical winter dress, which was
entirely white, even his hat. This he adopted agreeably to
the law of nature, that more heated rays are thrown from a
dark body than from a light one. I do not know whether
his very simple, and I may add perfect, calorimeter is
known in England. The apparatus with which he was
making a series of experiments on the relative conducting
powers of different solid bodies for heat, and which death
prevented his completing, is of the greatest beauty. It
consists of a cylindrical vessel of cork (which is a perfect
non-conductor of heat), in the centre of the bottom of which
the small solid cylinder of the substance to be experimented
upon is fitted into an aperture of exactly the same diameter
as the cylindrical vessel, which is then filled with water,
and heat from the flame of a spirit-lamp is applied to the
lower extremity of the substance ; the time the heat takes
to pass through and raise the temperature of the water
indicates the relative conducting powers of the different
substances through which it is made to pass. He has
repeatedly declared to me it was his decided opinion that
heat and light were the result of vibrations in bodies, and
were not bodies themselves. He had lately brought to
the greatest perfection a lamp for burning spirits of wine,
and by which all explosion was rendered impossible. This
in France is of the greatest convenience, where, from the
low price of alcohol, it is nearly as economical as any other
fuel for heating water.

The Count met with considerable plague in his pursuits
from the malignant disposition and jealousies of his fellow-
members of the National Institute, in consequence of having
differed in opinion on capillary attraction from their despotic

108 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

leader, Laplace. He often used to exclaim tliat no one
who had not lived a considerable time in France could
imagine how contemptible a nation they are, and how void
of honour and even honesty. "Whenever he ordered any
instrument at a mathematical instrument maker's a similar
one was instantly made for some one of the Great Nation,
though of the intended use they were at the moment
ignorant; but the hope of supplanting a foreigner and of
arrogating to themselves a discovery (a common practice
with them) incited them to adopt this dishonourable prac-
tice. This forced him to send for a workman from Ger-
many, whom he constantly employed, and who lived in his
house. I was one day with the Count at a sitting of the
first class of the Institute, when we heard one of the leading
members declare that they would set their faces against
any discovery which did not originate among themselves.

The Count displayed extraordinary spirited conduct and
firmness in refusing the French the passage of the city of
Munich. He used often to dwell with much pleasure on
having been the means of bringing forward two celebrated
characters, the Bavarian general Wieden and Sir Humphry
Davy — the former originally a lawyer, or a land steward,
and possessing great military dispositions ; Count Rumford,
then Minister of War to the Elector of Bavaria, gave him
a commission : and the latter was recommended to him
when he had the direction of the Royal Institution by Mr.
Underwoodj and was made Lecturer on Chemistry.

The climate of France agreeing with him far better than
that of Bavaria, he received permission of the King of
Bavaria to reside there ; and his half-pay as lieutenant-
general in his service and pension of retreat as minister of
his late father [uncle] were regularly paid him, amounting
to about twelve hundred pounds sterling per annum. It
was this which prevented his return to England, as
Bonaparte would not, in that case, have allowed his vassal,
the King of Bavaria, to have paid the Count.

1814. Sfs. 61.] COUNT RUMFORD. 109

When Bavaria joined in the coalition for the emancipa-
tion of Europe it was agitated in Bonaparte's council to
send the Connt away. However, as it was proved that he
scarcely ever stirred out of his house, he was allowed to
remain.

The German, French, Spanish, and Italian languages
were as familiar to the Count as the English, both in
speaking and writing. His only recreations were playing
at billiards against himself, for want of one to play with, and
walking in his garden, of which he was very fond, though
ignorant of botany and even of the common names of the
commonest plants. He was very fond of chess, at which
he played well, but rarely enjoyed this pleasure, as he said
that after a few minutes' play his feet became like ice and
his head like fire. He drew with great skill the designs of
his own inventions, but of painting and sculpture he had
no knowledge and little feeling ; nor had he any taste
for poetry. He had, however, great -taste for landscape-
gardening.

His habits of life were latterly most abstemious, so
much so that he had not sufficient vital strength to resist
a nervous fever, which carried him off on the 21st of August,
after three days' illness, when he was on the eve of returning
to England, to which as long as he lived he retained the
most devoted attachment.

In the 'Moniteur Universel ' of August 25, 1814,
the death and burial of Count Kumford are mentioned.
An address was pronounced over his grave by the
Baron Benjamin Delessert, his friend and banker in
Paris, on the 24th.

The news of Count Eumford's illness and burial
reached the French Academy at the same time, so that
the members were unable to attend his funeral. On
January 9, 1815, Baron Cuvier read his eloge to the
Academy. In it he said :

110 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

Nous 1'y avons vu, en effet, pendant dix ans honore des
Francais et des etrangers, estime des amis des sciences,
partageant leurs travaux, aidant de ses avis jusqu'aux
moindres artisans, gratifiant noblement le public de tout
ce qu'il inventait chaque jour d'utile. Eien n'y aurait
manque a la douceur de son existence si I'amenite de son
commerce avait egale son ardeur pour 1'utilite publique.

Mais il faut 1'avouer, il percait dans sa conversation et
dans toute sa maniere d'etre un sentiment qui devait paraitre
fort extraordinaire dans un liomme si constamment bien
traite par les autres, et qui leur avait fait lui-meme tant de
bien : c'est que c'etait sans les aimer et sans les estimer
qu'il avait rendu tous ces services a ses semblables. Appa-
remment que les passions viles qu'il avait observees dans
les miserables commis a ses soins ou ces autres passions non
moms viles que sa fortune avait excitees parmi ses rivaux
1'avaient ulcere contre la nature humaine. Aussi ne
pensait-il point que 1'on doit confier au commun des hommes
le soin de leur bien-etre; ce besoin qui leur semble si
naturel d'examiner comment ils sont regis n'etait a ses yeux
qu'un produit factice des fausses lumieres. II avait sur
1'esclavage a peu pres les idees d'un planteur, et il regardait
le gouvernement de la Chine comme le plus voisin de la per-
fection, parce qu'en livrant le peuple au pouvoir absolu des
seuls hommes instruits, et en elevant chacun de ceux-ci
dans la hierarchic selon le degre de son instruction, il fait en
quelque sorte de tant de millions de bras les organes passifs
de la volonte de quelques bonnes tetes — doctrine que nousex-
posons sans pretendre la justifier en rien et que nous savons
de reste etre peu propre a faire fortune chez nos nations
europeennes. M. de Bumford a eprouve lui-meme a plus
d'une reprise qu'il n'cst pas si aise dans 1'occident qu'en
Chine d' engager les autres a n'etre que des bras ; et cepen-
dant personne ne s'etait autant prepare que lui a bien se
servir de bras qu'on lui aurait soumis. Un empire tel
qu'il le concevait ne lui aurait pas ete plus difficile a con-
duire que ses casernes et ses maisons de pauvres ; il se

1814. Mi. 61.] COUNT RUMFORD. Ill

confiait surtout ponr cela a la puissance de 1'ordre. H ap-
pelait 1'ordre 1'anxiliaire necessaire dn genie, le senl instru-
ment possible d'un veritable bien et presque nne divinite
subordonnee regulatrice de ce bas monde. II se proposait
d'en faire 1'objet d'un ouvrage qu'il regardait comme
devant etre plus important que tous ceux qu'il a ecrits ;
mais on n'en a trouve dans ses papiers que quelques
materieux informes. Lui-meme de sa personne etait sur
tous les points et sous tous les rapports imaginables le
modele de 1'ordre ; ses besoins, ses plaisirs, ses travaux,
etaient calcules comme ses experiences. II ne buvait que
de 1'eau : il ne mangeait que de la viande grillee ou rotie,
parce que la viande bouillie donne sous le meme volume un
peu moins d'aliment. H ne se permettait enfin rien de
superflu, pas meme un pas ni une parole, et c' etait dans le
plus strict qu'il prenait le mot superflu.

C 'etait sans doute un moyen de consacrer plus surememt
toutes ses forces au bien, mais ce n'en etait pas un d'etre
agreable dans la societe de ses pareils ; le monde veut un
peu plus d' abandon, et il est tellement fait qu'une certaine
hauteur de perfection lui parait souvent un defaut quand
on ne met pas autant d'efforts a la dissimuler qu'on en a
mis a 1'acquerir.

Quels que fussent au reste les sentiments de M. de
Rumford pour les hommes, ils ne diminuaient en rien son
respect pour la divinite. II n'a neglige dans ses ouvrages
aucune occasion d'exprimer sa religieuse admiration pour la
Providence et d'y offrir a 1'admiration des autres les pre-
cautions innombrables et variees par lesquelles elle a pourvu
a la conservation de ses creatures ; peut-etre meme son
systeme politique venait-il de ce qu'il croyait que les
princes doivent faire comme elle et prendre soin de nous
sans nous en rendre compte.

Cuvier finished his eloge with this epitaph : 'L'homni'
qui par 1'heureux choix des sujets de ses travaux a si*
lui donner a la fois pour appui 1'estime des savans et la
reconnaissance des malheureux.'

112 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II.

Dr. Young, who, whilst Professor at the Royal Insti-
tution, knew Kumford well, said of him in the * Ency-
clopedia Britannica : '

Count Rumford certainly possessed considerable facility
of conversation, and there was a very laudable spirit of
originality in his views and mode of reasoning, although he
had never leisure to acquire profound learning in any de-
partment of study. In person he was above the middle
size, with a dignified and pleasing expression of counte-
nance and a mildness in his manner and tone of voice. He
was ambitious of fame and distinction, and had too great
a propensity to dictate without sufficiently regarding the
opinions of those who were of equal authority with him-
self. His mode of life was abstemious, and his health was
even supposed to have suffered from too great abstinence,
though his regimen was much more the result of medical
opinion regarding his health than of his own peculiar taste
for temperance.

By his will, of which Lafayette was a witness, he
made a bequest to his daughter, and another to
Harvard College

for the purpose of founding, under the direction and
government of the corporation, overseers, and governors of
that university, a new institution and professorship, in
order to teach by regular courses of academical and public
lectures, accompanied with proper experiments, the utility
of the physical and mathematical sciences for the improve-
ment of the useful arts, and for the extension of the in-
dustry, prosperity, happiness, and well-being of society.

He left all his military books and papers to the
Government of the United States, and the snuff-box
given to him by the Emperor of Austria to Baron
Delessert, and his gold enamelled watch to his friend
Mr. Parker. He thus showed his regard for Davy :

1814. &r. 61.] COUNT EUMFOED. 113

I give to Sir Humphry Davy, Knight, Professor of
Chemistry in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, my
plain gold watch, as a token of my esteem.

Madame de Eumford gave up her interest in the
lease of the Count's house at Brompton to his daughter,
who went to London in May 1815 and lived there for
twenty years, during which period she returned to
Paris for three years. In 1835 she went to America,
and then she returned to Paris until 1844, when she
revisited America. In the room in which she was
born she died, when seventy-eight years of age,
December 21, 1852. She left her property chiefly to
form the Rolfe and Rumford Asylum for the Poor and
Needy at Concord.

The memory of Count Rumford is preserved in
Munich by a stone monument in the English Grarden,
erected by public subscription in 1795, and by a bronze
statue placed in 1867 by the present King in the finest
street in the city.

In Paris a street once bore his name, and his grave-
stone in the cemetery at Auteuil is the only material
mark of his residence in France.

In America the Rumford medals which he founded,
and the institutions he originated, form his enduring
monuments.

In England the highest scientific reward which the
Royal Society can bestow, and the place where the
greatest scientific discoveries of this century have been
made, should both in gratitude be inseparably united
with the name of Rumford.

114 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

CHAPTER III.

EARLY HISTORY OP THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 1799-1800;
WITH THE LIFE OF PROFESSOR GARNETT.

THE history of the Proposals for founding the Royal
Institution is thus given by Count Rumford in 1799 :

Having long been in a habit of considering all useful im-
provements as being purely mechanical, or as depending on
the perfection of machinery and address in the manage-
ment of it, and of considering profit (which depends much
on the perfection of machinery) as the only incitement to
industry, I was naturally led to meditate 011 the means that
might be employed with advantage to diffuse the knowledge
and facilitate the general introduction of such improve-
ments ; and the plan which is now submitted to the public
was tho ivsult ot'tlirso investigations.

In the beginning of the year 1796 I gave a faint sketch
of this plan in my second essay ; but, being under a
necessity of returning soon to Germany, I had not leisure
to pursue it farther at that time, and I was obliged to con-
tent myself with having merely thrown out a loose idea, as
it were by accident, which I thought might possibly attract
attention.

After my return to Munich, I opened myself more fully
on the subject in my correspondence with my friends in this
country, and particularly in my letters to Thomas Bernard,
Esq., who, as is well known, is one of the founders and

1799.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 115

most active members of the Society for Bettering the Con-
dition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor.

This gentleman I found, on my return to England in
September 1798, not only agreeing with me in opinion
in regard to the utility and importance of the plan I had
proposed, but very solicitous that some attempts should be
made to carry it into immediate execution in this capital.

After several consultations, that were held at Mr.
Bernard's apartments in the Foundling Hospital and at the
house of the Lord Bishop of Durham, at which several
gentlemen assisted who are well known as zealous promoters
of useful improvement, it was agreed that Mr. Bernard
should report to the Committee of the Society for Bettering
the Condition of the Poor the general result of these con-
sultations, and the unanimous desire of the gentlemen who
assisted at them, that means might be devised for making
an attempt to carry the scheme proposed into execution.

The gentlemen of the Committee agreed with me entirely
in the opinion I had taken the liberty to express, that the
Institution which it was proposed to form would be too
conspicuous, and too interesting and important, to be made
an appetidix to any other existing establishment, and, con-
sequently, that it must stand alone, and on its own proper
basis ; but as these gentlemen had no direct communi-
cation with any persons, except with the members of their
own Society, they appointed a Committee, consisting of
eight persons, from their own body, to confer with me on
the subject of the plan.1

I had the honour to meet this Committee on this business
on the 31st of January, at the house of Richard Sulivan,
Esq., where a plan I had previously drawn up for forming
the Institution in question was read and examined, and its
principles unanimously approved ; but, as some of the

1 The gentlemen chosen were the Earl of Wincheln -a. Mr. "\VilVr-
force, the Rev. Dr. Glasse, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Richard Sulivan, Mr.
Colquhoun, Mr. Parry, and Mr. Bernard.

I 2

116 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

gentlemen present were of opinion that the plan entered
too much into detail to be submitted to the public in the
beginning of the business, I undertook to revise it,
and to endeavour to accommodate it to the wishes of the
Committee.

Having made such alterations in it as I thought might
satisfy the Committee, I sent a corrected copy of it to them,
accompanied by the following letter :

* GENTLEMEN, — Inclosed I have the honour to send you a
corrected copy of the Proposals I took the liberty of laying
before you on Thursday last, for forming in this capital, by
private subscription, a public Institution for diffusing the
knowledge and facilitating the general and speedy
introduction of new and useful mechanical inventions and
improvements ; and also for teaching, by regular courses
of philosophical lectures and experiments, the application of
the new discoveries in science to the improvement of arts
and manufactures, and in facilitating the means of procuring
the comforts and conveniences of life.

* The tendency of the proposed Institution to excite a
spirit of inquiry and of improvement amongst all ranks of
society, and to afford the most effectual assistance to those
who are engaged in the various pursuits of useful industry,
did not escape your observation ; and it is, I am persuaded,
from a conviction of the utility of the plan, or its tendency
to increase the comforts and enjoyments of individuals, and
at the same time to promote the public prosperity, that you
have been induced to take it into your serious consideration.
I shall be much nattered if it should meet with your ap-
probation and with your support.

' Though I am perfectly ready to take any share in the
business of carrying the scheme into execution, in case it
should be adopted, that can be required, yet there is one
preliminary request which I am desirous may be granted
me, and that is, that the Government may be previously

1799.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 117

made acquainted with the scheme before any steps are
taken towards carrying it into execution ; and also that his
Majesty's Ministers may be informed that it is in the
contemplation of the founders of the Institution to accept of
my services in the arrangement and management of it.

' The peculiar situation in which I stand in this country,
as a subject of his Majesty, and being at the same time,
by his Majesty's special commission, granted under his
royal sign manual, engaged in the service of a foreign
prince, this circumstance renders it improper for me to
engage myself in this important business, notwithstanding
that it might perhaps be considered merely as a private
concern, without the knowledge and the approbation of the
Government.

4 1 am quite certain that my engaging in this, or in any
other business in which there is any prospect of my being
of any public use in this country, will meet with the most
cordial approbation of his Most Serene Highness the
Elector Palatine, in whose service I am ; for I know his
sentiments on that subject; and although I do not
imagine that his Majesty or his Majesty's Ministers
would disapprove of my giving my assistance in carrying
this scheme into execution, yet I feel it to be necessary
that their approbation should be asked and obtained ; and,
if I might be allowed to express my sentiments on another
matter, which, no doubt, has already occurred to everyone
of the gentlemen to whom I now address myself, I should
say that, in my opinion, it would not only be proper, but
even necessary, to inform Government of the nature of the
scheme that is proposed and of every circumstance relative
to it, and at the same time to ask their countenance and
support in carrying it into execution ; for although it may
be allowable in this free country for individuals to unite
in forming and executing extensive plans for diffusing
useful knowledge and promoting the public good, yet it
appears to me that no such establishment should ever be

118 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

formed in any country without the knowledge and appro-
bation of the Executive Government.

' Trusting that you will be so good as to excuse the
liberty I take in making this observation, and that you
will consider my doing it as being intended rather to
justify myself, by explaining my principles than from any
idea of its being necessary on any other account, I have
the honour to be, with much respect, Gentlemen, your
most obedient and most humble Servant,

(Signed) * RUMFORD.

1 Brompton Row, February 7, 1799.
(Addressed)

* To the Gentlemen named by the Committee of the
Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor to confer
with Count Bumford on his scheme for forming a new
Establishment in London for Diffusing the Knowledge of
Useful Mechanical Improvements, &c.'

The Committee above mentioned having, in the mean-
time, made their report to the Society for Bettering the
Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, that
Society came to the following resolution :

* At a meeting of the Society for Bettering the Condition
and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, on Friday, the
1st of February, 1799,

* Present :

The BISHOP OP DURHAM, in the chair,
PATRICK COLQCHOUN, Esq.,
THOMAS BERNARD, Esq.,
WILLIAM MANNING, Esq.,
JOHN SULLIVAN, Esq.,
The BEV. DR. GLASSE,
JOHN J. ANGERSTEIN, Esq.,
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, Esq.,
RICHARD JOSEPH SULIVAN, Esq.,
MATTHEW MARTIN, Esq., Secretary,

1799.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 119

the Committee appointed to confer with Count Rumford
reported that they had had a conference with the Count,
and that they were satisfied that the Institution proposed
by him would be extremely beneficial and interesting to
the community ; that, in order to provide the pecuniary
funds of the Society at its commencement, it was proposed
that subscribers of fifty guineas each should be the
perpetual proprietors of the Institution, and be entitled
each to perpetual transferable tickets for the lectures and
for admission to the apartments of the Institution ; and
that as soon as thirty such subscribers offered it was
proposed to call a meeting of those thirty subscribers, in
order to lay the plan before them and elect managers for
the Institution.

'Resolved, — That the said report be approved of, and
that it be referred to the gentlemen of the Select Committee
to communicate the outlines of the plan to the members of
the Committee of the Society, and to such other persons
as they shall think fit, desiring that those who wish to have
their names inserted among the original subscribers to the
Institution would communicate their wish to the Special
Committee.

* Extracted from the Minutes.

' M. MARTIN, Secretary.'

In consequence of this resolution a paper was printed by
the gentlemen of the Select Committee containing the
outlines of the plan, and sent round privately among their
friends and others whom they thought likely to counte-
nance the scheme, accompanied by a printed copy of the
foregoing resolution, with a request that those who were
willing to allow their names to be put down among the
original subscribers and proprietors of the Institution
would be so good as to communicate their intentions by a

120 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. III.

letter addressed to Thomas Bernard, Esq., at the Found-
ling Hospital.

The Proposals that were circulated in this manner met
with so much approbation that fifty-eight of the most
respectable names were sent in before measures could be
taken for holding a meeting, and these successful begin-
nings encouraged those who were principally concerned in
forming and bringing forward the plan to make some
alterations in it, and particularly in respect to the time
and manner of choosing the first set of managers, and in
regard to an application for a charter for the Institution,
which it has been determined to make, in order to pla-ce
the establishment on a more solid and more respectable
foundation, and to give full security to the subscribers
against all future claims upon them.

IN THIS STAGE OF THE BUSINESS, and especially as a
meeting of the subscribers is to be held in a few days for
the purpose of determining what other steps shall be taken
for carrying the proposed plan into execution, I have
thought it to be my duty to lay all these particulars before
the subscribers, and at the same time to state to them at
length the general outline of the plan I have taken the
liberty to propose, and in the execution of which, if it
should be adopted, I am ready to take any part that the
subscribers may wish me to take.

RUMFOBD.
Brompton Row, March 4, 1799.

1799.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 121

THE PROPOSALS FOR FORMING BY SUBSCRIPTION, IN THE ME-
TROPOLIS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, A PUBLIC INSTITUTION
FOR DIFFUSING THE KNOWLEDGE AND FACILIATING THE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF USEFUL MECHANICAL INVENTIONS
AND IMPROVEMENTS, AND FOR TEACHING BT COURSES OP
PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES AND EXPERIMENTS THE APPLICATION
OF SCIENCE TO THE COMMON PURPOSES OF LIFE WERE THESE :

THE two great objects of the Institution being the
speedy and general diffusion of the knowledge of all new
and useful improvements, in whatever quarter of the world
they may originate ; and teaching the application of scientific
discoveries to the improvement of arts and manufactures
in this country, and to the increase of domestic comfort and
convenience, these objects will be constantly had in view,
not only in the arrangement and execution of the plan, but
also in the future management of the Institution.

As much care will be taken to confine the establish-
ment within its proper limits as to place it on a solid foun-
dation, and to render it an ornament to the capital and an
honour to the British nation.

In the execution of the plan it is proposed to proceed in
the following manner :

A place having been fixed on by the managers for form-
ing the Institution,

Spacious and airy rooms will be prepared for the re-
ception and public exhibition of all such new and me-
chanical inventions and improvements as shall be thought
worthy of the public notice, and more especially of all
such contrivances as shall tend to increase the conve-
niences and comforts of life, to promote domestic economy,
to improve taste, or to promote useful industry.

The most perfect models of the full size will be pro-
vided and exhibited in different parts of this public re-
pository of all such new mechanical inventions and im-

122 THE EAKLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

provements as are applicable to the common purposes
of life. Under this head will be included :

Cottage Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils for Cottages.

A complete Kitchen for a Farm-house, with all the
necessary Utensils.

A complete Kitchen, with Kitchen Utensils, for the family
of a gentleman of fortune.

A complete Laundry for a gentleman's family, or for a
public hospital, including Boilers, Washing-room, Iron-
ing-room, Drying-room, &c.

Several of the most approved German, Swedish, and
Russian Stoves, for heating rooms and passages.

In order that those who visit this establishment may
be enabled to acquire more just ideas of these various
mechanical contrivances, and of the circumstances on
which their peculiar merit principally depends, the ma-
chinery exhibited will, as far as it shall be possible, le
sliown in action, or in actual use, and with regard to many
of the articles it is evident that this can be done with-
out any difficulty and with very little additional expense.

Open Chimney Fire-places on the most approved princi-
ples will be fitted up as models in the different rooms,
and fires will be kept constantly burning in them dur-
ing the cold season.

Ornamental as well as Economical Grates, for Open
Chimney Fire-places, will also be exhibited ; as also,

Ornamental Stoves, in the form of elegant Chimney-
pieces, for halls, drawing-rooms, eating-rooms, &c.

It is likewise proposed to exhibit working models, on a
reduced scale, of that most curious and most useful machine
the Steam Engine.

Of Brewer's Boilers, with improved Fire-places.

Of Distiller's Coppers, with improved Fire-places and
improved Condensers,

1799.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 123

Of large Boilers for the kitchens of hospitals, and of
Ships' Coppers, with improved Fire-places.

Further it is proposed to exhibit in the repository of the
Institution —

Models of Ventilators for supplying rooms and ships with
fresh air.

Models of Hot-houses, with such improvements as can be
made in their construction.

Models of Lime-kilns on various constructions.

Models of Boilers, Steam-boilers, &c., for preparing food
for cattle that are stall-fed.

Models of Cottages on various constructions.

Spinning-wheels and Looms, on various constructions,
for the use of the poor, and adapted to their circum-
stances, together with such other machinery as may be
useful in giving them employment at home.

Models of all such new-invented Machines and Imple-
ments as bid fair to be of use in Husbandry.

Models of Bridges on various constructions, together
with models of all such other machines and useful instru-
ments as the managers of the Institution shall deem worthy
of the public notice and proper to be publicly exhibited
in the repository of the Institution.

It is proposed that each article exhibited should be
accompanied with a detailed account or description of it,
properly illustrated by correct drawings. The name of
the maker and the place of his abode will also be men-
tioned in this account, together with the price at which
he is willing to furnish the article to buyers.

In order to carry into effect the second object of
the Institution — namely, TEACHING THE APPLICATION OF

SCIENCE to the USEFUL PUEPOSES OF LIFE

A lecture room will be fitted up for philosophical lec-
tures and experiments, and a complete LABOEATORY and
PHILOSOPHICAL APPAEATUS, with the necessary instruments,

124 THE EAELY HISTOKY OF [CHAP. III.

will be provided for making chemical and other philo-
sophical experiments.

In fitting up this lecture room (which will never be used
for any other purpose than for giving lectures in natural
Philosophy and Philosophical Chemistry) convenient places
will be provided and reserved for the subscribers, and
care will be taken to warm and light the room properly,
and provide for a sufficient supply of fresh air, so as to
render it comfortable and salubrious.

In engaging lecturers for the Institution care will be
taken by the managers to invite none but men of the
first eminence in science to officiate in that most im-
portant and most distinguished situation ; and no sub-
jects will ever be permitted to be discussed at these
lectures but such as are strictly scientifical, and imme-
diately connected with that particular branch of science
publicly announced as the subject of the lecture. The
managers to be responsible for the strict observance of
this regulation.

In case there should be places to spare in the lecture
room, persons not subscribers will, on the recommenda-
tion of a subscriber, and on paying a certain small sum
to be determined by the managers, be permitted to at-
tend the public lectures or any one or more of them.

Among the various branches of science that will occa-
sionally be made the subjects of these public lectures
may be reckoned the following, viz.: These lectures will
treat —

Of Heat, and its application to the various purposes of
life.

Of the Combustion of Inflammable Bodies, and the

relative quantities of Heat producible by the different

substances used as fuel.

Of the Management of Fire and the Economy of Fuel.
Of the Principles of the Warmth of Clothing.

1799.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 125

Of the Effects of Heat and of Cold, and of hot and of

cold winds, on the human body in sickness and in

health.

Of the Effects of breathing vitiated and confined air.
Of the Means that may be used to render Dwelling-houses

comfortable and salubrious.
Of the Methods of procuring and preserving Ice in

Summer, and of the best principles for constructing

Ice-houses.
Of the Means of preserving Food in different seasons and

in different climates.
Of the Means of cooling Liquors in hot weather, without

the assistance of ice.
Of Vegetation, and of the specific nature of those effects

that are produced by Manures, and of the Art of com-
posing Manures and adapting them to the different

kinds of soil.
Of the nature of those changes that are produced on

substances used as food in the various processes of

cookery. .

Of the nature of those changes which take place in the

Digestion of Food.
Of the Chemical Principles of the process of Tanning

Leather, and of the objects that must particularly

be had in view in attempts to improve that most

useful art.
Of the Chemical Principles of the art of making Soap,

of the art of Bleaching, of the art of Dyeing, and

in general of all the Mechanical Arts, as they apply to

the various branches of manufacture.

OF THE FUNDS OF THE INSTITUTION.

It is proposed to raise the money necessary for defraying
the expense of forming this Institution, and also for the
future expense of keeping it up, in the folio wing manner :

126 THE EAELY HISTOKY OP [CHAP. III.

1st. By the sums subscribed by the original founders and
sole proprietors of the Institution, at fifty guineas each per-
son^ to be but once paid.

2dly. By the sums contributed by those who shall sub-
scribe for life, at ten guineas each person, to be but once
paid.

3dly. By the sums contributed by the annual subscribers
at two guineas per annum for each person.

4thly. By the particular donations and legacies that may
be expected to be made for the purpose of extending and
improving so interesting and so useful an Institution ; and,

Lastly. By the sums that shall be received at the door
from strangers who shall visit the repository of the
Institution, or who shall obtain leave to frequent the
philosophical lectures.

PEIVILEGES OF THE ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS OR PROPRIETORS
OF THE INSTITUTION.

Imo. These subscribers, who will never "be called upon for
any further contributions after the sum subscribed (fifty
guineas) shall have been once paid, will be effectually
secured against all future legal claims and demands upon
them on account of any debts the managers of the
Institution may contract, as a charter for the Institution
will be applied for and obtained, for the express purpose of
providing for that security, before any other step shall be
taken for carrying this plan into execution, and before any
part of the money subscribed will be demanded.

2do. Proprietors will not be deemed liable to serve, either
as managers or as visitors, against their consent ; and
none will be considered as candidates for either of those
offices,, or will be entered on the lists as candidates, or be
proposed as such, except it be those who shall have pre-
viously signified their willingness to serve in one of those
offices in case of their being elected.

3tio. For the still greater security of the proprietors, as

1799.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 127

well as to found the Institution on a more solid basis, one-
half of the sums subscribed by the original subscribers and
proprietors of the Institution will be permanently vested
in the public funds, or in the purchase of freehold property,
and the annual produce thereof employed in defraying the
expense of keeping up the Institution.

4/o. Each original subscriber and proprietor of the
Institution to be an hereditary governor of the Institution
— to have a perpetual transferable share in all the property
belonging to it — to have a voice in the election of the
managers of the Institution, as also in the election of the
Committee of Visitors — to have, moreover, two transferable
tickets of perpetual admission into the establishment, and
into every part of it, and two transferable tickets of
admission to all the public philosophical lectures and
experiments.

5to. Although the shares of proprietors and all the
privileges annexed to them are hereditary, and are also
transferable by sale or by donation, yet those to whom such
shares are conveyed by sale or by donation must, in order to
their being rendered capable of holding them, have obtained
the approbation and consent of the majority of the managers
for the time being. Those who shall become possessed of
these shares by inheritance will not stand in need of the
consent of the managers to be qualified to hold them, and
to enjoy the rights and privileges annexed to them.

6/0. Proprietors' tickets will admit any persons who shall
be the bearers of them.

7mo. Proprietors will have the privilege of recommend-
ing persons for admittance to the philosophical lectures
and experiments, and the persons so recommended will
be admitted in all cases where there shall be room for their
accommodation, provided that the persons so admitted con-
form to the rules and regulations which will be established
by the managers for the preservation of order and decorum
within the walls of the Institution.

128 THE EARLY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. III.

Svo. No more than forty per cent, of the sum subscribed
by each proprietor will be wanted immediately, and the
remainder may be furnished in three equal payments at the
expiration of the three next succeeding half-years ; but it
will be in the option of proprietors to pay the whole sum
of fifty guineas at once if they should prefer doing it.

PRIVILEGES OF THE SUBSCRIBERS FOR LIFE.

Each subscriber of this class will receive one ticket for
life, but not transferable, of free admission into the Institu-
tion, and into every part of it, together with one other
ticket for life, but not transferable, of free admission to all
public philosophical lectures and experiments.

PRIVILEGES OF ANNUAL SUBSCRIBERS.

Each annual subscriber will receive one ticket for one
year, but not transferable, of admission into the Institution,
and into every part of it ; as also one ticket for one year,
but not transferable, of admission to all the public philoso-
phical lectures and experiments. Subscribers of this class
will, moreover, have a right of becoming subscribers for life,
on paying at any time within the year for which they
subscribe an additional sum of eight guineas.

PRIVILEGES THAT ARE COMMON TO SUBSCRIBERS OF ALL
DENOMINATIONS.

\mo. Subscribers for life and annual subscribers, as
well as the proprietors of the Institution, will be entitled
to have copies or drawings (made at their own expense,
however) of any of the models in the repository, and this
even when such copies are designed for the use of their
friends, as well as when they are wanted for their own
private use ; and for their better and more speedy accom-
modation workshops will be prepared, and workmen pro-

1799.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 129

vided under the direction of the managers, for executing
such work properly and at reasonable prices. And, to pre-
vent mistakes, all copies or drawings that shall be made of
the machines, models, and plans lodged in the repository of
the Institution will be examined by persons appointed for
that purpose, and marked with a seal or stamp of the
Institution.

2cZo. Tradesmen and artificers employed in executing
any work after any of the models lodged in the repository
will, on the recommendation of a proprietor or of a sub-
scriber for life, or for one year, be allowed free access to
such model as often as shall be necessary ; and any work-
man or artificer so recommended who shall be willing to
furnish to buyers any article exhibited in the repository
that is in his line of business, will be allowed to place a
specimen of such article of his manufacture in the reposi-
tory, with his name and place of abode attached to it,
together with the price at which he can furnish it, such
specimen having been examined and approved by the
managers.

OF THE GOVERNMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF THE
INSTITUTION.

Irao. All the affairs of the Institution will be directed
and governed by nine managers, chosen by and from among
the proprietors of the Institution.

2c?o. For the greater convenience of the proprietors, and
to spare them the trouble of a general meeting, all the
elections of managers, after the first, will be made by
ballot, by means of sealed lists of names sent in by the
proprietors individually to the Institution, which lists will
be opened, and the result of the election ascertained and
published, by the united committees of the managers and
of the visitors for the time being.

3tio. The first set of managers will be chosen by the
K

130 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

first fifty or more original subscribers, at a general
meeting of them to be held for that purpose ; and of this
first set of managers three will be chosen to serve three
years, three to serve two years, and three to serve one year,
reckoned from the 25th day of March, 1799.

4<to. All managers, as well those of the first set as
others, will be capable of being re-elected without limita-
tion.

5to. The elections of managers to be made annually on
the 25th day of the month of March,1 and fourteen days
previous to each election the managers for the time being
will send to each proprietor individually a printed list
containing the names of all such of the proprietors as shall
have offered or consented to be candidates for the places
among the managers that are to be filled up. On this
printed list, which each proprietor will receive, he will
indicate the persons to whom he gives his suffrage by
making a mark with a pen and ink in the form of a small
cross just before the names of those persons ; and, this
being done, he will seal up the list without signing it and
send it to the Institution, directed ' To the United Com-
mittee of the Managers and of the Visitors.' In order
that these lists may be recognised on their being returned
to the Institution, they will all be marked with the stamp
of the Institution previous to their being issued or sent to
the proprietors. And, for still further security, each pro-
prietor will be requested to send in his or her sealed list of
names under an additional cover, signed with his or her
own name, which additional cover will be taken off, and all
the sealed lists mixed together in an urn, previous to any
of them being opened — an arrangement that will effec-
tually prevent the vote of any individual subscriber being
known.

1 If any other season should be thought more convenient for these
elections, it will of course be chosen instead of that here proposed.

1799.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 131

6fo. The managers are to serve in that office without
any pay or emolument or pecuniary advantage whatever ;
and by their acceptance of their office they shall be deemed
solemnly to pledge themselves to the proprietors of the
Institution and to the public for the faithful discharge of
their duty as managers, and also for their strict adherence
to the fundamental principles of the government of the
Institution as established at its formation.

7mo. The managers are to take care that the property
of the Institution, as far as it shall be practicable, be
insured against accidents by fire.

8vo. The managers will cause exact and detailed ac-
counts to be kept of all the property belonging to the
Institution, as also of all receipts and expenditures. They
will also keep regular minutes of all their proceedings,
and will take care to preserve the most exact order and
the strictest economy in the management of all the affairs
and concerns of the Institution.

9mo. The managers are never, on any pretext, or in any
manner whatever, to dispose of any money or property of
any kird belonging to the Institution in premiums, as the
design or object of the Institution is NOT TO GIVE REWARDS
to the authors of ingenious inventions, but to diffuse the
knowledge of such improvements as bid fair to be of general
use, and to facilitate the general introduction of them ; and
to excite and assist the ingenious and the enterprising by
the diffusion of science, and by awakening a spirit of in-
quiry.

lOmo. The ordinary meetings of the managers for the
despatch of the current business of the Institution will be
held weekly — namely, on every , at the hour

of , — and extraordinary meetings will be held

as often as shall be found necessary.

ll??io. Any three or more of the managers being present
at any ordinary or at an extraordinary meeting, the others
having been duly summoned, to be a quorum.

K 2

132 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

12 wo. The managers will be authorised to make all
Biich standing orders and regulations as they shall deem
necessary to the preservation of order and decorum in the
Institution, as also such regulations respecting the manner
of transacting the business of the Institution as they shall
think proper and convenient, or that may be necessary in
order to regulate the responsibility of the managers for
their acts and deeds ; all such standing orders and regula-
tions must, however, in order to their being valid, be
approved by six at least of the managers, and they must
all be published and made known to all the proprietors.

OF THE COMMITTEE OF VISITORS.

~Lmo. The Committee of Visitors will be composed of nine
persons, the first set to be elected three months after the
opening of the Institution.

2do. Three persons of the nine of which this Committee
will consist will be chosen for three years, three of them to
serve two years, and three of them to serve one year, reckoned
from the 25th of March, 1799.

3tio. Any three or more of the members of this Committee
being present at any meeting of the Committee, the others
having been duly summoned, to make a quorum.

4ito. It will be the business of this Committee formally to
inspect and examine the Institution, and every part and
detail of it, once every year — namely, on the 25th day of
the month of March — and to give a printed account or
report to the proprietors, and to the subscribers of all deno-
minations, of its state and condition, and of the degree and
manner in which it is found to answer the important ends
for which, it was designed. This Committee will also once
every year — namely, on the 25th of the month of March —
examine and audit the accounts of the receipts and ex-
penditures of the Institution kept by the managers or by
their orders ; and the report of the Committee of Visitors

1799.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 133

on this audit will always make the first article in their
public annual reports.

5fo. A person actually serving as a visitor will not be
eligible as a manager, nor can his name be put on the list
of candidates for that office till one whole year shall have
elapsed after he shall have ceased to belong to the Com-
mittee of Visitors. Those, however, who serve as visitors
will be capable of being re-elected on that Committee with-
out limitation.

MISCELLANEOUS AETICLES.

~Lmo. The managers will take care to procure, and to
exhibit in the repository as early as possible, models of all
such new and useful mechanical inventions and improve-
ments as shall, from time to time, be made in this or in any
other country.

2do. All presents to the Institution, and all new purchases
and acquisitions of every kind, will be and remain the joint
property of the proprietors of the Institution and of their
heirs and assigns, and all the surplus of the income of the
Institution, over and above what shall be found necessary
for maintaining it and keeping it up, will be employed by
the managers in making additions to the local accommoda-
tion of the Institution, or in augmenting the collection of
models, or in making additions to the philosophical appa-
ratus, accordingly as the managers of the Institution for
the time being shall deem most useful.

Stio. In order that the proprietors of the Institution and
the subscribers may have the earliest notice of all new
discoveries and useful improvements that shall be made,
from time to time, not only in this country, but also in all
the different parts of the world, the managers will employ
the proper means for obtaining, as early as possible, from
every part of the British Empire, and from all foreign
countries, authentic accounts of all such new and interest-
ing discoveries in the various branches of science, and in
arts and manufactures, and also of all such new and useful

134

THE EAKLY HISTOEY OF

[CHAP. III.

mechanical improvements as shall be made; and a room
will be set apart in the Institution where all such informa-
tion will be lodged, and where it will be kept for the sole
and exclusive use and inspection of the proprietors and
subscribers, and where no stranger will ever be admitted.

At a general meeting of the proprietors, held at the
house of the Eight Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart.,
K.B., in Soho Square, on the 7th day of March, 1799,
the Eight Hon. Sir Joseph Banks in the chair, the
following list of the proprietors and original subscribers
of fifty guineas each was read :

Sir Robert Ainslie, Bart.
J. J. Angerstein, Esq.
Eight Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, K.B.
Thomas Bernard, Esq.
Scrope Bernard, Esq.,M.P.
The Earl of Besborough.
Eowland Bxirdon, Esq., M.P.
James Burton, Esq.
Timothy Brent, Esq.
Henry Cavendish, Esq.
Eich. Clarke, Esq., Chamb. of Lon-
don.

Sir John Colpoys, K.B.
John Craufurd, Esq.
The Duke of Devonshire, KG.
Andrew Douglas, Esq.
The Lord Bishop of Durham.
The Earl of Egremont.
George Ellis, Esq., M.P.
Joseph Grote, Esq.
Sir Eobert Bateson Harvey, Bart.
Sir John Cox Hippesley, Bart.
Henry Hoare, Esq.
John Spalding, Esq., M.P.
The Earl Spencer, KG.
Sir George Staunton, Bart.
John Sullivan, Esq.
Eichard Joseph Sulivan, Esq.
Lord Teignmouth.
John Thomson, Esq.

Lord Hobart.

Lord Holland.

Henry Hope, Esq.

Thomas Hope, Esq.

Lord Keith, K.B.

William Lushington, Esq., M.P.

Sir John Macpherson, Bart., M.P.

"William Manning, Esq., M.P.

The Earl of Mansfield.

The Earl of Morton, K.T.

Lord Ossulston.

Thomas Palmer, Esq.

The Lord Viscount Palmerston,

M.P.

Edward Parry, Esq.
Eight Hon. Thomas Pelham, M.P.
John Penn, Esq.
William Morton Pitt, Esq., M.P.
Sir James Pulteney, Bart., M.P.
Sir John Buchanan Eiddell, Bart.
Count Eumford.
Sir John Sinclair, Bart., M.P.
Lord Somerville.
Samuel Thornton, Esq., M.P.
Henry Thornton, Esq., M.P.
George Vansittart, Esq., M.P.
William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P.
The Earl of Winchelsea.
Hon. James Stuart Wortley, M.P.
Sir William Young, Bart., M.P.

1799.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 135

The following Resolutions were agreed to unanimously :

I. — That before any measures are taken for carrying
the plan into execution, a petition be presented to his
Majesty, praying that he would be graciously pleased to
grant a charter to the Institution.

II. — That an outline of the plan be laid before the Right
Honourable Mr. Pitt and his Grace the Duke of Portland.

III. — That for these purposes it is expedient to elect
the Committee of Managers.

IV. — That the following proprietors (who have agreed
to serve in case they shall be elected) be now elected as the
first managers of the Institution :

For three years.
The Earl Spencer.
Count Rumford.
Richard Clark, Esq.

For two years.
The Earl of Egremont.
Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.
Rich. Joseph Sulivan, Esq.

For one year.
The Earl of Morton.
The Rt. Hon. Thomas Pelham.
Thomas Bernard, Esq.

V. — That the said managers be desired to solicit a
charter for the Institution, upon principles conformable to
the Proposals which have been printed and distributed,
and (as soon as the charter is obtained) to publish the
plan for the benefit of the public, in such manner as they
shall deem most expedient ; and also to take preparatory
measures for opening the Institution.

That these resolutions be inserted in the public papers.

Jos. BANKS, Chairman.

136 THE EAKLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

Sir Joseph Banks having quitted the chair,
Resolved, — That the thanks of the meeting be given to
him for his conduct in the chair.

After this meeting of the proprietors a meeting of
the managers was held, and the following resolutions
taken :

At the first meeting of the Managers of the Insti-
tution, held at the house of the Right Honourable
Sir Joseph Banks, in Soho Square, Saturday, March 9,
1799,

On a motion made by Count Rumford—

I. — Resolved, That Sir Joseph Banks be requested to
take the chair, and that he do continue to preside at all
future meetings of the managers, until a charter shall
have been obtained from his Majesty for the Institution.

II. — Resolved, That all acts and deeds of the managers,
in carrying on the business of the Institution, be transacted
and done in the name of the managers of the Institution.

III. — Resolved, That at each meeting of the managers
one of the managers present be elected by a majority of
those present to act as secretary to the managers at that
meeting.

IV. — Resolved, That the minutes of the proceedings of
each meeting of the managers for the despatch of the
business of the Institution, as well as all orders, resolutions,
and other acts and deeds of the managers, be signed by
the person who acts as president, and also by the person
who acts as secretary at the meeting at which such busi-
ness is transacted.

V. — Resolved, That the persons present at this meeting
do now proceed to make choice of one of their number to
act as secretary at the present meeting.

1799.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 137

VI.— Resolved, That Thomas Bernard, Esq., is duly
elected to act as secretary at the present meeting.

VII.— Resolved, That the Proposals for forming the
Institution, as published by Count Rumford, be approved
and adopted by the managers, subject, however, to such
partial modifications as shall be by them found to be neces-
sary or useful.

VIIL— Resolved, That the Earl of Morton, the Earl
Spencer, Sir Joseph Banks, and Mr. Pelham, or any one
or more of them, be requested to lay the Proposals for
forming the Institution before his Majesty and the Royal
Family, and before his Majesty's Ministers and the Great
Officers of State.

IX. — Resolved, That the Proposals for forming the
Institution be laid before the Members of both Houses of
Parliament, and also before the members of his Majesty's
Most Honourable Privy Council and the twelve Judges.

Messrs. Cadell and Davies, booksellers in the Strand,
having generously offered to make a donation to the Institu-
tion of 500 copies of the original Proposals for forming the
Institution, published by Count Rumford : —

X. — Resolved, That the thanks of the managers be
given to Messrs. Cadell and Davies for this donation ; that
it be accepted ; and that these 500 copies of the Proposals
be distributed among such persons as the managers may
think most likely to give their assistance in forming the
Institution.

At the next meeting of managers, on March 23,
Count Rumford was elected secretary.

It was decided that ladies should be admitted as
proprietors and subscribers, and entitled to all privi-
leges, ' excepting only that ladies will not be called
upon to take any part in the management with the
officers of the Institution.'

138 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

And on the 30th, Mr. Bernard being secretary, the
draft of the charter was read.

On April 30 Dr. Grlasse was elected honorary secre-
tary, and Mr. Bernard treasurer. Mr. Mellish's house
in Albemarle Street was ordered to be bought. Count
Eumford was asked to see the Kev. Mr. Farish regarding
lectures on experimental philosophy. Mr. Swan was
chosen as clerk assistant to the treasurer and secretary.
Mr. Webster, a young architect twenty-six years old,
was engaged as Clerk of the Works. He had been
educated at Aberdeen, and had studied at the Royal
Academy and with an eminent architect. At this
time he had also a small school for about a dozen
mechanics.

In May it was decided that the treasurer and secre-
tary should be entitled to assist at all the deliberations
of the managers, and a committee of expenditure was
appointed.

On Wednesday, June 5, the managers first met in
Albemarle Street.

In the second volume of the ' Reports of the Society
for Bettering the Condition of the Poor,' Mr. Bernard
gives an account of the Institution ' so far as it may be
expected to affect the poor.' He thus gives a view of
the Institution as it was intended to be, June 1, 1799 :
6 Besides having a general view to the benefit of arts
and manufactures and to the advancement of taste and
science in this country, the Institution should specifi-
cally direct itself to the improvement of the means of
industry and of domestic comfort among the poor.
In bettering the condition of the poor there is very

1799.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 139

little prospect of these difficulties being removed until
a centre of action can be fixed, to which persons may
apply for examples, for models, and for engravings
accompanied by printed instructions, without being
any longer compelled implicitly to rely on the talents,
the docility, and the conscientious moderation of the
different tradesmen who may be employed to make and
sell them.

6 A convenient house was proposed for the purpose of
lectures and experiments, and for a public exhibition
of all such new and useful inventions and improve-
ments as are applicable to the common purposes of life,
and especially those which tend to increase the con-
veniences and comforts of mankind, and to promote
domestic economy and useful industry. In the priority
of introduction it was proposed that regard should be
had to the degree of public utility, and particularly as
they might benefit the general mass of the people.

' Of the subjects of the lectures there are few which
appear peculiarly to apply to the poor. Such as those
on heat, on the principles of the warmth of clothing,
and on the effects of the different temperatures of the
air on the human body.

'The models and inventions in which the poor are
most immediately concerned will be those which may
promote economy in food and fuel, and tend to correct
and purify the air in cottages and workhouses, and
which may supply means and instruments of industry
on a cheap and simple construction.

' Thus the models to be exhibited will consist of
improved fire-places and kitchens, and of flues and

140 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

louvres for supplying rooms either with tepid or fresh
air.

' There will be small models of inventions at a
very cheap price, with engravings and explanatory
descriptions useful to those who are unable to
employ the persons recommended by the Institution
or to examine them in actual and constant use at the
Institution.'

Mr. Bernard's report ends thus : * Though the charter
is not yet obtained, and the Institution may be con-
sidered only in its infancy, the subscriptions already
exceed 8,OOOZ.

'It is not very easy to calculate what may be
eventually the progress of the Institution, and what its
influence on the condition of the poor. If it is followed
up with an equal zeal and attention on the part of the
conductors, and it receives the support it merits from the
public, its effects must be extremely beneficial and im-
portant. For, without adverting to the general advan-
tage of a new species of employment and amusement
being afforded to the higher classes of life ; and science
and useful occupation being brought into some degree
of fashion; it must be apparent to everyone that,
without some such means, the poor can never receive
all that benefit and assistance which the efforts and
co-operation of many are now directed to procure for
them ; and that the improvement of the domestic
comfort and means of industry in the cottage, the
promotion of health, the economy and well-being of the
inhabitants of poor-houses, hospitals, manufactories,
and other public establishments will never be effectually

1799.] THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 141

obtained without such an establishment as the Institu-
tion-'

It is difficult to believe that the Royal Institution of
the present day was ever intended to resemble the
picture given of it in this report.

In June the Earl of Winchester became the first
president, and the King became the patron, and he
allowed the Institution to be called Royal. At the
last meeting in the month Count Rumford was
authorised to carry into effect his proposition for a
repository of models, and to employ such artisans as
he might think necessary, paying according to his
discretion for their services. He was instructed to
procure such instruments and utensils as relate more
immediately to the management of fire ; and he was
empowered to draw 5001. to fit up the house for their
reception.

On July 6 he submitted to the managers a form of
advertisement to be inserted in the public papers, in
order to carry out the exhibition of models.

In September Count Rumford was requested to
engage Dr. Grarnett as lecturer and scientific secretary
and Editor of the Journals, with lodgings in the house
and 300£. emolument, with a prospect of a gradual
increase to 500£., provided the funds of the Institu-
tion in future authorised this additional expenditure.
A committee was formed to prepare a lecture room on
the first floor for the next winter.

Mr. Webster was appointed clerk to the treasurer
and secretary, as well as Clerk of the Works, and a long
report from him was read to the managers by Count

142 THE EARLY HISTOftY OF [CHAP. III.

Bumford on the formation of an industrial school for
mechanics at the Institution.

A letter written by Mr. Webster to Dr. Grarnett in
August 1800, and another in 1801 to a friend, give
an explanation of this proposal.

Probably August 1800.

The original object of the Institution was certainly to dis-
seminate knowledge in the most effectual way possible;
and for this purpose, while the higher ranks of society
were amused and instructed by lecturers on science and its
too much neglected applications to the purposes of common
life, it was conceived necessary to do somewhat in order to
enlighten the minds of that class which had not enjoyed
the advantages of a liberal education, and yet whose im-
provement was necessarily connected with the progress of
the useful arts.

This was always considered as an object of so much
importance by Count Rumford, who has certainly had the
greatest share in establishing the Institution, that he re-
peatedly declared to me when I first knew him that it was
his intention to do everything in his power to establish a
school for science under the auspices of the Institution and
particularly calculated for working mechanics, a class of
men whose deficiency in knowledge proves one of the
greatest drawbacks to the progress of art. It was through
the prospect of being employed in this way, which
would have been as agreeable to my habits of thinking as
useful to my interest, that I was induced to give up the
school which I then kept and the other business in which
I was engaged, and to accept of a situation and salary in
the Institution by no means equivalent to what I should
have considered myself as entitled to under other circum-
stances.

Later Mr. Webster wrote to a friend :

1799.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 143

You have heard, no doubt, that I was employed as drafts-
man to the Royal Institution at its first formation, and
was besides engaged by Count Rumford to take the manage-
ment of a school for mechanics which he then proposed to
establish. In order to overcome the scruples of some of
the managers of the Institution on this subject, as well as
to give a specimen of my abilities for conducting such an
establishment, I addressed a paper to Count Rumford in
August 1799, in which I gave him my opinion of the kind
of school which would prove most useful to the public, and
also entered into a detail of the plan which I proposed to
follow. This paper, which the Count read at the meeting of
the managers, was highly approved of, and I had then
every reason to expect that something would be done which
would be creditable to the Institution and useful to myself.
I was induced in consequence to give up the school which
I then had, and which promised to answer pretty well.
But, after remaining some time in suspense, I found some
reason to be apprehensive that those who are at the head
of an Institution which professes to be a grand and national
establishment were not altogether possessed of that liberality
of sentiment and knowledge of the subject necessary for
carrying into effect plans which can only be accomplished
by those whose industry has made them acquainted with
the arts and sciences taught. In short, I saw but little
prospect of its being done in the way I wished, and I had
no desire to engage in it otherwise. I am not certain that
the plan has been entirely abandoned, but I think it is not
likely to take place.

In 1837 Webster gave the following account of
the intention to form an industrial school at the
Institution :

Whilst employed as an architect, having occasion tc
direct various workmen, I had observed their frequent
inability to do what was required from them through their

144 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. III.

deficient education, and that it was no easy matter to find
those who could understand either drawings or directions ;
one had also frequently to contend with a species of
perverseness and conceit often the result of ignorance. In
attempting our improvements in fire-places, &c., I felt
this the more as this kind of work demanded a superior
class of artificers. Knowing from previous experience
•what it was possible to effect in their improvement, I con-
ceived the idea of giving to mechanics for this purpose a
species of scientific education suited to their condition, and
I believe I was the first person in this country who took
active steps for effecting so desirable an object. I was
not unacquainted with the political feelings of that time, but
I did not think a little learning was a dangerous thing if
judiciously bestowed, although without due caution it might
be capable of doing more harm than good. My idea was
to make good mechanics, not to force them like hot-bed
plants out of the sphere in which they are so useful.

I proposed, then, to found a school for mechanics in the
house of the Royal Institution, in which they should be
taught such principles of science as would be useful in
their several occupations, which I considered would in a
great degree promote the * application of science to the
common purposes of life.' In the house of the Institution
itself the men would be under the eye of the higher classes,
and anything wrong would easily be put a stop to. With
this view I wrote a long letter to Count Rumford, detailing
my views and plans. He was delighted with them, and he
read my letter to the board of managers ; the idea was
favourably received, and my letter was inserted upon the
Minutes of the Institution, where of course it may be seen
(Managers' Minutes, Sept. 14, 1799); Some difficulties
were, however, suggested. It was thought that Sir Joseph
Banks, then president, would object, and I was requested
to take the minute book to him and do what I could to
win him over. I accordingly saw Sir Joseph, and, by ex-

1799] THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 145

plaining to him how much the arts would gain by intelli-
gent operatives, I overcame a few political scruples which
he had. At last all objections were silenced, and everyone
seemed to rejoice in the prospect that opened of adding to
the Royal Institution a decided proof of liberal feeling.
The general idea and intention with respect to this school
were published in the Journals of the Institution ; l and
the news reached every corner of the kingdom that the
managers of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, among
whom were persons of the highest rank, instead of being
adverse to the diffusion of knowledge, had actually formed
a school for the instruction of mechanical classes.

It is saying little to assert that the Institution acquired
some popularity by this measure. It gained much not only
here but all over Europe ; and in June 1801 Professor
Pictet, of Geneva, the well-known and learned editor of the
1 Bibliotheque Universelle,' in his published account of a
tour which he made through England at this time, speaks
of it as one of the most important branches of the Institu-
tion. It is unnecessary to enter into a detailed account of
my plan, which was, in fact, intended as an experiment.
It was generally to educate a number of mechanics sent by
the proprietors of the Institution. At first all were to
learn the same elementary principles, but afterwards they
were to branch off according to their several trades. My
first intention was to instruct bricklayers, joiners, tinmen,
and ironplate workers, as those were the trades most con-
nected with our improvements at this time. In a large
room on the ground floor we built up for practising the
men chimneys and fire-places of all kinds in a slight
manner, pulled them down, and built up others. We fitted
up improved fire-places within, models of old-fashioned

1 No notice of workshops exists in the first number of the Journal,
dated April 1 800. In the second number, containing the report to the
managers on May 25, 1801, it is said that eighteen or twenty young men
are to be boarded and lodged in the house (p. 27, Journal).

L

146 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

cottage chimneys, also boilers of various kinds, and showed
how smoky chimneys might be cured, &c. ; models of
various culinary vessels were made from ideas of Count
Rumford, and were put in the model room for the inspec-
tion of the public. Of the workmen to be instructed some
were sent by Lord Winchelsea, by Sir Thomas Barnard,
Lady Palmerston, &c., and when they were thought to be
sufficiently instructed they returned to the part of the
country from which they had come, and practised what
they had learned and taught others. Thus by degrees a
laudable zeal was created amongst various classes of society,
even the highest, for acquiring useful knowledge and dif-
fusing it by their several exertions. Never was there a
period when this was felt in a stronger degree, and the
establishment of the Royal Institution ought to be consi-
dered as the commencement of a new era in the history of
science in this country. I should not here forget to men-
tion the then existing Society for Bettering the Condition
of the Poor, composed of men of the highest rank, such as
the Bishop of Durham, &c. ; and to this Society, which met
in the house of the Royal Institution (December 23, 1799),
I was made assistant secretary for the purpose of letting
me the better into their views.

It is impossible to state the whole of the good that has
proceeded from these liberal endeavours to improve society,
and the country owes more than is generally known to the
benevolent spirit thus excited.

After September 14 Count Rumford was absent
until February 3. During this time six meetings only
of the managers were held, one in October, when
Sir John Hippesley brought at great length the
question of the arms of the Institution before the
managers. Another meeting was on December 23,
when the Society for Bettering the Condition of the
Poor were granted a room for the committee meetings.

1800.] THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 147

The prospectus and charter were ordered to be printed
in octavo, and Dr. Grarnett laid before the managers
the plan of his lectures for the following year.

Thus, then, in 1799 the Eumford Institution began
in the house of Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the
Eoyal Society, and in the first year of its life it
became the Eoyal Institution in Albemarle Street. It
had its origin in the work which Count Eumford did
for the poor in Munich, and its primary objects were
models, workshops, and useful knowledge to benefit
the poor ; lectures, researches, and scientific experi-
ments to amuse and interest the rich and to advance
science were comparatively the secondary intentions
of its founder.

In 1800 a new and very long prospectus was
written by Count Eumford. It was printed with the
charter, bye-laws, and names of the proprietors and
subscribers, and published on January 23. It again
said, ' the two chief purposes of the Institution were
the speedy and general diffusion of the knowledge of
all new and useful improvements, in whatever quarter
of the world they may originate ; the application of
scientific discoveries to the improvement of arts and
manufactures in this country, and to the increase
of domestic comfort and convenience.' There is a
^markable addition in May of two paragraphs to the
lition in quarto of this publication. They read as
some one had pointed out the absence of all
lention of attraction for the rich. These words
were added : ' But, in estimating the probable
usefulness of this Institution, we must not forget the

L 2

148 THE EARLY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. III.

public advantages that will be derived from the
general diffusion of a spirit of experimental investiga-
tion and improvement among the higher ranks of
society. When the rich shall take pleasure in contem-
plating and encouraging such mechanical improvements
as are really useful, good taste, with its inseparable
companion good morals, will revive; rational economy
will become fashionable ; industry and ingenuity will
be honoured and rewarded ; and the pursuits of all the
various classes of society will then tend to promote the
public prosperity.'

On the 1 3th of January Sir J. Hippesley read to the
managers a letter proposed to be sent to every proprietor
and subscriber. It stated that the charter had been
approved, and would be sealed the next seal day ; that
temporary accommodation for lectures was completed ;
and that Mr. Professor Grarnett would lecture early in
February ; that the subscribers' rooms, containing the
periodical scientific publications, foreign and domestic,
would be opened at the same time. All subscribers
were requested to pay their subscriptions immediately
to Professor Grarnett, or to Mr. Webster, the clerk of
the Institution, or to one of the six bankers of the
Institution.

At the end of the month Mr. Webster was ordered
to prepare plans for a new lecture room. When an
old man he thus spoke of his work : ' After nearly
forty years the theatre of the Royal Institution is
pronounced to be the most perfect room of the kind in
the kingdom for possessing the properties of allowing
the lecturer to be well heard and seen by the audience,

1800.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 149

and for affording them easy entrance and exit, &c. I
have never " puffed " myself respecting it, as is very
common in similar cases, and hence, probably, my
name is scarcely known as connected with it. But I
may now say, " that it has been stated by Faraday, in his
late examination before a committee of the House of
Commons, to be ' almost perfect as a lecture room,'
and that ' although architects are continually measur-
ing and drawing it to copy from, and many other
rooms have been built in imitation of it in which he
has tried his voice, yet none of them proved equal to
that in question.'"

c After my designs were quite finished, and after it
ivas resolved by the Institution that they should be
cawied into execution by me, Mr. Saunders, then
architect of the British Museum, offered his assistance
should any difficulties arise. I willingly accepted his
offer, as his name would be some sanction and security
in a case where I knew I had enemies as well as
friends, and I took care to show him everything I did
in the construction of the building ; but the whole of
the working drawings, even the details of the mould-
ings, &c., were made by my own hand. The estimate
and contract were made by me and not by Saunders,
and every person employed was under my immediate
direction. My designs were not in the smallest
degree altered by him.

6 Soon after my designs were made they were taken
away by one of the managers (whose name I shall not
mention at present) and put into the hands of Mr.
Spiller, an architect, in order that he might make

150 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

another set of designs, thereby giving him the
advantage of my ideas. This was accordingly done.
His lecture room was upon the second story and mine
was upon the first. His was covered by a lofty dome
highly enriched ; my ceiling was flat. His estimate was
10,000£. ; mine was 5,000£. His would take two years
to execute ; mine was to be finished in six months. I
shall pass over the unpleasant circumstances to which
this affair gave rise, my resigning my situation in
the Institution, being requested by the managers to
retain it, &c., and shall only say both the sets of
designs were submitted to the members of the
Institution at their annual meeting, and mine were
adopted, and it was resolved that they should be exe-
cuted under my superintendence. Mr. Spiller claimed
and got, I believe, 150£. I received nothing as an
architect, because I was an officer of the Institution
at a very small salary, and Count Romford had in the
beginning caused a strange regulation to be made and
printed " that no one should ever be retvarded by the
Institution for any services which he might perform." '

In another note he says :

c In designing the lecture room of an institution so
peculiar (unique indeed at that time) my object was
to adapt it for different ranks in society, for any
attempt to destroy all distinctions must be absurd. I
constructed a gallery intended for those who either
wished to be less observed, or who, for obvious reasons,
would not like to sit down by their employers. It was
also to receive such ingenious mechanics as had gained
a title to be there. To this gallery a separate stone

1800.] THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 151

staircase led from the street. The whole of this was
built: >

On January 15 Count Eumford wrote to Sir Joseph
Banks from Broadlands :

I certainly am in much hetter health than I was when
I came here, which I attribute as much to my having
left off taking medicines as to the salubrious air of the
country. I think that I shall stay here about a fort-
night longer, and shall then return to Brompton, and
shall be at the disposal of the managers of the Institu-
tion for the remainder of the winter. I am very glad
indeed that you like Webster. I am much deceived if he
does not turn out to be a very useful acquisition. I hope
Dr. Garnett will do well, but I must own that I am not
as prepossessed in his favour as I am in favour of Webster.

If more active and more useful men could be found to
serve as managers in lieu of two or three of ours who
seldom or never attend, I think it would be advisable to
accept their resignation. One has privately offered me to
resign whenever I may wish it, and I should think it would
not be difficult to persuade two others to follow the ex-
ample. But we will talk this matter over when we meet.

I have been very busy here for the last fortnight putting
up a public kitchen in the town of Romsey. It is now
nearly finished, and begins to attract public curiosity. As
it contains a complete well-arranged kitchen for a private
family as well as cottage fire-places, German stoves, nests
of small ovens, large soup boilers, &c., it almost deserves the
name of a public repository, and I have no doubt but it will
be useful as such. If Webster were here for a few days, he
might take drawings of the whole for the use of the Royal
Institution.

1 This gallery staircase has left its mark in the Institution, and is
drawn in the old plans of the house. There was originally no door into
the theatre under the gallery.

152 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

A week after he wrote : * I am expecting the arrival
of Webster every moment. I am glad you have sent
him here, for the drawings he will make of the works
that have been executed in the Eomsey public kitchen
will save me much trouble (for I must have made them),
and his seeing the kitchen here will enable him to be
of great use to me in directing the works in Albemarle
Street.'

On February 3 Count Rumford was again present.
Doubtless the following passage in the Managers' Minutes
refers to him : ' The unfortunate illness and long con-
finement of one of the managers, whose zeal had been so
conspicuous in the formation and success of the Institu-
tion, was another obstacle to the commencement of many
interesting arrangements, which he necessarily consi-
dered as essential to superintend in person.'

The same day Sir John Hippesley made a long report
to the managers to be laid before the proprietors of
the Institution on the 10th.

He alluded to a proposal for private boxes in the
new theatre, and spoke of accommodating nearly 1,000
persons, and said that the floor under the theatre was
for a repository, and that the sunk floor of the new
building was designed for a complete laboratory, ' which
unfortunately this great metropolis of the British
Empire has hitherto failed to produce, but which is an
essential appendix to the Royal Institution.'

It was proposed to raise 5,000£. by transferable
debentures, and the sum subscribed during the meeting
was 5,200?.

At the next meeting a building committee, consisting

1800.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 153

of Earl Morton, Count Rumford, and Sir J. Hippesley,
was appointed. The following week this was made to
include all the managers.

In this month Count Rumford went to live in the
house, and the managers resolved ' that as long as he
did so he should be required to superintend all the
works going on in the house, and to see that the servants
in the house and the different workmen employed
discharge their various duties with diligence and due
decorum, and that the proprietors, subscribers, and
others who visit the Institution are received with
civility and treated with proper respect and attention.'

Sir Joseph Banks drew up the bye-laws, and Count
Rumford was afterwards asked, agreeably to a provision
in the draft bye-laws, to prepare internal regulations
for conducting the business of the Institution. An
under-librarian and clerk to the managers was also
appointed.

The meeting of managers on March 31 was the
starting point of the Journal of the Institution. The
publication was left to the superintendence of Rum-
ford.

A printing press was ordered to be bought as soon
as possible, and a scientific committee of council was
formed. This was to be a standing committee ' to
examine the syllabuses of the professor of natural
philosophy and chemistry, to the end that no false
scientific doctrine might be taught at the Institution,
and to superintend all the new philosophical experi-
ments that might be made in the house of the Institution,
and, when made, to cause to be drawn up an account of

154 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. III.

the same for the managers and for the Eoyal Society of
London.'

This committee consisted of Cavendish, Maskelyne,
Blagden, Eennell, Planta, Grray, Vince, Farish, and
Hatchett.

The managers also decided that fourteen committees
should be appointed for the purpose of specific investi-
gation and improvement. Persons in no way connected
with the Institution might be appointed. The chair-
man and deputy chairman were to be nominated by the
managers. The meetings were to be held in the house,
and the results were to be published in the Journals.
The subjects were, 1, making bread ; 2, soup ; 3,
cottages ; 4, stoves ; 5, kitchen fire-places and utensils ;
6, household furniture ; 7, food for cattle ; 8, cooking in
ships and distilling fresh water at sea ; 9, lime-kilns ;
10, fire-balls and combustible cakes; 11, mortar and
cements; 12, composition houses ; 13, useful machines
of all descriptions ; 14, iron founding and working and
refining iron and steel.

Dr. K. J. Thornton offering to lecture on botany
as connected with agriculture, it was resolved that
the cultivation of natural history and agriculture
was not included in the original plan of the Eoyal
Institution, and that it was not expedient to accept the
offer.

On April o the first number of the < Journal of the
Eoyal Institution of Great Britain ' was published. It
contains, 1. The proceedings of the managers of March
31 and the report to the proprietors made on Feb-
ruary 10. 2. An advertisement respecting the publica-

1800.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 155

tion of the Journal, 'that threepence would be the
price of a number of eight pages, and sixpence if six-
teen pages ; that no stated period could then be fixed,
but it is expected a number would appear as often at
least as once every fortnight.' 3. A short account of
the works now carrying on at the house of the Institu-
tion. Mention is made of the theatre, and under it a
spacious airy semicircular repository for receiving
various useful machines which will be exhibited as
models for imitation. Immediately under the reposi-
tory will be constructed a lofty and capacious labora-
tory for chemical experiments. The fire-places, the
kitchen, the boilers, the ovens, the complete roaster,
steamers, and other articles of kitchen furniture on new
principles were either prepared or preparing for exhi-
bition. An account is given of the number of the pro-
prietors, 248 ; life subscribers, 259 ; annual subscribers,
297; ladies, annual, 97; and a notice of the philoso-
phical lectures for the following week.

The second number of the Journal did not appear
for nearly fourteen months.

In May Mr. Savage was engaged as printer ; and ' a
good cook for the improvement of culinary advance-
ment, one object, and not the least important, for the
Royal Institution.' A resolution was passed that as Count
Eumford had, at the request of the managers, under-
taken to superintend the house, no new works should
be undertaken in it, nor any alterations made in it,
nor any furniture ordered for it, or brought into it, or
placed or displaced in it unless it be with his know-
ledge, and by his orders ; and he was requested, whilst

150 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

he continued to lodge in the house, to superintend all
the servants, to preserve order and decorum, and to
control the expenses of housekeeping. It is most
probable that this resolution was intended to control
Dr. Garnett. A printing-press was bought. Sir John
Hippesley was elected treasurer.

Count Eumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks :

Royal Institution, May 29, 1800.

I am very sorry to find, on making inquiry of Doctor
Garnett, that your information was accurate respecting his
having ascribed the late discoveries of our friend Volta to the
French. Had I been apprised of his intention to mention
this discovery at his lectures, I should certainly have
taken care that he should have mentioned it in a proper
manner ; but I knew nothing of the matter until it was too
late to prevent the mistake. I have, however, insisted on
its being rectified as far as it is possible in some future
lecture, and I am promised that it will be done. I know
not from whom the Doctor procured his information re-
specting his discovery, but I learnt by accident late last
evening that he borrowed the apparatus with which he
exhibited the experiments at the lecture from Mr. Howard.
I dined out and did not come home till his lecture was
nearly over.

The next day Eumford wrote again :

Royal Institution, May 30, 1800.

Doctor Garnett is perfectly ready to make the following
public declaration this evening at his lecture at the Insti-
tution, or he will say anything else on the subject in
question which you may think will be more proper for
him to say to atone for his mistake and to make amends
to Professor Yolta :

1 Having by mistake on Wednesday, in the course of my
public lecture, ascribed to the French philosophers a new

1800.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 157

and interesting discovery relative to galvanism, which, on
inquiry, I find belongs to Professor Yolta, of Milan, I
feel it to be my duty to state this fact in a public
manner, in order that Professor Yolta may not be de-
prived in any degree of the honour of a discovery which
so justly belongs to him and to him alone. The first news
of this discovery, which arrived in this country in the
beginning of last month, was communicated in a letter
from Professor Yolta to the President of the Royal Society,
and it was in consequence of the information contained
in that letter that Dr. Carlisle, Mr. Nicholson, !Mr.
Howard, and others have been enabled to construct the
necessary apparatus, and to repeat the ingenious Professor's
very interesting experiments.'

Any alterations you may wish in the above shall be made,
if you will point them out.

In June Count Rumford reported that, in conse-
quence of the request of the managers, he had trans-
mitted through the envoy of the United States of
North America to each of the philosophical societies,
academies, universities, &c., in that country a copy
of the prospectus, charter, ordinances, bye-laws, and
regulations of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Copies were sent to different public institutions
abroad.

Dr. Garnett finished his lectures on June 10. He
then wrote to the managers to say that he proposed to
go into the country, but would at all times be ready to
obey the summons of the managers if his attendance
should be wanted before the commencement of the
lectures.

On June 12, 1800, Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph
Banks :

158 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. III.

Royal Institution, Thursday Morning, 6 o'clock.
I hope you can make it convenient to come and give me a
lift this morning at our meeting, for I want you very much.
Our treasurer l has not qualified, and he does not seem to
be in any hurry to do so. I mentioned to him at our
last meeting the embarrassments we were under for the
want of a treasurer to furnish money to the new Com-
mittee of Expenditure ; but he proposed, as an expedient,
that I should draw on Ransom and Co., who he said
would not refuse my draft. I see no reason why business
should be done in this irregular way, when it may and
ought to be done in the manner specially and clearly
pointed out in our bye-laws. Our lectures are over for this
season, and Garnett is going into the country to stay there
till January next. I see no good reason why we should
keep up our present numerous and expensive establishment
of servants, especially as a great part of the house is
coming down, and we shall soon have no place in the
house to lodge them.

All we can possibly want till January next are —
Our clerk of the works . ., . Webster
Our clerk ' .' . . . . Savage
Our messenger, who may act ~\
as porter and messenger J

And one housemaid ,., . . Blanchett

This arrangement will enable us to discharge —
Dr. Garnett' s assistant . . . Sadler
The porter . • . - . , . . Wharton
The housekeeper .. ' ." . . Mrs. Wharton
And one housemaid

If this scheme should meet with your approbation, I
beg that you would move the necessary resolutions to-day,
and there will be more than one difficulty removed. As
soon as this disagreeable business shall be completed, and
everything in the house belonging to the Institution
1 Sir J. Hippesley, elected May 19.

1800.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 159

delivered over to the care of those persons who are to take
and have the charge of them, my mind will be at rest, and
I can go to Harrogate and give these waters a fair trial,
which, as things are now circumstanced, would be im-
possible.

The expensive establishment was at once ordered to
be reduced, and the assistant to the Professor was dis-
charged.

The agreement for building the new premises was
this month sealed and signed, the treasurer qualified,
and the weekly meetings of managers ceased to be
held.

As soon as the basement of the new building was
finished, it must have been apparent that it was much
too dark and low for a laboratory, and this part of
the intended plan was given up.

Many years afterwards Mr. Webster said of the
present laboratory : 'I may perhaps just mention that
the chemical laboratory in which so many valuable
discoveries have been made was not only designed and
built by me, but owes to me its very existence, for,
though I inserted it in my plans, the managers did not
at first consider it necessary.'

In August Mr. Webster thus wrote to Count
Rumford, who was then at Harrogate :

I have deferred writing to you so long in expectation of
being able to send you drawings of the proposed mode of
building the laboratory. Mr. Hatchett has been several
times at the Institution and has given his opinion respect-
ing it, from which the drawings have been made out.
There was a meeting of managers on Monday last, at which

160 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. III.

Mr. Saunders laid before them the drawings and an estimate
of several works which he proposed to do, and which were
not included in the original contract. These are the engine
and reservoir on the staircase, the removal of the water-
closet from the place where it now stands to the roof of the
laboratory; taking down the present stack of chimneys
from the great kitchen, together with the breast- work in
the kitchen which contains the range, roasters, and oven,
which he considers necessary in order to fit up a strong
closet in the managers' room ; together with a small addi-
tion to the fitting up of the laboratory itself, which it is
proposed to do in a more complete and more expensive way
than was provided for by the contract. All these additions,
Mr. Saunders informs me, the managers approved of, and
he is accordingly preparing the necessary agreements with
Mr. Hancock for executing them.

Everything in the new building goes on briskly and
well. We have got as high as the lecture-room floor, and
I expect in a month we shall be ready for the roof. No
deviation whatever has been made from the plans, and all
the works hitherto done have been executed to the satis-
faction of Mr. Saunders.

I wished to send you the drawings of the laboratory,
but they not being quite ready, I shall take the next oppor-
tunity.

In September he wrote again :

The timbers of the roof are on, and we are beginning to
board it for slating. The brickwork of the laboratory is
also nearly completed.

Hitherto I have found employment for Mr. Wincks, the
model-maker ; when I had nothing else for him to do he
has been at work upon the model of the pile engine,
which will now be finished in a day or two ; and, as I have
not any further occasion for him to assist me, I shall be

1800.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 161

happy if yon will write whether there is anything he
might be employed upon until you come to town.

In another letter he says :

The buildings are advancing rapidly, and I hope the
lecture room at least will be ready by the 1st of January.
The laboratory will, I think, be found very convenient,
being airy and well lighted.

During his stay at Harrogate Rumford made careful
experiments on himself with regard to the warm bath.
These are given in his thirteenth essay, on the ' Salu-
brity of Warm Bathing.' He found that a daily bath
at ninety-six degrees or ninety-seven for half-an-hour
two hours before dinner for five weeks increased the
appetite, the digestion, the spirits, the strength, and
the insensibility to cold.

On leaving Harrogate he went to Scotland.

A visit of ceremony was paid him by the magistrates
of Edinburgh ; he was consulted respecting the abolition
of mendicity, and the measures which he recommended
were speedily executed with complete success.

He was made an honorary member of the Royal
Society and of the Royal College of Physicians of
Edinburgh, and he received a gold snuff-box as a
compliment for his assistance in reforming the culinary
establishment of Heriot's Hospital, and was elected a
member of the Society of Scotland for Bettering the
Condition of the Poor. His letters of thanks for these
last honours are preserved.

To the Lord Provost of Edinburgh he wrote :

I shall always remember with pleasure, and with the
most sincere gratitude, the kind and nattering attentions

M

162 THE EARLY HISTOKY OF [CHAP. III.

I received in Edinburgli during my stay there. The
public honours that were conferred on me by the corpora-
tion of the city and by the University were highly gratify-
ing to me ; but nothing affected me so deeply as the
deference which was paid to my opinions and advice on
subjects of public utility by men in the highest stations
and of the most respectable character and abilities, and
the liberality, zeal, and perseverance with which the
measures I took the liberty to recommend were adopted
and pursued.

May the important undertaking in which the inhabitants
of Edinburgh are now engaged — the prevention of that
most disgusting and disgraceful of public evils, mendicity —
and the formation of a permanent establishment for the
instruction and employment of the poor be completely suc-
cessful, and may it serve as a model for imitation to every
city and every town in Great Britain and Ireland.

To the Rev. Greorge Baird, Principal of the
University of Edinburgh, he wrote from the Royal
Institution, March 21, 1801, thanking him for the
honour which the Society in Scotland for Bettering
the Condition and Improving the Comfort of the
*Poor had conferred on him by electing him a
member.

During the 'autumn Webster wrote to Dr. Grarnett
to ask if he would help him to become his assistant.
He wished this place in order to make himself a better
teacher of operatives, and to have employment when
the additional buildings were finished. Dr. Grarnett,
in his reply, says ' an • operator's time ought to be
dedicated to natural philosophy.' ' Nevertheless,' he
said, ' the School of Mechanics might perhaps be
carried on by the operator.' In Webster's answer to

1800.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 163

Dr. Garnett the position of the School of Design at
the end of September 1800 is seen.

When I mentioned that teaching mechanics might pro-
bably form a part of my employment I did not speak from
any certain knowledge on the subject, but merely because
such a thing had once been in agitation. I have now very
little reason for supposing that such a plan will be at all
put in practice, but if ever it should, no doubt the managers
will take care that it shall not prove any inconvenience to
you. I could not myself engage in it upon any other con-
ditions. Setting that aside, therefore, as extremely uncer-
tain if not improbable ....

At the end of the year hot-water pipes were ordered
for warming the theatre.

The chief events in the history of the Institution
during the year 1800 may be thus summed up:
The new theatre was built ; large committees for
scientific investigation were formed; and the first number
of the Journal was published. No advance was made
in the formation of a repository for models ; or in
the foundation of a school of design. The lectures of
Dr. Garnett were successful, but he was refused per-
mission to practise his profession as a physician and to
bring his children to live at the Institution. Count
Rumford himself ordered and superintended everything
in the house. Early the next year there was a visible
rupture between him and Dr. Grarnett regarding the
prospectus of the lectures for the season, and in June
1801 Dr. Grarnett resigned.

The causes of this will be best seen by a short
sketch of his life.

Dr. Thomas Garnett was born in 1766 in West-

M 2

1G4 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. III.

moreland. He was apprenticed to a medical man in
the country and graduated as a physician in Edinburgh
in 1788. Dr. Brown at that time was teaching his
new theory of medicine, and Dr. Grarnett became a
strong Brunonian. In an inaugural essay on Health,
which was published ultimately, he showed with great
clearness how the doctrine of accumulated and ex-
hausted excitability could be applied to explain the
movements in the body in health and disease.

He left Edinburgh to study medicine in London,
and in 1790 he went to Bradford to practise his
profession ; there he gave some private lessons in
natural philosophy and chemistry.

In 1791, when twenty-five, he thought he should
succeed better by practising at Knaresborough in the
winter and at Harrogate in the summer. He analysed
the waters at Harrogate, and in 1794 he built a house
there and determined to practise only at Harrogate.
An engagement to be married made him form a new
plan for success. He persuaded his intended wife
reluctantly to agree to emigrate to America after their
marriage, which took place in the following year.
Then he sold his house in Harrogate and purchased
apparatus for lectures on natural philosophy and
chemistry. On their way to America they went to
Liverpool. There, whilst waiting for a ship, he was
persuaded to give a course of lectures. This was
successful, and he was invited to give the same course
on chemistry and experimental philosophy at Man-
chester. He was still more successful, and invitations
came to him from Warrington, Lancaster, Birmingham,

1796-8. MT. 30-32.] PROFESSOR GARNETT. 165

and Dublin. He did not give up his intention of
emigrating until he was offered the professorship in
Anderson's Institution at Glasgow. His wife had
borne him a daughter, and she earnestly urged him to
settle in Glasgow.

In November 1796, when thirty, he published the
6 Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Natural and Expe-
rimental Philosophy.' His subjects were the properties
of matter, astronomy, electricity, magnetism, pneu-
matics, hydrostatics and hydraulics, optics and me-
chanics.

When the session at Glasgow was over he went to
Liverpool to repeat his course of lectures. In the
autumn he returned to Glasgow and made known his
intention of practising as a physician there. Fortune
continued to favour him ; his reputation increased and
he soon had the best prospect of the leading practice
in Glasgow.

In 1797, when thirty-one, he published his < Outlines
of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry.' His twenty-
seventh lecture was on Agriculture ; his twenty-eighth
on Bleaching ; his twenty-ninth on Dyeing and on Calico
Printing; and his last on the Analysis of Mineral
Waters.

On Christmas Day, 17 98, his wife died in childbirth,
and on New Year's Day he wrote this feeling letter :

Oh ! my dear cousin, little did I expect that I should
begin the new year with telling you that I am now
deprived of all earthly comforts ; yes, the dear companion
of my studies, the friend of my heart, the partner of my "
bosom, is now a piece of cold clay. The senseless earth is

166 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. III.

closed on that form which was so lately animated by every
virtue, and whose only wish was to make me happy.

Is there anything which can now afford me any consola-
tion ? Yes, she is not lost, but gone before ; but still it is
hard to have all our schemes of happiness wrecked when
our bark was within sight of port. When we were pro-
mising ourselves more than common felicity it struck
upon a rock ; my only treasure went to the bottom, and I
am cast ashore friendless and deprived of every comfort.
My poor dead love had been as well as usual during the
two or three last months, and even on the dreadful evening
(Christmas Eve) she spoke with pleasure of the approach-
ing event. My spirits were elevated to so uncommon a
pitch by the birth of a lovely daughter, that they were by
no means prepared for the succeeding scene ; and they
have been so overwhelmed that I sometimes hope it may
be a dream out of which I wish to awake. The little
infant is well, and I have called it Catherine, a name which
must -ever be dear to me, and which I wish to be able to
apply io some object whom I love ; for, though it caused
the. death of my hopes, it is dear to me as being the last
precious relic of her whom everybody, who knew her,
esteemed, and I loved. I must now bid adieu to every
comfort and live only for the sweet babes. Oh ! 'tis hard,
very hard !

THOMAS GARNETT.

In the summer of 1799 Count Rumford wrote to
Dr. Grarnett, to whom he was then an entire stranger,
for information regarding the nature and economy of
Anderson's Institution and the plan of the lectures
given there. This led finally to the proposal that Dr.
Grarnett should become the first lecturer at Rumford's
new Institution in London.

On October 15 Dr. Grarnett informed a special

1799. JET. 33.] PROFESSOK GAKNETT. 167

meeting of the managers of Anderson's Institution of
his wish to resign his situation in order to go to
London. When Dr. Garnett arrived, December 23,
the managers of the Koyal Institution resolved that he
should be styled Professor of Natural Philosophy and
Chemistry to the Eoyal Institution. He sent to the
board a letter from which a view of the earliest lectures
at the Institution can be obtained.

PROFESSOR GARNETT TO THE MANAGERS.

»

December 23, 1799.

To THE MANAGERS OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. — Count
Rumford requested me to arrange and put on paper my
ideas concerning the plan and economy of the Royal Insti-
tution for the perusal of the managers. On looking over
the prospectus, however, I find the plan so well digested
that I cannot make any improvement or even advantageous
alteration. I shall therefore confine myself in the follow-
ing observations to what I conceive to belong more par-
ticularly to my department — I mean the arrangement of the
lectures — and shall propose a plan which, from experience, I
think most likely to be useful ; but I propose it with the
utmost deference to the opinions of the managers, and shall
be ready to make any alterations which they may think
proper to point out.

Our object ought undoubtedly to be both amusement and
instruction. We shall have two classes of auditors, the
one consisting of those who will come chiefly for amuse-
ment or because it may be fashionable. These it is our
business to amuse, while at the same time I hope we shall
be able to interest them in the subjects, and communicate
considerable knowledge without any trouble to themselves.

For these I would propose a popular course of experi-
mental philosophy, in which all abstract reasoning shall be

168 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. III.

avoided, the most entertaining and interesting experiments
introduced, and the whole calculated to afford pleasure and
instruction to those who have not had an opportunity of
examining these subjects and to refresh the memory of
those who have.

On the supposition that the lectures of the Institution
should open the first week in February, if we appropriate
one evening a week to it, we can comprise this course in
eighteen or twenty lectures, each lecture to continue only
an hour, that the attention may not be fatigued.

A course of lectures on chemistry, popular and amusing,
at the same time sufficiently scientific, might be given twice
a week. This course would contain the elements of
chemistry and the application of this science to the arts
and manufactures, and would be illustrated by interesting
and pleasing experiments.

For the sake of the second class of auditors, which would
not at first be the most numerous, but which would con-
tinually increase in number, even though the auditors of
the other course should diminish — I mean those attached
to scientific pursuits — I would propose a full and scientific
course of experimental philosophy on the plan generally
adopted in universities. In this course particular atten-
tion should be paid to mechanics, hydrostatics, hydraulics,
and pneumatics, which are the most useful branches of
mechanical philosophy. The mathematical demonstration
of the propositions would first be given, next the experi-
mental proof, and lastly the application of each to the
mechanical and chemical arts.

In this way those who could follow the mathematical
demonstration would see the coincidence between theory
and experiment, and those who could not would be satisfied
with the experimental proof.

As an instance we may take one proposition.

The momentum or force of a moving body is propor-
tioned to the quantity of matter multiplied by its velocity ;

1799. JEx. 33.] PROFESSOK GARNETT. 169

this will first be demonstrated mathematically, then experi-
mentally, and afterwards applied to the explanation of
mechanical powers in machinery, projectiles, &c., illustrated
by familiar examples and calculations.

If we suppose that five mornings in the week should
be devoted to this course, we shall be enabled to go through
one hundred lectures before the conclusion of the session.

It is scarcely necessary to observe that in this course
opportunity will be taken to show working models of
machinery and chemical processes in their proper places.

This would be the most useful course, and, as was before
observed, the numbers who attend it would gradually
increase. At least this was the case at Glasgow. A
morning hour would probably be best for this course.

My apparatus is elegant and good. It was made for me
by the late Mr. Adorns. What the Institution will chiefly
want will be of the supplementary kind, and will not, I
apprehend, cost more than 150Z. or 200Z., supposing wo
purchase the most complete and elegant instruments, which
I would strongly advise. My own apparatus shall be at
the service of the Institution while I continue among you,
which I hope will be while I live, and it is my intention
eventually to bequeath it to the Institution^ As it will be
necessary to come to an arrangement as speedily as pos-
sible, Mr. Webster and myself, after having carefully
surveyed the house, are of opinion that the apparatus should
be placed in cases with glass doors, and that the best situation
for it would be round the large room1 on the same floor with
the lecture room, and what could not conveniently be placed
there, either on account of their bulk or inelegant appear-
ance, might be put in the small room3 adjoining to it. This
would render this room very interesting to strangers, and,
even considering it as a lounging room, it would be much
better to have an elegant apparatus to look at than bare
walls. It would likewise be much the most convenient as

1 Now the anteroom. 2 Now the lecturers' room.

170 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. III.

an apparatus and model room with respect to its vicinity
to the lecture room — a circumstance of no small importance.

With respect to a lounging room, in which persons might
meet before the lecture, or to which they could retire
during the lecture, I assume with submission that such a
place should not on any account be allowed. Wherever I
have had accidentally such a convenient room in the vicinity
of a lecture room I have been obliged to lock it up ; other-
wise the disturbance to the company by persons coming in
and going out is intolerable. The lectures will always
begin at a certain hour to a minute. If any find them-
selves a few minutes too soon, they will find an elegant
lecture room, well warmed. This will prevent their coming
into the room in a body and disturbing the audience and
the lecturer after the lecture is begun.

That matters might be put in a proper train it would, I
think, be best to agree immediately upon the arrangement
of the house, and to give Mr. Webster and myself, with
one or more of the managers, the power of seeing the
arrangement executed.

I am, with much respect, your most obedient Servant,

THOS. GARNETT.

On January 6, 1800, the managers resolved that the
morning lectures of Dr. Garnett should be given on
Tuesday and Thursday at two, and the evening lectures
at eight, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The first lecture was on Tuesday, March 4. The
two rooms which now make the upper library formed
the theatre. It had been fitted up to accommodate
the greatest possible number of auditors, ' with a greater
deference to their curiosity than to their convenience.'

In the first number of the Journal of the Institution
the account of Dr. Garnett's lectures for the week be-

1800. IE,?. 34.] PROFESSOR GARNETT. 171

ginning April 7 shows the arrangements that then
existed.

MORNING LECTURES. — On Tuesday, the 8th, the lecture
will be on Charged Electrics and the Theory of the Leyden
Phial, with experiments. On Thursday, Respiration and
Animal Heat will be continued, with the Effects of Oxygen
in the Blood. On Saturday, on Hydrogen Gas and the
Composition of Water, Sulphurated and Phosphorated
Hydrogen ; and a specimen of the philosophical fireworks
with the inflammable air will be exhibited.

EVENING LECTURES. — On Monday evening, the 7th, the
subject will be Spontaneous Evaporation, Ignition, and
Inflammation, with some Remarks on Light. On Wednes-
day evening, the Different Powers of Bodies as Conductors
of Heat; and some Experiments with the Passage Ther-
mometer. The method of confining heat and applying it
to useful purposes with economy.

Friday being Good Friday, no lecture will be given on
that day.

Those who come to the lectures in carriages are requested
to give orders to their coachmen to set down and take up
with their horses' heads towards Grafton Street.

A contemporary account says :

During the winter the lecture room was crowded with
persons of the first distinction and fashion, as well as by
those who had individually contributed much to the promo-
tion of science, and although the northern accent, which he
still retained in a slight degree, rendered his voice some-
what inharmonious to a London audience, bis modest and
unaffected manner of delivering his opinions, his familiar
and at the same time elegant language rendered him the
object of almost universal kindness and approbation.

Dr. Garnett left Glasgow with the expectation that
he should have accommodation for his family in the

172 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. III.

house of the Institution, and the first disappointment
he met with was the opposition to his wishes in this
respect. When he gave up his position in Glasgow he
fully intended to enter into practice as a physician in
London, but from this also he was restrained in great
measure by the managers of the Institution.
His biographer says :

The exertions of the winter in some degree injured his
health, and the uncertainty he saw in his prospects tended
greatly to depress his spirits. He determined, however, to
keep his place at the Institution.

In the summer he rejoined his children in Westmoreland,
but his anxiety of mind was not diminished or conse-
quently his health improved by the relaxation from active
employment. He walked over the same ground and viewed
the same prospects that he had formerly enjoyed in the
company of his wife. He had not resolution to check the
impressions as they arose, and thus, instead of being solaced
by the beauties which surrounded him, he gave the reins
to his melancholy fancy, which, unchecked by any other
remembrance, dwelt only on the affection and virtues of her
whose loss he had ever to deplore, the want of whose society
he imagined to be the chief source of his misery.

Dr. Grarnett showed his own position when he
answered the application of Webster for his recom-
mendation as chemical operator.

Kirkby-Lonsdale, September 27, 1800.

DEAR SIR, — I have received your letter, and, in answer to
it, must observe that such is my opinion of both your
industry and abilities that it would give me pleasure to
serve you, and I should with the greatest willingness
recommend you to any situation for which I knew you
qualified. That you could in time qualify yourself for the
situation of operator there is not the smallest doubt, but

1800. ^Ex. 34.] PROFESSOR GARNETT. 173

still it must have been evident to yon that if you had acted
in that capacity last year, imperfect as the lectures were,
they must have been much more so ; for though I had an
operator capable of preparing any experiments that could
be made, still it was with the greatest difficulty that I
could get through it. How, then, could I have done had my
time been taken up with instructing an operator ? And,
having the greatest number of chemical things to prepare,
I could not have got through it with any credit to myself
or satisfaction to the managers. You are better acquainted
with the duty of an operator than you were before the
commencement of the lectures, and can therefore form some
judgment concerning the knowledge requisite and the
labour which it requires. It is unnecessary to say that an
operator must give up his whole time to it ; and, as we are
to have a good laboratory, it seems to me necessary that
he should be a good practical chemist, which he cannot be
without working some years in a laboratory. Sadler could
do anything in that way, and, were he a little more steady,
would be invaluable in the Institution. You say nothing
what has become of him. I was in hopes he might have been
employed again next year. Indeed, the managers ought, in
my opinion, to endeavour to have an operating chemist who
would be permanent.

That you could in time do everything required I am veiy
far from doubting, and, should it be the wish of the
managers, I shall be far from opposing it ; on the contrary,
were you qualified, there is not one person whom I should
so much wish to have it. But, before you come to a deter-
mination, you must well consider whether you would relish
the many dirty jobs to which it will subject you as well as
the labour ; and, if it be still your wish and determination,
it would certainly be proper to attend an autumnal course
of lectures. If it be your intention to remain in the Insti-
tution and to continue as operator, which probably might
be carried on along with the School of Mechanics (though

174 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. III.

of this I am not certain, as an operator's time ought to be
dedicated to natural philosophy), I would do all in my
power to instruct you properly ; but to have the weight
upon myself without the prospect of being relieved from
it another year is what I dare scarce look at.

In deciding put everything out of the question but the
good of the Institution, for unless you can promote that
you cannot promote your own by its means. You will, I
hope, excuse my having spoken thus freely on the subject
which so much concerns us both ; consider it well and
favour me with your sentiments again. I suppose that I
shall be in town in about a month, but I should wish to
hear from you before. There are probably some of my
objections which you can remove.

I am, dear Sir, yours sincerely,

THOS. GARNETT.

.' >
Towards the latter end of the autumn Dr. Grarnett

returned to the Institution. The differences between
him and the managers soon appeared. He prepared
the outlines of a course of lectures on Natural and
Experimental Philosophy, to be delivered in 1801, and
he printed this preface : ' This pamphlet contains
the outlines of the popular course on Natural and
Experimental Philosophy, delivered at the Royal
Institution every Tuesday at two o'clock during the
present session. — Royal Institution, February 2, 1801.'
At the same time be printed another pamphlet —
c Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry
delivered at the Royal Institution,' and to it he put this
preface : ' This work contains the outlines of the course
of chemistry delivered at the Royal Institution by
the Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry,

iSoi. JET. 35.] PROFESSOR GARNETT. 175

every Thursday and Saturday at two o'clock during
the present season. — Eoyal Institution, February 2,
1801.'

In the table of contents he gave thirty lectures, and
it was almost exactly a reprint of the table of contents
of the lectures on chemistry published by him in 1797.

There can be no doubt that Dr. Grarnett printed these
pamphlets, the one of twelve and the other of two
hundred and sixteen pages, without consulting the
managers; for at their meeting on February 2, 1801,
they resolved that the annual courses of philosophical
and chemical lectures at the Eoyal Institution should
commence ' as soon as the new theatre can be got ready
for them, and that Count Eumford be authorised to
take all such steps on the part of the managers as shall
be necessary in that business ; ' and they also resolved
that Sir Joseph Banks, Henry Cavendish, and Count
Eumford be a committee to superintend the drawing up
and publication of a suitable syllabus or account of the
philosophical and chemical lectures given at the Eoyal
Institution. They further resolved that no syllabus of
lectures or other account of what is doing or done, or
to be done, at the Eoyal Institution, be published by
any person or persons without the permission of the
aforesaid committee, or the express leave of the
managers formally signified in writing. This last
resolution shows that Count Eumford had then pro-
bably determined that Dr. Grarnett should give up his
professorship at the Eoyal Institution.

On February 16 the managers resolved that their
resolutions of February 2 should be communicated to

176 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. Ill

Dr. Grarnett, and on this day they determined to
engage Mr. Humphry Davy as Assistant Lecturer on
Chemistry. Still the managers did not decide on the
removal of Professor Grarnett, for the following letter
shows that Count Kumford at this time had some con-
versation with him as to the terms upon which he
would give up his rooms in the house. On February 22
Dr. Grarnett wrote to Count Kumford :

SIR, — I have considered the matter you did me the honour
to desire I would deliberate upon, and I place much con-
fidence that when you and the other managers of the Royal
Institution reflect upon the necessary expenditure for rent,
coals, and candles, domestics and other out- goings, the sum
of 100Z. per annum will not be considered as an improper
allowance for giving up the apartments and advantages
assigned me in the house of the Institution by the honour-
able managers.

You will allow me to add that I have also considered
the possibility of my residing out of the house occasioning
any inconvenience to the interests of the Institution, and that
if upon the maturest consideration I was not confident no
such inconvenience could arise, there is no personal compen-
sation that could tempt me to quit my residence in the
house of the Institution.

It is with great deference I take the advantage at the
same time to submit to your and the other managers'
consideration whether the funds of the Institution are in
your and their judgment in a condition to authorise any
of that gradual increase of my salary of 300 1. which the
resolution of September 14, 1799, gave me well-founded
reason to hope for, and which I now most cheerfully and with
perfect confidence beg to leave to the candour and liberality
of yourself and the managers.

I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir,
your very obedient Servant,

TnOS. GrAENETT.

1801. JET. 35.] PROFESSOK GABNETT. 177

On February 23 it was resolved that the consideration
of Dr. Grarnett's letter be postponed till the annual
accounts of the Institution for the present year be
made up and the state of its finances ascertained.

The lectures began in February. His biographer
says : ' The transactions of the winter almost com-
pletely undermined his constitution. He became sallow,
listless, melancholy. A gloomy day or the smallest
disappointment gave him inconceivable distress.

6 The effect produced upon his lecturing was remark-
able. Debility of body as well as uneasiness of mind
incapacitated him. His spirited and, at the same
time modest, method of delivery was changed into one
languid and hesitating. He would have resigned in
the middle of his course, and on one occasion at least
Count Eumford, at a few hours' notice, found a substi-
tute to lecture for him.' This was on the evening of
March 2, when with the shortest possible notice Count
Eumford got Dr. Crichton to give the lecture on ac-
count of the illness of Dr. Grarnett.

He again wrote to the managers on May 11, and on
the 25th a special meeting of the managers was held,
and it was resolved that ' the managers, taking into
consideration the two applications of Dr. Grarnett, are
unanimously of opinion that they cannot agree to
make any alteration in his present salary and situation.'

On June 1 Davy was appointed Lecturer on
Chemistry.

On June 15 it was resolved by the managers unani-
mously that Dr. Grarnett's resignation should be ac-
cepted, that his salary up to the end of the year should

178 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. III.

be paid to him by the Committee of Expenditure, and
that his letter of resignation should be preserved. Un-
fortunately this letter does not exist now.

' Dr. G-arnett had long determined to apply himself
to medical practice, and at the same time to give
private lectures, to secure that income of which he
seemed fated to be disappointed.'

In the summer of 1801 he removed to Great Marl-
borough Street, and brought his family to London, and
he sought for practice as a physician. He built a
lecture room ; he made arrangements for editing the
* Annals of Philosophy, Natural History, Chemistry,
Literature, Agriculture, and Fine Arts ' for the year
1800, intending to continue it yearly; and he prepared
himself to give not less than eight courses of lectures
during the winter. At his own house he gave two
courses on Chemistry, one on Mineralogy, one on
Botany, two on Experimental Philosophy, and a
private course on this subject also ; he gave a course
on Botany at Brompton, and in a room at Tom's
Coffee House, in the City, a course of popular lectures
on Zoonomia, or the Laws of Animal Life in Health
and Disease. This was for the convenience of medical
students and others in that part of the town.

A return of ill health prevented him from com-
pleting some of these courses, but he used every
means to increase his private practice. In May
1802 he was elected physician to the Marylebone
Dispensary, which he thought would bring the success
which he seemed never able to obtain. Very weak in
body and not exempt from anxiety of mind, he begap

1802. JET. 36.] PROFESSOR GARNETT. 179

the hard work of his Dispensary. He caught typhus
fever from one of the patients in June, and died on
the 28th of that month.

He left his children penniless.

On August 2 Dr. G-arnett's executor, Mr. Parker,
asked permission to have the popular lectures on the
Laws of Animal Life, the Zoonomia, printed at the
press of the Royal Institution, and that the printer to
the Institution, Mr. W. Savage, might receive sub-
scriptions for the publication of the work. The
managers resolved to subscribe for the Institution 50L,
and in 1804, when the work was published in quarto,
they allowed it to be dedicated to them, a privilege
which they refused on many occasions afterwards. The
dedication was in these words :

To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Managers
of the Royal Institution of Great Britain these Lectures,
composed by a man who, in his lifetime, was honoured by
their selection as their first lecturer, and whose infant
family have since experienced their benevolence and pro-
tection, are, with permission, dedicated by the trustees of
the subscription in favour of these orphans.

The amount of the subscription was nearly two
thousand guineas.

N 2

180 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE RESIGNATION

OF PROFESSOR YOUNG.

1801 to 1803.

WITH THE LIFE OF DR. THOMAS YOUNG.
1773 to 1829.

IN 1801 Count Rumford continued to carry out his
plans at the Institution. In February he engaged Mr.
Humphry Davy as Assistant Lecturer on Chemistry,
Director of the Chemical Laboratory, and Assistant
Editor of the Journals. On March 11 Davy arrived
at the Institution and took possession of his situation,
and in April he began to lecture.

In this month the managers decided to build five
new bed-rooms, forming the south attics, equalising
the height of the house.

Sir John Hippesley declined to continue the treasurer-
ship. He drew up the following abstract of accounts
from the commencement to April 30 of this year:
Receipts, 19,2571. 8s.; Expenditure, 12,6012. 2s. Id.;
Consols, costing 4,47 1£. 5s. ; Balance at Banker's,
2,185£. Os. lid.; Debts due, 4,400£. : making a dis-
posable sum of between 10,OOOL and 1 1,000£. ' Now, as
all bills are paid, there are sufficient grounds to hope

1801.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 181

that the managers will be able not only to finish all
the new works, but also to furnish the different apart-
ments and workshops, and complete the arrangement of
the establishment in all its details, without incurring
any permanent debt, or calling upon the subscribers
for any part of the 7,000£. which was generously offered
for defraying the expense of the new buildings.' Lord
Kinnaird was elected treasurer.

In May Count Eumford reported that, ' as a Master of
the Workshops will soon be wanted, he had taken con-
siderable pains to find out some person qualified
for that office, and he had found a sober, steady, single,
mathematical instrument maker, to whom he proposed
to give 801. a year and a room in the house.'

Sir Joseph Banks recommended Mr. Boekman, a
German chemist, to be engaged in the laboratory at
501. a year and a room in the house.

On May 25 Count Rumford laid before the managers
his report on the progress, present state, and probable
future prosperity and utility of the Institution. This
was ordered to be printed in the Journals of the
Institution, and this report, with a paper by Count
Rumford — ' Observations Relative to the Means of
Increasing the Quantities of Heat Obtained in the
Combustion of Fuel ' — forms the second number of the
Journals edited by Rumford alone.

In this paper a picture is seen of the Institution as
Rumford wished it to be. Except when prevented by
illness and care for his health, he had worked night
and day with all his energy to make his prospectus
of February 1799 a realised fact. After twenty-eight

182 THE EAKLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

months the idea was carried out. Eumford's Insti-
tution was formed. He gives a long account of all he
had done and of all he intended to do. Hence this
report is a record of his mind as well as a record of the
Institution.

He dismisses the professors, and lectures, and lecture
rooms with four lines. He dwells at more length on
the spacious and complete chemical laboratory, fur-
nished for carrying on upon a large scale all the various
processes of practical chemistry and chemical analysis
and for making new and interesting experiments. He
speaks of a director of the laboratory, a chemical
operator, and an assistant in the laboratory (a very in-
genious German chemist), who will devote his whole
time to the business of it. Nearly a page is given to
the workshops of the Institution, 'where models of new
and useful inventions will be constructed and sold at
reasonable prices to professors and subscribers.' 'These
are quite finished, and are now furnished with the
most complete set of tools that can be procured.'

He speaks of the Master of the Workshops, who will
take care of the philosophical apparatus and direct
the workmen, and says he will likewise superintend
and instruct all such ingenious and well-behaved young
men as may, at the recommendation of the professors,
be admitted into the workshops of the Institution to
receive instruction and to complete their education in
any one or more of the mechanic arts. The following
workmen, he says, are already engaged for the work-
shops of the Institution, viz. —

A mathematical instrument maker, a model maker, a

1801.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 183

cabinet maker, a carpenter, a worker in brass and copper,
a tin-plate worker, and an iron-plate worker. To these
will soon be added bricklayers and stonemasons, who will
be instructed and enabled to instruct others in setting new-
invented grates, roasters, ovens, boilers, &c.

A complete kitchen for a small family has been put up
for examination in the housekeeper's room. The principal
kitchen will be begun in a few weeks. It will contain
roasters, ovens, boilers, steamers on the newest and most
improved construction, and will be kept in daily use. In
order that the proprietors and inventors may be enabled to
judge from actual experiment of the merit of any new-
method of cooking, or any new dish that may be proposed,
a dining room has been built, and will soon be ready for
use, at the house of the Institution, in which the managers
will occasionally order experimental dinners, to which the
proprietors and subscribers will be invited, in as far as the
accommodations will admit. The expense of such dinners
to be defrayed by those who partake of them.

A conversation room has been set apart, so that silence
may be kept in the reading rooms. There will be maps,
pens, and ink in the conversation room, and as soon as
some necessary previous, arrangements (which are now
actually making) shall be finished, those who frequent this
room will be furnished at the most reasonable prices from
the housekeeper's room below with soups of various kinds,
tea, coffee, chocolate, and other refreshments.

Two letter-boxes have been established in the great hall.

A complete printing office exists. The Journals will
appear at regular intervals, probably once a week. The
reports of the various committees for specific scientific
investigations (which will soon be appointed by the
managers) will no doubt furnish much interesting matter
for the Journals of the Institution.

Twenty-five foreign periodical scientific publications, and
twenty-four domestic periodical scientific and literary pub-

184 THE EARLY HISTORY OF . [CHAP. IV.

lications are regularly taken in. Twenty-four new foreign
publications on scientific subjects have been purchased for
the library, and many valuable books have been presented.
Nine daily newspapers are taken in.

He goes on to say :

One of the most interesting details of the Institution
still remains to be mentioned. It is the repository. The
measures necessary for forming it have not been neglected,
but from its nature it cannot be finished, nor indeed can it
be begun, till the establishment is quite complete in all its
other essential parts. Models of mechanical inventions and
contrivances, in order to their being really useful, must be so
made as to serve for imitation ; consequently they must be
constructed with the greatest care, and they cannot be
made in the workshops of the Royal Institution till those
shops are fitted up and furnished with the best tools and
the best workmen. These workshops will soon be com-
pleted and properly manned. In the meantime a spacious
and elegant room, 44 feet long and 32 feet wide, with the
ceiling supported by two rows of columns, has been built
for the repository, and will be finished in a month and
ready to receive machines for public inspection. [This was
the room beneath the theatre.] It may be useful to observe
here that it never was the intention of the managers, nor
of any of them, to expose to public view models of machines
of all kinds indiscriminately. Considerable alarms have, it
is said, been occasioned among some of our principal manu-
facturers from an idea that the construction of their
machines and the valuable secrets of their trade, on which
the excellence of their manufactures depend, are in danger
of being disclosed by means of the public lectures and
exhibitions of the Royal Institution, but the event will show
that these apprehensions are without foundation.

The measure lately adopted by the managers for com-
pleting the attic story will be finished before the end of
November.

1801.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 185

As soon as this addition to the buildings shall be com-
pleted, and not before, there will be room in the house for
the accommodation of a certain number of young men, from
eighteen to twenty in number, of different mechanical
professions, who, at the recommendation of proprietors,
will be taken into the house to be instructed ; who will be
boarded and lodged in the house and be employed in the
workshops, and for whose improvement in drawing, prac-
tical geometry, and mathematics an evening school, under
the direction of the Clerk of the Works (Mr. Webster), who
was formerly a teacher in such a school, will be established
in the house in a room adjoining the workshops. As most
of the young men who will be admitted to this seminary
will probably come from distant parts of the country, and
will return home after a residence of three or four months
at the Institution, carrying with them a perfect knowledge
of such new and useful inventions applicable to the common
purposes of life as may be deserving of being generally
known and adopted, it is easy to foresee that this arrange-
ment will be of great and extensive public utility. It is,
perhaps, that part of the establishment precisely which will
be the most interesting, and which will contribute the most
powerfully to the attainment of the principal object of the
Institution — the diffusing the knowledge and facilitating the
general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and
improvements.

The proprietors, he says, were 325 ; life subscribers, 268 ;
and annual subscribers, 527.

He concludes thus :

We may safely look forward with confidence to a period
not far distant when the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
complete in all its details, and in full activity, will become
so interesting that every person of liberality and discern-
ment who takes pleasure in contemplating the process of
human improvement, will be desirous of belonging to it
and willing to assist in promoting its permanent prosperity.

186 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

In June Davy was made Lecturer, instead of Assist-
ant Lecturer, in Chemistry, and in a few days Dr.
G-arnett resigned. A permanent committee, con-
sisting of Charles Hatchett, chairman, Lord Dundas,
Mr. Howard, Mr. Chenevix, Mr. Pepys, Dr. Gr. Pearson,
Mr. Nicholson, and Mr. Carlisle, was appointed for the
purposes of chemical investigation and analysis ; to
make such experiments in the laboratory of the Insti-
tution as they think useful ; Messrs. Hatchett, Howard,
and Nicholson were requested to draw up a few short
rules for the ordinary meetings and manner of con-
ducting the business of the committee ; and once a
month or once a fortnight the committee was to be
allowed to dine together at the house of the Institution.

The managers resolved that on November 2 Mr.
Davy should begin a course of lectures on Tanning ;
that he should have leave of absence in July, August,
and September, to learn the practical part of the
business ; and that respectable persons of the trade,
if recommended by proprietors of the Institution,
should be admitted gratis.

In order to obtain more support Count Eumford
drew up in his own name a letter to be sent as a circu-
lar with a printed fly-leaf. The heading of it ran thus :

Being desirous of becoming a member of the Royal In-
stitution of Great Britain, I request that Count Rumford
would propose me to the managers of the said Institution
as a candidate for election in the class pointed out in the
column below, in which my name is subscribed.

1st class proprietors, who up to May 1802 pay seventy
guineas ; 2nd class life subscribers, who pay twenty guineas ;
3rd class annual subscribers, three guineas.

1801.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 187

The letter states that, as the Institution will cer-
tainly become more interesting and more useful in
proportion as it is made more complete and more ex-
tensive in all its numerous details, it is very desirable
that as great a number as possible of respectable indi-
viduals should be induced to unite in its support and
interest themselves in its prosperity ; and then, after
mentioning that its plan has been much praised abroad,
it says :

And if some persons in this country, influenced by mis-
representation or by groundless 'apprehensions or other
motives, have been withheld from giving to the undertaking
their countenance and support, the character, reputation,
and distinguished rank of many of those who have been
most active in promoting it, and who certainly may be sup-
posed to be best acquainted with its nature and tendency,
and above all the ostensible patronage of our most gracious
Sovereign, who has given so many proofs of his solicitude
to encourage useful improvements and to discourage
dangerous and doubtful innovations, ought to be sufficient
to relieve the doubts of all, and to recommend the Royal
Institution of Great Britain to the support of all those who
take pleasure in contributing to the diffusion of useful
knowledge and the encouragement of industry and in-
genuity.

The postscript says :

Any one or more gentlemen of your acquaintance whom
you shall recommend will be proposed to the managers, and
will no doubt be elected.

Soon after the third number of the Journal was
edited by Eumford alone. It contained a paper on
the ' Use of Steam as a Vehicle for Conveying Heat

188 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

from one Place to another,' by Count Kumford, and
' An Account of a New Eudyometer,' by Mr. Davy.

In July Count Rumford returned to his own house,
but he was requested to continue his general superin-
tendence of the works in the same manner as if he had
continued to reside in the house. Dr. Young, at the
recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, was made Pro-
fessor of Natural Philosophy, Editor of the Journals,
and Superintendent of the House, with 300£. a year
and rooms. In the autumn Dr. Young alone edited
the fourth number of the Journal, which consisted only
of the outlines of a view of galvanism, which Davy had
made his first course of lectures.

In August the Committee of Chemistry agreed to the
following rules : To meet by summons the third
Wednesday of every month at 7 P.M. That all
decisions should be by ballot. The decisions respecting
experiments to be undertaken should be made by a
majority, consisting of three or more members. That
the orders to the proper officers of the Institution con-
cerning experiments should be strictly attended to,
and be immediately carried into effect. That by
unanimous ballot the Committee should elect new
members. That every question should be put in
writing, proposed, and seconded. That apparatus or
materials, if immediately required, should be obtained
without reference to the Committee of Managers. That
the clerk should attend and take notes of all the pro-
ceedings of the Committee.

The managers immediately agreed that no person
should be added to any committee without previous

1801.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 189

consultation with the committee on the qualification
of the candidate proposed for election.

In the autumn Count Eumford went to Paris and
Germany, and made the acquaintance of Madame
Lavoisier. He returned by Paris. The clerk, Mr. W.
Savage, wrote to him, probably in December :

In obedience to your commands, I annex an account of
the present state of the works at the Royal Institution.

He then gives the state of the laboratory, the work-
shops for iron and copper, the joiners' workshops, the
kitchen, the library, the hall, and passage to the con-
versation room.

He then says :

The repository is in the same state you left it ; indeed,
it has been, and is at present, a workshop for the plumbers
and glaziers.

The printing office. We are busy printing Dr. Young's
syllabus and beginning Mr. Davy's. Dr. Young's is ex-
pected to make 10 or 12 sheets. Of Mr. Davy's there is none
printed off. It is meant to be 6 sheets. We print 1,000 on
common paper and 100 on large paper of Dr. Young's, and
500 on common paper and 50 large of Mr. Davy's. We
have printed one sheet for a number of the Journals which
contains part of Mr. Davy's paper on Galvanism, but it ap-
pears very uncertain when we shall publish it. [This was
No. 4.]

The apparatus for warming the lecture room is fitted up.
They have tried it, but have not yet been able to raise the
temperature more than 5 degrees. It is considerably hotter
under the seats, and they have bored a great number of
holes through the front of them to admit the hot air into the
room.

Mr. Davy's rooms are fitted up ; he does not mean to give

190 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

separate courses of lectures on tanning, and on staining and
printing cotton, but purposes to incorporate them in his
general course. The attic floor is far from being finished ;
they have not yet begun to plaster it, but it is all lathed.
There are three additional annual subscribers, one of them
through your letter (the circular). The Committee of
Chemistry have resolved to recommend to the managers to I
provide apparatus to the amount of 314L 11s. for the labo-
ratory, and to stop the passage through and attach the ser-
vants' hall to the laboratory.1

He ends his letter thus :

I anxiously wish for your return, as I can perceive that
the Institution begins to feel the want of you, I have the
honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most
humble Servant, W. S.

The energy of supervision and the power of organi-
sation of Count Eumford enabled him in 1801 to work
out most of his plan ; but to keep it in action far more
money was wanted than he had obtained, and to perfect
it he must have continued much longer to act the part
of a dictator. Before 1801 was ended a new and power-
ful interest began to draw him away from his Institu-
tion and from England.

In three years he had made more or less perfect
working models of an industrial school for mechanics ;
of a society for diffusing useful knowledge by publi-
cations and lectures ; of a mechanical exhibition of
things useful to the poor and to the rich ; of an asso-
ciation for the promotion of scientific investigation by
means of different committees of workers ; and of a
convenient modern club, with a school of cookery

1 This was part of the front area.

1802.J THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 191

attached to it. He had included all these objects in
one design, and had placed them under one roof.

He was not yet fifty years old, and after the events
through which his energy had carried him he saw no
difficulty, and thought it would be easy to make his
most complicated Institution prove to the world how
scientific knowledge might be useful to the lower as
well as to the higher classes. He expected to gain
the support of the whole nation. He wished that his
Institution should be approved by all the world.

The difficulties and dangers that arose as he worked
out his plan became only stimulants to his energy,'
and if engagements at Munich and attractions at
Paris had not interfered, he would not have allowed
his original Institution to fail from any want of support
or from any opposition to his designs.

Already he had made enemies and met with diffi-
culties, and early in 1802 political necessity and
private interest led him abroad, and made him agree
to changes which affected the foundations of his Insti-
tution, and caused it to approach in some respects
nearer to its present form. Thus the year 1802 saw
the first great change in the management of the Royal
Institution.

In the sixth number of the Journal of the Institu-
tion the lectures of Young, and in the seventh number
the lectures of Davy, which began on January 21, are
mentioned by Young thus :

As the object of the Journals is to present to their readers

discussions tending either to practical utility or to the

lustrations of the principles of science, so particulars of

192 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. IV.

any mode of demonstration either new or not commonly
known that may occur in the lectures will be noticed.

Not that anything like an abstract is intended, for this
may be found in the compendiums already published ; but
it may be the more proper to notice some experiments as
it has not been possible to introduce an enumeration of
experiments into those corapendiums.

In a meeting of the Committee of Chemistry of the
Institution on the 20th of January it was resolved
that—

The Committee of Chemistry, having taken into considera-
tion the present state of knowledge respecting the history
of metallic alloys, and being of opinion that this branch of
chemistry (so eminently important to science and so useful
to various arts) has not been hitherto investigated with due
accuracy, resolve that a series of experiments shall be made
in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, in order to ascer-
tain with all possible precision the physical and chemical
properties of these metallic compounds.

This is probably the germ of Faraday's investigation. :
of the alloys of steel.

Count Rumford moved that all the stock 7,000£. in
the funds belonging to the Institution should be sold
out to pay for the new buildings and other debts.

Early in February it was resolved that each proprie-
tor should have an extra transferable ticket, c to facili-
tate the admission of such artists and mechanics as
may derive advantage from the public lectures delivered
at the Institution, which will give admittance to the
gallery only of the great lecture room and to no other
part of the house.

' Resolved, — That this new arrangement, which is in-
tended as an experiment, do continue as long as the
managers shall deem it expedient.'

1802.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 193

On April 12 Count Eumford passed a resolution to
increase the payments of life subscribers to forty guineas
and of annual subscribers to four guineas, and to elect
a new class of subscribers to the lectures only, the
payment being two guineas. A requisition had been
drawn up and signed to call a general meeting of the
proprietors to enlarge the body of managers and visitors
to fifteen, and to stop the election of more proprietors.
Count Eumford did not sign this requisition. The
managers who signed it were Winchelsea, Morton,
Pelham, Banks, Sullivan, and Hatchett.

That the management of the Institution at this time
was by no means harmonious is seen by a letter of Mr.
Webster to his mother, and by his recollections,
written some time afterwards, of the failure of the
school for mechanics, of which he was to have been

master.

January 8, 1802.

I wish I could give you a more favourable account of my
situation at the Institution. I believe I told you it did not
by any means answer my expectations ; the men who conduct
it at present cannot always be its managers, and its very
system may and probably will be very much altered at some
future period. . . . Except some change takes place in the
domestic arrangements of the Institution, I do not think
that I shall sleep there again ; I am sorry to say that what-
ever good qualities the managers possess — and they are by
no means deficient in them — they have shown very little at-
tention to the comforts of those employed in it.

In his recollections he says :

But this project for improving mechanics, well intended
as it was, which promised to be so useful, and which had

0

194 THE EARLY HISTORY OP [CHAP. IV.

already gained for the Institution ' golden opinions,' was
doomed to be crushed by the timidity (for I shall forbear
to speak more harshly) of a few. I was asked rudely (by
an individual whom I shall not now name) what I meant
by instructing the lower classes in science. I was told like-
wise that it was resolved upon that the plan must be dropped
as quietly as possible. It was thought to have a dangerous
political tendency, and I was told that if I persisted I
would become a marked man ! It was in vain to argue —
the time was unfavourable — and I found the necessity of
yielding. No notice was ever given publicly that the idea
of instructing the mechanic was abandoned, and I have no
doubt but that in many parts of the kingdom the Institu-
tion got the credit of great liberality long after the mechanics'
school had become extinct.

I have no wish to detail now a thousand circumstances
curious enough in a historical point of view connected with
my residence in the house of the Royal Institution ; suffice
it to say that, notwithstanding I became much known and
had many friends, yet my chief views being evidently
thwarted, and there being no prospect of my situation be-
coming valuable in a pecuniary way, I thought it was high
time to think of my own interest, and I determined on be-
coming a landscape painter, a profession which then offered
considerable prospects in a very agreeable and independent
occupation. Count Rumford left England about the same
time, certainly neither rewarded nor thanked in proportion
to the good he had done.

The management of the Institution now fell into other
hands, and, from what appeared to me very erroneous
reasoning, my mechanics' stone staircase was pulled down
at a considerable expense. All the culinary and other con-
trivances which the Count and I had taken so much trouble
to fit up in the kitchen as an exhibition — and many of them
were really good things — were put away. The workmen
employed in the house to make models were discharged,
there being no one to direct them. The lecture room had

1802.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 195

been wanned by steam and satisfactorily. When the boiler
was worn out (as things will in time) the whole steam
apparatus was taken away by the ironmonger then em-
ployed, and something of his own was put up, which for
years was an annoyance to Mr. Faraday, who did not even
know that steam had ever been employed till I informed
him. In short, it might seem as if the then managers had
resolved that the Institution should not be for the applica-
tion of science to the common purposes of life.

On April 26 Mr. Webster was allowed leave of

absence for the benefit of his health until December 1,

; and he was given 501. on account of his salary. This

was his retirement from the Institution. In 1826 he

was appointed house secretary of the Geological

j Society, and Curator of the Museum. He died in

: 1844, Professor of Geology in the (then) London

University.

At the meeting of managers and visitors on the same
1 day Count Rumford made a report on the present
[ state of the Institution. This was the last meeting of
I the managers that he ever attended.

He said : ' I shall briefly state what has been ac-
complished since my last report on May 25, 1801, and
> what still remains to be done to complete this great
, and interesting establishment in all its details.'

He spoke of the new lecture room as holding nine
hundred persons ; i a whisper may be distinctly heard
from one extremity to the other, and no echo is ever
' perceived in it on any occasion.'

This theatre is warmed in cold weather by steam, which,

coming in covered and concealed tubes from the lower part

' of the house, circulates in a large semicircular copper tube

o 2

196 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

eight inches in diameter and above sixty feet long, which
is concealed under the rising seats of the pit.

The repository already contains a considerable number
of specimens of new and useful mechanical contrivances.
The chemical laboratory, in which there is provision made
for placing and using no less than sixteen furnaces of
different kinds at the same time, is quite finished.

All the workshops of the Institution are now quite
finished, and they have been furnished with the most com-
plete sets of tools that could be procured, and several excel-
lent workmen are now employed in them ; and a great
variety of useful articles designed as models of imitation
have already been manufactured in the house, and are ready
to be delivered to any of the proprietors or subscribers to
the Institution who may be disposed to purchase them.

The great kitchen at the house of the Institution has
been furnished, and now contains a variety of new and use-
ful utensils and implements of cookery, jnany of which are
in daily use, and others (which are not) are so exposed to
view as to be easily understood and their merit appreciated.

He then gives an account of each room. The pre-
sent lower library was divided into two rooms, the first
for foreign newspapers, the other for books. Over
these rooms was the second lecture room, which at
some future period was to become the library.

It will be useful for occasional lectures, and for exhibiting
new experiments, and for the meetings of the committees.

The conversation room has been furnished, and every-
thing has been prepared for its being used as a coffee room.
It is now set apart for the daily papers.

The proprietors since June had increased 16, the life
subscribers 16, and annual subscribers 122. All the new
works to be done and every demand would amount to;
3,900?. The balance at the banks and the debts to the In- •

1802.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 197

stitution came to 8,100Z. The Institution has been completed
without any debt, and the annual income is quite sufficient
to defray all the expenses of keeping it up.

He ended thus :

The Royal Institution of Great Britain may therefore be
considered as finished and freely established. That it may
long continue to flourish is no doubt the ardent wish of
those who are connected with it, and also of all those who
are acquainted with the principles on which it is founded,
and who know how powerfully it must contribute to the
general diffusion of an active spirit of inquiry and useful
improvement among all the ranks of society.

Such was Count Rumford's favourable statement
when he was about to take leave for a time, and, as it
proved, for ever, of the Institution he had founded.

The contrast between this report and that which he
made to the managers only one week afterwards shows
that he was very suddenly made aware of the changes
which his absence would occasion in the Institution.

This, his last report, was dated May 3, and it was
taken into consideration by the managers the day after
he left for Bavaria. He begins by saying that at the
desire of the managers he has made some inquiries and
taken some preparatory steps for making several new
arrangements in the internal regulation of the house
of the Institution.

First, of the Journals, to relieve the managers from the
care and anxiety which is ever inseparably connected with
the direction of business of account, of multifarious detail,
and where inspection and control are difficult and some-
times impossible. It was proposed to put the publication of
the Journals into the hands of Dr. Young, Mr. Davy, and

198 THE EARLY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. IV. '

Mr. Savage, on conditions which made them take the print- |
ing-office without the power of disposing of it.

Second, of the workshops of the Royal Institution.
These are proposed to be put into the hands of some re-
spectable tradesman, to be managed by him under certain
regulations at his own expense and for his own benefit.
Mr. Feetham, a respectable ironmonger of Oxford Street,
offered to take charge of the workshops of workers in
metal,1 which is immediately , under the managers' room, I
and carry on at his own expense and risk the same kinds of
work with the same workmen.

Charles Royce, who, in the absence of Mr. Webster, acts ,
as an assistant of the professor and chemical lecturer, is
ready to engage to carry on the business of the model- !
makers' workshops at the house of the Institution on his 9
own account, and at his own private expense and risk, pro- i
mi sing to furnish at fair prices to all proprietors and
subscribers such models as they may order. He will like-
wise continue to assist Dr. Young and Mr. Davy at their
public lectures.

If these arrangements are carried out, the office of
Steward of the House and Master of the Workshops, held
by Mr. M'Cullock, might be suppressed. Mr. Royce will
only require a boy to clean the laboratory.

Of the coffee room and dining room. It has been pro-
posed to give the management of these to some individual
who shall agree to furnish the proprietors and subscribers
with refreshments at his own account and risk.

He ended his dictatorship with these abdicating words: ',

All the different subjects mentioned in this report remain
for future discussion among the managers.

Many proofs exist that Count Rumfbrd took little -j
counsel from others in founding the Royal Institution.

1 Now the chemical laboratory, 1871.

1802.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 199

In the works of Peter Pindar (Dr. Walcot) (vol. v. p.
458) there is an epistle to Count Rumford containing
these lines and this note:

' But what an insolence in me to prate,
Pretend to him to open Wisdom's gate,
Who spurns advice, like weeds, where'er it springs,
Disdaining counsel,1 though it comes from kings.'

1 ' Here I must beg leave to differ from the Count. Although a man
may, like the Count, possess extraordinary intellect, and though a man
may be the best judge of himself, nevertheless it is indecorous to treat
the opinions of others with contempt. The Count's constant assertion is,
' I never was yet in the wrong ; I know everything.' Granting this to
be true, the declaration nevertheless is arrogant and supercilious.'

In the ' Monthly Magazine, or British Eegister ' for
May 1815, in a memoir of Count Eumford, speaking of
his connexion with the Royal Institution, and of the
quarrels which arose among the managers, this passage
occurs :

We feel it proper to state that the Count assumed the
character of absolute controller, as well as the projector, of
this establishment, and conducted himself with a degree of
hauteur which disgusted its patrons, and almost broke the
heart of our amiable friend and its first professor, Dr.
Garnett.

And in Dr. Thomas Thompson's ' Annals of Philosophy '
for April 1815 a biographical account of Count Rumford
is given, and the following inaccurate statement is made :

I pass over his quarrel with the managers of the Royal
Institution, about the nature of which I am not fully in-
formed, though I suppose it was an attempt on the part of
the Count to retain in his own hands the entire manage-
ment of that Institution. Be that as it may, the result of
the dispute induced him to leave London, to which he never
again returned.

200 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

Differences with the managers had nothing to do
with Count Eumford's departure from London. The
immediate cause is seen in his letter to his daughter
from Munich on October 2, 1801. He had promised
the new Elector to return as soon as the Koyal Institu-
tion was in order. Dr. Young states that the supe-
riority of the climate of France was partly, if not
entirely, the cause of his leaving England. Probably
the influence of Madame Lavoisier had its full effect.

Count Eumford left England for Munich on May 9.
It is quite certain that when he left he intended to
return to his Institution and his house, to his house-
keeper and his servants in Brompton Row. It is
equally certain that he no longer was on terms of
intimacy with Mr. Bernard, who was still a visitor of
the Institution, and that he kept up no correspondence
during his absence with the other managers regarding
his Institution except with Sir Joseph Banks. Before
he had left England one month those objects which
he had considered likely to bear the best fruits at the
Institution were marked for destruction, and they
gradually withered away.

The state of the funds was the cause of the imme-
diate change. The bills due were 3;900£., the balance
at the bankers' was 3,1 80£. The arrears came to
4,960L 10s., but these were chiefly bad debts.

In 1799 the income was 6,379£. ; in 1800, 11,047£. ;
in 1801, 3,474^.; whilst in 1802 it was only 2,9991.
Moreover the expenditure was increasing.

Meeting after meeting was held in May 1802 to
make arrangements for reducing the expenditure in

1802.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 201

the workshops and printing-office. In June the reso-
lution of Count Kumford to increase the rates of
subscription to be paid by life and annual subscribers
was unanimously rescinded.

In July Dr. Young, when applying for leave of
absence, had to ssk for the balance of his salary, and
Mr. Davy at the same time requests that he may be
allowed a part of his salary.

In the autumn the managers seem from the Minutes
to have held only two meetings between July 5 and
December 6.

But on December 20 Mr. Bernard, visitor, Lord
Kinnaird, treasurer, and Mr. Auriol, secretary, were
requested by the managers to take into consideration
the state of the Institution, and to report their opinion
upon such measures and regulations as may appear to
them eligible to be adopted for reducing the expenses
and increasing the benefit of the Institution.

An accident, as it may be called, this year led the
thoughts of Davy to agricultural chemistry, and
ultimately gave him a reputation in the country
resembling that which Liebig afterwards obtained.

During the summer it was resolved that the Board
of Agriculture should be allowed the use of the lecture
room for a course of lectures on the Application of
Chemistry to Agriculture, provided the subscribers and
the proprietors of the Institution were allowed ad-
mission ; and * if the professors of the Institution can be
of any service in assisting or forwarding the wishes of
the Board of Agriculture in giving these lectures, the
managers have no objection to their being employed.'

202 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

The following year Davy gave in consequence his first
course on Agriculture.

In 1803 the existence of the Eoyal Institution was
in peril. This is apparent from a letter written by Sir
John Hippesley, in 1820, to the President of the Board
of Agriculture suggesting an amalgamation of the two
societies. He said : ' I recollect with pain that when
I was of the Committee of Managers in the year 1803
(scarcely three years after the date of the charter)
our capital was exhausted and the corporation was
3,000£. in debt, insomuch that a proposal was then
made at the board to shut up the house of the Institu-
tion and to bring all the effects to a sale for a discharge
of its debts. Fortunately a better determination pre-
vailed. A liberal subscription among the members im-
mediately took place. The debt was paid off and near
3,000£. was invested for a time in the public funds.
I say for a time, as unfortunately the Institution since
that period has not been exempted from the pressure
of the general difficulties of the times, and has had to
struggle with their severity while its efforts neverthe-
less have not relaxed in fulfilling the great objects of
its establishment. To your Lordship I need not insist
upon the extent of these efforts nor the credit due to
the general management as well as to the eminent
talents and exertions of the able professors and
lecturers who have so justly maintained the high
scientific celebrity of the Institution in every part of
Europe.'

On January 17 Lord Kinnaird, Mr. Bernard, and
Mr. Auriol made their first report.

1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 203

They proposed to continue the existing scientific
establishment alone; to reduce the workmen, the
printers, and the domestics; and to appoint a sub-
committee to watch the expenditure.

Two thousand pounds were wanted for immediate
payment of bills, and the managers, visitors, treasurer,
and secretary subscribed 100£. each, to be repaid to them
without interest.

The committee asked for more time in February to
prepare the accounts of the Institution.

Early in March an accountant was called in ' to
arrange the accounts from the first.'

The result of this investigation is best seen in a
report which was drawn up by Mr. Bernard, and which
was presented by the visitors to the proprietors, May 2,
1803.

Mr. Bernard reviewed all the expenditure from, the first,
beginning with the purchase of the house (and the two ad-
joining houses held under it) for 4,850Z. For the charter,
583Z. For arms, 1011. For lecture room, repository,
laboratory, and workshop, 5,227Z., which was 1,800?. less
than was expected, and 'it has been completed, as the
visitors conceive, in a manner and with a degree of atten-
tion and economy very creditable to those who undertook
the care and direction of it.'1 . . . 1,1812. was paid for
fitting up and furnishing the workshops and for experi-
ments incidental to the use of them. ' It is to be observed
that a part of this expense ought regularly to be charged to
the apparatus. Some loss, however, will probably be in-
curred upon this article of expenditure, as that part of the
arrangement seems to be in a great measure given up. The

1 This and a line below are the only traces of praise of Count Rum-
ford that are to be found in the records of the Institution.

204 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

loss, however, it is hoped, will be inconsiderable, as by a
plan recently brought forward by a very scientific member
of the Committee of Managers (Mr. Hatchett), it is pro-
posed to form for the use of proprietors, and for the benefit
of the Institution, in these and the adjoining rooms, the
establishment of a very extensive and useful laboratory,
upon a scale of magnitude and with a degree of advantage
that are not likely to be equalled in any part of his Majesty's
dominions.'

After reviewing the domestic expenditure and the
expenditure of the invested principal Mr. Bernard said :

Upon the whole the visitors have the pleasure of stating
to the annual meeting that, in the examination of the ex-
penditure incurred in a concern of so great magnitude,
under some peculiar circumstances and difficulties and
during a period of near four years, they have found the
;whole of the accounts correctly stated, verified, and balanced
except as to a small deficit of 47Z. 14s. 10-^cL entered as
such by mistake, the vouchers for which having been
actually produced ; and they conceive that there is no-
thing that merits censure and much that deserves appro-
bation,

With regard to the present state and progress of the
Institution he said :

In the supply of useful models, one of its original and
most important objects, very little advance is yet made.
The lectures and public experiments connected with them
will be considerably augmented in the coming season. The
new plan for the laboratory promises to increase the scope
and utility of it, and at the same time very much to dimi-
nish, if not eventually provide for, the expense of that part
of the Institution. The library and proposed collection
of books of reference will form a library establishment
honourable to the British nation, favourable to science,

1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 2C5

advantageous to the pursuits of scientific men, and very
conducive to the increase of the funds and of the utility,
prosperity, and permanency of the Institution.

He thus ended his report :

The fabric of the Royal Institution is now completed by
the efforts of individuals. . . . The attempt has been as
arduous as the object has been great and important — not
less than that of giving fashion to science and of forming a
centre of philosophical and literary attraction, for supplying
instruction to the young, and rational amusement to ma-
ture life, with essential advantages to the public and in-
crease of resources to the country by new discoveries and
improvements in the arts and manufactures.

Early in January the managers resolved that Dr.
Young and Mr. Davy should give one hundred lectures
in the ensuing season, to begin on October 26.

On January 21 Dr. Young proposed to the managers
a preface to the second volume of the Journal of the
Institution. It was referred to the Select Committee,
who advised that at the present period, when, on
account of the situation of the finances and expenses
of the Institution, a considerable alteration is become
necessary in their arrangements, any publication of the
kind proposed by Dr. Young had better be deferred
for the present. This preface, written by Dr. Young,
never was published, and, as it gives a good view of the
Institution as it was left by Rumford, it is of interest
as a record of the past.

206 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

flan and Regulations of the Royal Institution of Great
Britain, Albemarle Street, written by Dr. Thomas Young.

THE professed object of the Royal Institution is the diffu-
sion of useful knowledge, derived from science, and appli-
cable to the purposes of life.

The means proposed for attaining this end are, first, an
annual delivery of lectures on the various branches of natu-
ral philosophy and chemistry, familiar enough to be intel-
ligible to moderate capacities, and extensive enough to com-
prehend themost important applications of theory to practice ;
secondly, the furnishing of a spacious repository with
models of such machines, instruments, and utensils as, after
sufficient experimental examination, can with confidence be
recommended for introduction into common use ; thirdly,
the establishment of a chemical laboratory, with proper ap-
paratus and materials to be employed in such investigations
as are of the greatest practical utility ; fourthly, the provi-
sion of reading rooms, supplied as well with periodical pub-
lications as with works of acknowledged merit, particularly
relative to the sciences and the arts ; and, lastly, the exten-
sion of the benefits derived from the Institution, by publish-
ing from time to time, in its Journals, such improvements
as may either have been made by its means, or may have
been otherwise suggested by individuals in foreign coun-
tries or in our own.

These objects are indeed of too great magnitude to be
completely obtained at once; but a considerable progress
has already been made in the pursuit of them, and a con-
tinuance of the public support alone is required for render-
ing the Royal Institution as well a natural ornament as a
private accommodation.

The lectures are already established on an unprecedented
scale, in the order of the systematic compendiums which
have been published ; and weekly notice is given to the
subscribers of the subjects of each lecture. The laboratory

1803.J THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 207

has been provided with an ample apparatus ; and a number
of original experiments have already been made in it, which
are immediately connected with the useful arts. The read-
ing rooms are furnished with all new works of importance,
both foreign and domestic, which relate to the arts and
sciences, as well as with newspapers and all other periodical
publications ; and they are open daily, from nine in the
morning till midnight. A volume of the Journals is com-
pleted, and may serve as a specimen of what is to be ex-
pected from them when their editors shall be more at leisure
to prepare materials for them. But a more complete col-
lection of models and of apparatus can only be obtained by
degrees, and in proportion as the funds of the Institution
are enabled to support the expense.

The affairs of the Institution are directed by a president
and nine managers, elected out of the proprietors at large.
Their meetings are usually the first Monday in every month,
or oftener.

The professors engage to deliver, annually, not less than
fifty lectures each, on natural philosophy and the mechani-
cal arts ; and on chemistry, and the chemical arts respec-
tively ; to direct and superintend, with the approbation of
the managers, the construction of apparatus necessary for
their lectures, and of other models and experimental ma-
chines proper to be placed in the repository ; to collect such
information as is requisite for these purposes ; and to provide
jointly sufficient matter for the publication of the Journals.
The Superintendent of the House is charged with the regu-
lation of its internal economy ; and the Director of the
Laboratory is empowered to make such experiments in it
as he may judge likely to promote the views of the Institu-
tion.

The clerk is required to attend in the house in general
from nine to five, and on the evenings when lectures are
delivered from seven to nine ; but in particular to be never
absent between twelve and four ; to be ready every day at

208 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

one o'clock, to show the various parts of the house to all
persons who are entitled to admission ; to inspect and ar-
range the library, to receive payment of subscriptions, to
deliver tickets, and to keep all the accounts, under the
direction of the managers and of the Superintendent of the
House.

The mathematical instrument maker, and other work-
men in the immediate service of the Institution, are employed
in the construction and repair of apparatus for the lectures
and for the repository. The Superintendent of the Work-
shops assists also in the experiments exhibited by the pro-
fessors in their lectures, and has the charge of the prepara-
tion of all necessary apparatus.

Besides these officers, and the domestic servants of the
house, six workmen are at present constantly employed in
various departments of the Institution.

Such persons as are desirous of becoming proprietors of
the Royal Institution, or subscribers for life, or for any
number of years, must be nominated by one of the mana-
gers, at a meeting prior to that in which they are elected ;
but in cases of emergency they may receive temporary
tickets of admission as soon as they are nominated, paying
their subscriptions, to be returned in case of non-election.

A proprietor pays at present 80 guineas. He receives
two transferable tickets of admission to the lectures and
to the house in general ; but such tickets do not admit the
bearer to the reading rooms, unless they have been person-
ally transferred to him, with the consent of the managers,
for a time not less than a year.

Subscribers for life pay 20 guineas, and annual subscri-
bers 3 guineas a year. Their tickets admit the possessors
to all parts of the house, but they are not transferable.

Ladies who are desirous of subscribing must be recom-
mended by one of the ladies holding books for the purpose.
For personal admission to the lectures each lady pays a
guinea for the season, but her ticket is not transferable,

1803.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 209

except among daughters of the same family subscribing
with their mother. Ladies subscribing three guineas are
entitled to introduce to each lecture any one lady of their
acquaintance.

All subscriptions must be paid, either to the clerk or to
one of the bankers of the Institution, upon or before the re-
ceipt of a ticket of admission ; and no annual subscriber
can be admitted after the expiration of a former year
before the payment of his subscription for the succeeding
one.

The lectures are delivered daily at two o'clock, except-
ing Tuesdays and Fridays, when they are at eight in the
evening.

The Journals are usually published every month or
oftener, in numbers of two sheets or more ; they are sold
at the price of a shilling each at the house of the Institu-
tion and by the principal booksellers, and they are regu-
larly sent to the houses of all those who wish to be con-
sidered as subscribers to them.

Ladies empowered to recommend subscribers :

Duchess of Devonshire, . Piccadilly.

Countess of Sutherland, . Arlington Street.

Countess Spencer, . . St. James's Place.

Countess of Bessborough, . Cavendish Square.

Viscountess Palmerston, . Hanover Square.

Hon. Mrs. Barrington, . Cavendish Square.

Lady Campbell, . . . Wimpole Street.

Mrs. Sullivan, . . . Grafton Street.

Mrs. Bernard, ... At the Foundling.

Mrs. Crewe, . . . Lower Grosvenor Street.

Bankers of the Royal Institution :

Messrs. Down, Thornton, Free, and Cornwall, Bar-
tholomew Lane.
Messrs. Herries, Farquhar, and Co., St. James'a Street.

P

210 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

Messrs. Hoare, Fleet Street.
Messrs. Ladbrook and Co., Bank Buildings.
Messrs. Pybus, Call, Grant and Hale, Bond Street.
Messrs. Ransom, Morland, and Co., Pall Mall.

The second volume of the Journals never was pub-
lished. Three sheets only were printed, chiefly con-
taining papers by Young and a few extracts by Davy,
and then the Journals of the Institution ceased, and
were not revived until 1830, when they were edited
for a year and a half by Professor Brande.

On April 21 Dr. Young wrote to the managers a
letter, which is lost. On the 26th the managers an-
swered that 'they cannot consent to grant him the
increase of salary which he desires for the next year,
and with respect to the other situations (Librarian and
Keeper of the Library of Eeference) which he mentions,
as they are appointments which do not at present exist,
the managers cannot now say anything regarding them.'
This resolution was not communicated to Dr. Young
until June 6, and he then gave notice of his wish to
resign his appointment. He was asked whether it
would be agreeable to him to deliver twenty lectures
in the next season, and what would be his subject and
his terms. At the next meeting it was resolved that
the balance of two years' complete salary should be
paid to Dr. Young, and that his engagement with the
Institution should terminate from that time, and that,
in consideration of his services, he should be proposed
to the next meeting to be admitted gratuitously to the
privileges of subscribers for life.

In 1804 Dr. Young, in his reply to the articles of
Lord Brougham in the ' Edinburgh Keview,' gave the

1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 211

following account of his engagement and of its termi-
nation :

The reviewer has thought proper to unite, in several in-
stances, with his invectives against me some ridicule of the
objects of the Royal Institution of Great Britain — an In-
stitution in which its managers have studied to concentrate
all that is useful in science or elegant in literature. This
connexion appears to him to add so much weight to
his arguments that he has chosen, without further pro-
vocation, to insinuate its existence more than a year after
it has been dissolved. I accepted the appointment of
Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution as
an occupation which would fill up agreeably and advan-
tageously such leisure hours as a young practitioner of
physic must expect to be left free from professional cares.
I was led to hope that I should be able to impress an
audience, formed of the most respectable inhabitants of the
metropolis, with such a partiality as the moderately well-in-
formed are inclined to entertain for those who appear to
know even a little more than themselves of matters of
science. While I held the situation I wished to make my
lectures as intelligible as the nature of the subjects per-
mitted ; but I must confess that it was not my ambition to
render them a substitute for those of any superficial ex-
perimenter that was in the habit of delivering courses of
natural philosophy for the amusement of boarding schools.
Whatever may have been the imperfections of my lectures,
it cannot be asserted, except perhaps in the ' Edinburgh
Review,' that they were fit for audiences of ladies of
fashion only. After fulfilling for two years the duties of
the professorship, I found them so incompatible with the
pursuits of a practical physician that, in compliance with
the advice of my friends, I gave notice of my wish to re-
sign the office.1

1 Edinburgh Review, Nos. II. and IX., 1803, 1804.
p 2

212 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

In March the Select Committee made their second
report.

It recommended the supply and completion of the
library, and the formation of an additional collection
of books for the reference of scientific men, as one of
the measures most likely to give permanency and
stability to the Eoyal Institution.

On March 21 Mr. Bernard laid before a meeting of
the managers and visitors a plan for these libraries
which he had prepared. By April 4 he had obtained
subscriptions to the amount of 2,828£., and at a meet-
ing of the subscribers they appointed a select committee
to consider and report upon the arrangements proper
to be made. On April 14 another general meeting of
subscribers to the library and collection of reference
decided on an address to the proprietors and subscribers
to the Royal Institution. Further resolutions were
adopted on April 20 and on April 29, the subscriptions
having reached 3,7 981. Regulations were drawn up,
and ultimately bye-laws regarding the library and
collection of books of reference were made on May 2. j
The total subscriptions to February 6, 1806, came to
5,395?. 10s.

This library and collection was an institution within
an institution. It had its chief patron, chairman,
deputy chairman, treasurer, secretary, and other patrons,
its general committee and sub-committees, its ac-
counts, its bankers. Its great object, in addition to
the immediate completion of the library, was ' the for- 1-
mation of an extended collection of books of reference,
comprehending not only the best publications in

1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 213

practical science, but a library of general and authentic
history, political economy, finances, topography, and
other departments of knowledge that may be useful to
individuals of the United Kingdom, and also to scientific
persons of other nations.'

This was formed in the room which is now the upper
library. Before the theatre was built it had been the
lecture room.

In June Mr. Harris, who had been employed at Mr.
Egerton's, the bookseller in Whitehall, was engaged
to correct and arrange the library, and to buy the
London Library, in Hatton Garden, if he thought it
was desirable to do so. It was found to be in a very
bad state and was declined.

On July 27, 1803, at the meeting of the general
committee of the patrons of the library and collection
of reference of the Eoyal Institution, a letter was read
from Mr. Dibden to Mr. Bernard, applying for the situ-
ation of principal librarian of the Eoyal Institution.

Being a married man with a yonng family, and having
a particular partiality to the study of bibliography, such a
situation would be an eligible one and agreeable to my
general habits and pursuits.

He enclosed a testimonial from Dr. Jenner.

It was resolved that Mr. Dibden be informed ' that it
is not intended to proceed to the choice of a librarian
until after Christmas next.'

At the end of April Mr. Hatchett laid before the
managers a report on the chemical department of the
Institution. He said :

214 THE EAKLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

Chemistry was always a primary object of the Insti-
tution. A laboratory was therefore erected at an early
period, and was furnished with such apparatus as was im-
mediately requisite ; but, as the Institution was then in a
nascent state, great attention was paid to economy in the
chemical department, and although much was in reality
wanted to render the laboratory complete, yet nothing more
was expended on this part than was absolutely necessary
to the immediate demands of the lectures delivered in the In-
stitution. On this account the laboratory has remained in a
state inferior to. that which might justly be expected in such
a liberal and splendid establishment ; but, as some extension
may now be expected in a department so instructive, so
interesting, and so eminently useful, the following intended
regulations are submitted to the consideration of the Com-
mittee of Managers : 1st. That the workshop lately occu-
pied by Mr. Feetham shall in future be annexed to the
laboratory. 2nd. The forge to be adapted to chemical
purposes. 3rd. An air-furnace and reverberatory furnace
to be built. 4th. Presses and shelves to be added to
contain vessels and chemical preparations.

This laboratory will be equal, or indeed superior, to any
in this country, and probably to any on the Continent. Such
a laboratory, therefore, will accord with the respectability
and liberal views of this Institution, which, 011 the other
hand, may henceforward regard this part of its establish-
ment not only as very conducive to its honour, but as likely
to produce real and substantial advantages. But to procure
these some further regulations appear necessary : 1. Crude
materials to prepare pure products should be bought. 2.
The Professor shall be assisted by a person well versed in
practical chemistry, who shall be expressly engaged to
attend the laboratory and assist in the chemical lectures.
3. Operations in the laboratory should be taught. The
Institution will derive therefrom honour and profit, and, as
far as chemistry is concerned, that one of its chief purposes

1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 215

will be accomplished — the diffusion of knowledge and the
application of science to the improvement of arts and
manufactures.

On May 2 it was resolved 6 that a Committee of
Science should be appointed from among the managers
to regulate the lectures and public experiments ; to
direct the publication of the Journals ; and to report
as to any experiments, or additions to apparatus, or
models.' It was to meet weekly and be appointed
monthly. Spencer, Banks, Cavendish, Hatchett, Sy-
monds, formed the first committee.

On May 16 the managers resolved 'that the Com-
mittee of Science should carry out improvements in
the laboratory, that the workshops should be thrown
into the laboratory and fitted up as a lecture room for
120 persons.' For nearly sixty years this laboratory
theatre remained unchanged.

Other traces of the activity of this Committee of
Science are to be found. On May 27 Sir Joseph
Banks, in the name of the Committee of Science of the
Royal Institution, wrote to the Board of Agriculture :

The Committee do not expect in agricultural analysis the
same degree of precise accuracy as is necessary in that
intended to illustrate philosophical experiments ; it will be
enough for them if the component parts of substances and
their respective proportions to each other are marked with
sufficient precision to demonstrate the probable effects on
vegetables.

The Committee are aware that at present the science of
agricultural chemistry is in its infancy, and that till it has
been more matured each analysis will take up a considerable
portion of time ; they trust, however, that it will not be

216 THE EAKLY HISTORY OF [CHIP. IV.

long before Mr. Davy himself, or some one named by him
and acting under his superintendence, will undertake the
business of analysing soils and manures for individuals at
a moderate fixed price for each substance that shall be
brought to them.

The Royal Institution wish to have Mr. Davy's lectures
repeated at their house, and have desired me to ask whether
the Board of Agriculture have any objection to a measure
which appears to them likely to extend still farther.

Having been requested to suggest what I think a proper
recompense to Mr. Davy on account of his six lectures
delivered at the Board, and also a plan for securing his
services in future to the Board of Agriculture, I beg leave
to propose that sixty guineas be given by the Board to Mr.
Davy as a remuneration for his six lectures, being at the
rate of ten guineas for each lecture, and that the office of
Professor of Chemical Agriculture to the Board, with a
salary of 100Z. a year, be offered to his acceptance ; the duty
of his professorship to consist of reading lectures in the
spring at such time as shall be fixed by the Board, on the
application of chemistry to the improvement of the art of
agriculture, and in making an analysis of such substances
as shall be put into his hands by the Committee, in case he
is of opinion that the result of such analysis is likely to
throw light on the theory and practice of that most useful
art.

This Committee of Science also, as early as July 18,
proposed that in the ensuing session Mr. Dalton should
be engaged to lecture.

The form which the Institution was at this time
about to take is well seen in the joint report of the
committees of science and accounts on the plan of the
lectures and experiments and other proposed arrange-

1803.] THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 217

ments for the ensuing year. This was made on No-
vember 28, 1803 ; the reporters were Sir Joseph Banks,
Henry Cavendish, Sir J. Hippesley, Mr. Bernard, Mr.
Sullivan.
They said :

With regard to the lectures on Natural Philosophy, it is
presumed that the subjects may be advantageously arranged
in the three distinct courses. The first should be a com-
plete course of experimental philosophy ; the second should
relate to practical mechanics ; and the third should be on
optics and astronomy.

Abstruseness should in all cases be avoided, the processes
of the arts should be particularly described, and the
operations should be on such a scale as to instruct by their
applications and to interest and amuse by the distinctness
and brilliancy of their appearance.

The lectures on Chemistry, it is supposed, may be in-
cluded in two courses. The first would relate to the
chemistry of natural history and the chemical economy of
nature, and the second to theoretical and practical chemistry.
From the progression of this branch of knowledge it will be
easy to develope in both these courses many new objects, and
it is supposed that they may at once be rendered useful
and made to excite attention and gratify curiosity.

It would be very advantageous to institute a particular
and distinct series of public experimental operations, show-
ing such new facts in elementary and natural philosophy
as are connected with splendid and curious phenomena or
highly useful applications.

During the season it was proposed that there should be
one hundred lectures and twenty public experiments — about
four lectures weekly.

For affording more practical and minute information con-
cerning the objects of science, first, in relation to mechani-
cal sciences and arts, the models of useful inventions should

218 THE EAKLY HISTOKY OF [CHAP. IV.

be increased and made more available ; second, in relation
to chemistry, the examination of the private experimental
processes performed in the laboratory might be given as
private instruction, for which those who thought proper to
attend should make some annual contribution for defraying
the extra expense, as it would be impossible to admit all the
proprietors and subscribers.

With the reduction of expenses and the strict economy
that has taken place in the establishment, it is submitted to
the managers that it will not be necessary to increase at
present the annual subscription.

The Committee concludes the report with observations
on the progress which has been recently made and is now
making in the Institution. After mentioning the lectures
and the apparatus for the lectures, it is said the laboratory
for experimental processes has been enlarged by the addition
of the former workroom, and has been improved by many
new arrangements, and provision has been made in it for
preparing the different reagents and tests employed in
philosophical chemistry and for carrying on various new
and interesting researches.

The foundation of a mineralogical collection has been
laid by the exertions of Mr. Professor Davy. For the purpose
of extending it one proprietor has offered 100Z., and others
promised to give minerals. A collection of fossils was also
made.

The reading library is now completed. The room for
the collection of reference, fitted up for 10,000 volumes,
some part of which are already purchased. It was proposed
to open it to the proprietors and subscribers early in the
ensuing season. The funds subscribed amounted to
4,368Z. 1 5s. As this would not be sufficient to purchase the
whole of the desired collection, it was hoped that other
proprietors and subscribers ' would enjoy the pleasure of
adding their contributions.'

1803.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 219

On November 24 Mr. Dalton wrote to Mr. Savage,
the clerk :

RESPECTED FRIEXD, — As it will not be convenient to me
to be in town before the 17th or 18th of next month, I
should be glad to know previously whether my accommo-
dation as to board and lodging would be in the Institution ;
if not, whether you know of any place in the vicinity where
the same would probably be procured. It will be necessary
for me to spend a considerable portion of time to make
myself acquainted with the structure and use of some of
the apparatus, and therefore I am the more solicitous on the
above heads. Pray, what is the usual duration of a lecture —
one or two hours ? An immediate reply to these inquiries
will much oblige,

Yours respectfully,

J. DALTON.

Apartments were ordered by the managers to be
prepared in the house for Mr. Dalton before December
17.

On Monday, December 22, at two, he gave the intro-
duction to a course of four lectures on Mechanics and
Physics. In this lecture he dwelt on the objects of
natural philosophy, division of the science, utility
of the study, plan of the lectures. The second lecture
was on Monday, 26, at eight P.M., on the Properties of
Matter ; extension, impenetrability, divisibility, inertia,
various species of attraction and repulsion, motion,
forces, composition of forces, collision, pendulums.
The third lecture was on Wednesday, 28, at two. Pro-
jectiles ; resistance of the air, mechanic powers, strength
of timber. The fourth on Thursday, at two. Pneu-

220 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. IV.

matics ; nature of electric fluids, the atmosphere, air-
pump, spring and weight of the air proved by experi-
ments, barometer. The last lecture was given on
Saturday, 31, at eight. This was followed by other
courses, making altogether twenty lectures.

After his return to Manchester Dalton wrote to his
brother, February 1, 1804 :

DEAR BROTHER, — I have the satisfaction to inform thee
that I returned safe from my London journey last seventh
day, having been absent six weeks. It has on many accounts
been an interesting vocation to me, though a very laborious
one. I went in a great measure unprepared, not knowing
the nature and manner of the lectures at the Institution
nor the apparatus. My first was on Thursday, December 22,
which was introductory, being entirely written, giving an
account of what was intended to be done ; and on natural
philosophy in general. All lectures were to be one hour
each, or as nearly as might be. The number attending were
from one to three hundred of both sexes, usually more than
half men. I was agreeably disappointed to find so
learned and attentive an audience, though many of them of
rank. It required great labour on my part to get acquainted
with the apparatus and to draw up the order of experiments
and repeat them in the intervals between the lectures,
though I had one pretty expert to assist me. We had the
good fortune, however, never to fail in any experiment, though
I was once so ill prepared as to beg the indulgence of the
audience as to part of the lecture, which they most hand-
somely and immediately granted me by a general plaudit.
The scientific part of the audience was wonderfully taken
with some of my original notions relative to heat, the gases
&c., some of which had not before been published. Had my
hearers been generally of the description I had apprehended,
the most interesting lectures I had to give would have
been the least relished ; but, as it happened, the expectation

1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 221

formed had drawn several gentlemen of first-rate talents
together, and my eighteenth, on Heat and the Laws of
Expansion, &c., was received with the greatest applanse ;
with very few experiments. The one that followed was on
Mixed Elastic Fluids, in which I had an opportunity of deve-
loping my ideas, that have already been published on the
subject, more fully. The doctrine has, as I apprehended it
would, excited the attention of philosophers throughout
Europe. Two journals in the German language came into
the Royal Institution whilst I was there from Saxony, both
of which were about half filled with translations from the
papers I have written on this subject and comments upon
them.

Dr. Ainslie was occasionally one of my audience, and his
sons constantly. He came up at the concluding lecture,
expressed his high satisfaction, and he believed it was
the same sentiment with all or most of the audience.

I saw my successor, William Allen, fairly launched. He
gave his first lecture on Tuesday, preceding my conclusion.
I was an auditor in this case — the first time — and had an
opportunity of surveying the audience. Amongst others
of distinction the Bishop of Durham was present. In
lecturing on optics I got six ribbands — blue, pink, lilac,
red, green, and brown — which matched very well, and told
the various audience so. I do not know whether they
generally believed me to be serious, but one gentlemen
came up immediately after and told me he perfectly agreed
with me. He had not remarked the difference by candle
light.

Throughout the year 1803 scarcely a trace of Count
Rumford's name can be found in the records of the
Institution. On January 24, when writing from Munich
to the clerk, Mr. Savage, about his house in Brompton
Row, he only begs his compliments to Dr. Young and to
Mr. Davy, and on November 11, the clerk having

222 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. IV.

asked him about an account relating to the Institution,
he wrote from Paris :

I assure you that I have not the smallest recollection of
having received from Mr. Hunter, the solicitor of the
Institution, the account you mention in your letter of the
7th ult. ; and had I in fact received it, I should most un-
doubtedly have laid it before the managers of the Institution.
I can imagine no reason which could have induced me to
keep it back ; and, as all the affairs of the Institution in my
hands were kept with the utmost care and regularity, as
you can testify, it is not likely that I should have mislaid
and forgotten it. This is all I can say on the subject, and
I hope and trust that this declaration will be satisfactory
to the managers of the Royal Institution and to Mr.
Hunter.

I expect to be in England in the course of the winter.

Gradually the ' usefulness of science to the poorer
classes and to the common purposes of life ' ceased to
be the prime object of the Institution. The school
for mechanics, the workshops, and the models, the
kitchens and the Journals, died away ; and the labora-
tory, the lectures, and the library became the life of
the new Institution, and its object became ' the diffu-
sion of knowledge and the application of science to the
improvement of arts and manufactures.'

The most memorable scientific incident in the his-
tory of the Kumford Institution was its relationship
with Dr. Thomas Young. His lectures on physics
must even now be held to rank as the greatest work
in the literature of the Institution. As Professor and
Superintendent of the House he had no great success ;
and he had no great influence on its fortunes ; but by

1803.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 223

his genius he anticipated the progress of science, and
his reputation has risen until it now ranks with that
of Davy and Faraday.

A short sketch of his life will bring this period of
the history of the Institution to a close.

Thomas Young was born in Somersetshire on June 1 3,
1773. Both his parents were Quakers, and to their
tenets he was accustomed to attribute his resolution to
effect any object on which he was engaged. This
determination he brought to bear on all he did, and
by this he educated himself almost from infancy ' with
little comparative assistance or direction from others.'

His earliest years were passed with a grandfather, a
merchant at Minehead, who had some classical taste.
He encouraged his precocious grandchild and often
repeated to him that —

A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring.

From 1780 to 1787 (7 to 14) he was chiefly at school.
He gives an account of his acquirements in an auto-
biography written in Latin at this time — writing,
arithmetic, Latin, Greek, mathematics, natural philo-
sophy, introduction to the Newtonian philosophy, turning,
telescope making, bookbinding, colour making, draw-
ing, Hebrew, botany, Suctions, Priestly on Air, Italian,
Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan. He was a prodigy at
fourteen.

His father had a neighbour, a man of great ingenuity,
by profession a land-surveyor, in whose office during
the holidays the boy was given the use of mathematical

224 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. IV.

and philosophical instruments and the perusal of three
volumes of a dictionary of arts and science. He got
some practical knowledge of land-surveying. This led
him to botany ; and to examine his plants he made a
microscope. This required a knowledge of optics, and
thence he went to mathematics and Suctions.

From 1787 to 1792 (14 to 19) his studies and his
position were equally extraordinary. He became classical
tutor to a boy a year and a half his junior. Mr. Bar-
clay, of Youngsbury, took him as companion to his
grandson, Hudson Ofurney, who had a tutor. Young
taught the tutor Greek, and taught his companion
Latin and Greek, whilst he taught himself Latin,
French, Italian, mathematics, natural philosophy,
botany, and entomology.

When 16 (1789) he was threatened with consump-
tion. His uncle, Dr. Brocklesby, the friend of Burke,
attended him, and through him Burke and Porson and
others became interested in the great classical know-
ledge of the youth, and encouraged him in his transla-
tions of Shakespear into Greek iambics.

It was at this period that his character was most
strongly formed :

He was never known to relax in any object which he
had once undertaken. During the whole term of these
five years he was never seen by anyone on any occasion
to be ruffled in temper. Whatever he determined on he
did. He had little faith in any peculiar aptitude being
implanted by nature for any given pursuits. His favourite
maxim was, that whatever one man had done another
might do ; that the original difference between human
intellects was much less than it was generally supposed to

THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 225

be ; that strenuous and persevering attention would ac-
complish almost anything ; and at this season, in the con-
fidence of youth and consciousness of his own powers, he
considered nothing that had been compassed by others
beyond his reach to achieve ; nor was there anything which
he thought worthy to be attempted which he was not re-
solved to master.

1
In 1792 he entered the medical profession, learning

anatomy from Hunter in London.

In 1793 he became a pupil at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, and on May 30 he had a paper read to the
Royal Society on the ' Structure of the Crystalline Lens,'
which he thought to be muscular. Hunter claimed
the discovery as his, and was only prevented by death
from giving the Croonian lecture at the Eoyal Society
in proof of his right. Sir E. Home, in the Croonian
lecture the following year, stated that neither Young
nor Hunter was right.

In 1794 (aet. 21) he was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society.

About this time the Duke of Richmond, at Bath, thus

wrote to Dr. Brocklesby :

Bath, May 5, 1794.

I need not write much about myself, as your nephew,
who dined with us yesterday, will give you a good ac-
count of my health. I have, however, still returns of head-
ache, and my legs continue very weak. But I must tell you
how much pleased we all are with Mr. Young. I really
never saw a young man more pleasing and engaging.
He seems to have already acquired much knowledge in
most branches and to be studious of obtaining more ; it
comes out without affectation on all subjects he talks
upon. He is very cheerful and easy without assuming

Q

226 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. I\T.

anything, and even on the peculiarity of his dress and
Quakerism he talked so reasonably that one cannot wish
him to alter himself in any one particular. In short, I end
as I began, by assuring you that the Duchess and I are
quite charmed with him, and shall be happy to renew our
acquaintance with him when we return to London.

Later in the autumn the Duke, who was Master-
Greneral of the Ordnance, offered to make him his
private secretary.

In a letter to his mother Young says :

I have very lately refused the pressing offer of a situation
which would have been the most favourable and nattering
introduction to political life that a young man in my cir-
cumstances could desire. I might have lived at a duke's
table, with a salary of 200 1. a year, as his secretary, and
with hopes of a more lucrative appointment in a short time.
I should have been in an agreeable family, have had time
enough for study, a library, a laboratory, and philosophical
apparatus at my service ; and I was not ashamed to allege
nay regard for our society as a principal reason for my not
accepting the proposal.

In the winter of 1794-5 he went to Edinburgh to
study medicine. He learnt Spanish, German, music
in theory and by playing the flute, dancing ; and he
went as much as he could into society and to the play.

Soon after he left Edinburgh in June he wrote to
his friend and fellow-student Dr. Bostock :

I have seen Mrs. Siddons in ' Douglas,' the ' Grecian
Daughter,' the ' Mourning Bride,' the ' Provoked Husband,'
the * Fatal Marriage,' ' Macbeth,' and * Venice Preserved.'
She was neither below nor much above my expectation.
I can form an idea of something more perfect. My friend
Cruikshanks, when I went to take my leave of him, took

1795. JET. 22.] PEOFESSOB YOUNG. 227

me aside and, after mncli preamble, told me he heard I had
been at the play, and hoped that I should be able to con-
tradict it. I told him * I had been several times, and thought
it right to go,' &c. &c., as civilly as I could. *I know you
are determined to discourage my dancing and singing, and
I am determined to pay no regard whatever to what you
say. You think I shall never be able to play the flute well,
and I am pretty sure that I may if I choose ; as to dancing,
the die is cast.'

At this time he gave up the dress and all the other
peculiarities of the Quakers.

On June 5 he started on a journey through the
Highlands ' in se totus teres atque rotundus,' as a friend
described him.

I was mounted on a stout, well-made black horse, fourteen
hands high, young and spirited, which I had purchased from
my friend Cathcart. I had before me my oiled linens, the
spencer with a separate camlet cover; under jne a pair of
saddle-bags, well filled with three or four changes of
linen, a waistcoat, and breeches ; materials for writing and
for drawing; paper, pens, ink, pencils, and colours ; packing-
paper and twine for minerals ; soap, brushes, and a razor ;
a small edition of Thomson's ' Seasons,' a third flute in a
bag ; some music, principally Scotch, bound with some blank
music-paper ; wafers ; a box for botanising ; a thermometer ;
two little bottles with spirits for preserving insects ; a bag
for picking up stones ; two maps of Scotland — Ainslie's
small one and Sayer's ; letters of recommendation. The
bags had pockets at the end, one containing a pair of shoes,
the other boards with straps and paper for drying plants.
I found my bags at first an encumbrance, but became after-
wards more reconciled to them. They are to a saddle
what pockets are to a coat ; and who objects to wearing
pockets ? But they were wetted the first day and stained
their contents. This will make me more careful in future.

Q 2

228 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

Some of his notes at Gordon and Inverary Castles
are cabinet pictures.

It was Lady Georgina's birthday (afterwards Duchess of
Bedford) ; the flag was hoisted. Lord Alexander's regiment
of little boys was paraded, and employed in racing and
dancing on the green, and in the evening a ball was given
to the servants ; all the family went downstairs and amused
themselves with observing the agility of the lads and lasses.
Every person employed about the house, except one man, is
married, and most of them are descended from those who
have served the family before them. The Duchess proposed,
in honour of the day, that Sir George Abercrombie and I
should dance a reel with the two younger ladies ; for they
danced nothing but reels. Afterwards the Duke danced
with one of the upper servants. Some time after our
party joined again in the amusement at the same time with
two others ; when it was late, and Sir George was tired,
we took a girl in his place and resumed the sport. Lady
Madeline (Sinclair) sat by, and made the music play till
the other sets quitted the field, and left us victorious to
reel through the whole room. I have now written as much
of dancing in my tour as Johnson has in his, and as much
more as a young man may be expected to write of it than
an old one.

At Tnverary [he writes] after breakfast the party were
to ride, and the Doctor gravely submitted to my determi-
nation whether I would go at a slow pace with him and
the Duke to view the country leisurely on the way, or ride
with the ladies and be galloped over. I told him that of
all things I liked to be galloped over, and therefore should
'be of the youthful party. . . .

After dinner the Duke rode again, and the younger men
of the party took a walk. I left them about nine, and
joined the ladies at tea. I was showing Lady Charlotte
some of my sketches ; she begged to see my notes, and I
showed the greatest part of them. All the family are

1795. ^Ex. 22.] PROFESSOE YOUNG. 229

musical ; the ladies sing admirably. Cards and a fine
piano occupied the evening. After supper, besides other
songs, I heard a most beautiful canzonet by Jackson,
beginning ' Love in thy eyes.' It was twelve o'clock when
we retired. After breakfast I took my leave, not without
regretting that I had so little time to observe the beauties
of Inverary. Lady Charlotte is handsomer than Lady
Augusta : she sings better, but she has less good sense and
less sweetness. An innocent girlishness sometimes gives
her the appearance of a little affectation. She is to Lady
Augusta what Venus is to Minerva. I suppose she wishes
for no more. Both are goddesses.

On October 7 he left London to graduate at Grottin-
gen ; he went by Hamburg.

On December 14 he wrote to Dr. Bostock :

You will be pleased, as a lover of the fine arts, to hear
that I am taking lessons in drawing. You will not be
surprised that I receive in this study, as well as in music
and dancing, full approbation from my masters for applica-
tion and accuracy. At the same time they honestly tell
me that ease is wanting, and you will also readily believe
that I have the assurance not to be discouraged with this
character, while they all assert that I may confidently
expect sufficient advancement in due time. . . .

I have not exhibited myself at a public dance. My
master, who is a very sensible fellow, advising me against
it, as he observed that a person seldom loses the character
which he obtains from the first impressions ; but we have
agreed that I may venture at the next pique nique.

On the alternate Sundays we have a dance : either a tea
dance or a supper dance ; one from four to eight, and the
other from five to one. This is called a pique nique, and
in its constitution resembles a Scotch oyster dance.

230 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

Soon after, to his uncle, lie says :

Blumenbach lias shown me many civilities, but I am
most at home at Arnemann's, under whose roof I live, and
who has been long in Britain, and brought an English wife
home with him. You need not be afraid of my following
his example and marrying a German lady. I am not
likely to lose my heart here, though there are some tolerably
agreeable girls with whom I wish to be more acquainted
for the sake of exercise in the language ; for conversation
with women gives both a fluency of expression and a
delicacy of manners which are never to be learned from
men.

On April 30 he passed his examination before the
Medical Faculty.

I made [says he] no preparatory study, as is usual here,
and also at Edinburgh not uncommon, under the name of
grinding. The examination lasted between four and five
hours. The four examiners were seated round a table, well
furnished with cakes, sweetmeats, and wine, which helped
to pass the time agreeably. The questions were well cal-
culated to sound the depth of a student's knowledge in
practical physics, surgery, anatomy, chemistry, materia
medica, and physiology ; but the professors were not very
severe in exacting accurate answers. Most of them were
pleased to express their approbation of my replies. We
were all previously obliged to give a summary account of
the manner in which our lives had been spent.

He wrote to his uncle towards the close of his resi-
dence in Grottingen thus :

I have this morning been upon the back of the Springer.
To mount this terrestrial Pegasus is considered here some-
thing like Summos in re equestri honores, and is seldom
attained without long practice. I finish my lessons this
week and look back with satisfaction on the health and

1796. ^Ex. 23.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. '231

amusement which have repaid my time and money. It
might, perhaps, be more useful to me to take some instruc-
tion how to sit in a doctor's chariot ; but it is impossible to
possess any qualification which one may not want, and capa-
bilities are but light burdens. We have another fashion-
able exercise, which I think adequately corresponds to the
athletic schools of the ancients — vaulting on a wooden horse
in various positions — and I am much more known among the
students for excelling in this than for writing Greek, of
which they have little knowledge and not much more
respect.

After being nine months at Grottingen he returned
by Brunswick, Grotha, Weimar, Jena, Dresden, and
Berlin to England in February 1797. At Brunswick
he had a favourable opportunity of exhibiting his per-
sonal agility at a court masquerade, where he made
his appearance with great success in the character of
Harlequin.

From Berlin he wrote, December 12, to his uncle :
' You say my Thesis (for his medical degree, on the
conservative forces of the human body) is caviare to the
general ; but do not you think people have a greater
respect for anything out of the common way? It
seems a fatality that almost everything I do, or produce,
should be termed stiff ; in this case it may arise from
my having been obliged to treat the subject in a short
compass.'

Finding, when he came back from Grermany, that
the College of Physicians of London required two years'
continuous attendance at one university for a licence
to practise, and shut out from the Fellowship all who
were not graduates at Cambridge or Oxford, he went

232 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

as fellow-commoner to Emmanuel College, Cambridge ;
and the account given by one who was afterwards tutor
of the college brings the Professor of the Eoyal Insti-
tution most clearly into view.

When the Master [says the writer] introduced Young to
his tutors, he jocularly said, ' I have brought you a pupil
qualified to read lectures to his tutors.' This, however, as
might be concluded, he did not attempt ; and the forbearance
was mutual : he was never required to attend the common
duties of the College.

He had a high character for classical learning before he
came to Cambridge ; but I believe he did not pursue his
classical studies in the latter part of his life — he seldom
spoke of them, but I remember his meeting Dr. Parr in the
College Combination Room ; and when the Doctor had made,
as was not unusual with him, some dogmatical observation
on a point of scholarship, Young said firmly, ' Bently, sir,
was of a different opinion,' immediately quoting his authority
and showing his intimate knowledge of the subject. Parr
said nothing, but when Dr. Young, retired asked who he
was, and, though he did not seem to have heard his name
before, he said, ' A smart young man that.'

He had a great talent for Greek verse, and on one occasion
I remember a young lady had written on the walls of the
summer-house in the garden the following lines : —

Where are these hours on airy pinions borne,
That brought to every guiltless wish success,
When pleasure gladdened each succeeding morn,
And every evening closed with dreams of peace ?

On the next morning appeared a translation in Greek
elegiacs, written under them in Young's beautiful characters.
It may be here mentioned that when his mode of writing
Greek was laid before Person, he said that if he had seen it
before he would have adopted it.

1 797-8. ^ET. 24-25.] PKOFESSOK YOUNG. 233

The views, objects, character, and arguments of onr ma-
thematicians were very different then to what they are now,
and Young, who was certainly beforehand with the world,
perceived their defects. Certain it is that he looked down
upon the science, and would not cultivate the acquaintance
of any of our philosophers. Wood's books I have heard
him speak of with approbation, but Vince he treated with
contempt, and Vince afterwards returned the compliment.

He never obtruded his various learning in conversation,
but if appealed to on the most difficult subject he answered
in a quick, flippant, derisive way, as if he was speaking of
the most easy ; and in this mode of talking he differed from
all the clever men that I ever saw. His reply never seemed
to cost him an effort, and he did not appear to think there
was any credit in being able to make it. He did not assert
any superiority, or seem to suppose that he possessed it,
but spoke as if he took it for granted that we all understood
the matter as well as he did. He never spoke in praise of
any of the writers of the day, even in his own particular
department, and could not be persuaded to discuss their
merits. He was never personal ; he would speak of
knowledge in itself of what was known or what might be
known, but never of himself or any other as having deserved
anything, or as likely to do so.

His language was correct, his utterance rapid, and his
sentences, though without any affectation, never left un-
finished ; but his words were not those in familiar use, and
the arrangement of his ideas seldom the same as those he
conversed with. He wag, therefore, worse calculated than
any man I ever knew for the communication of knowledge.

I remember his taking me with him to the Royal In-
stitution to hear him lecture to a number of silly women
and dilettante philosophers. But nothing could show less
judgment than the method he adopted ; for he presumed,
like many other lecturers and preachers, on the knowledge,
and not on the ignorance, of his hearers.

234 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

In his manners he had something of the stiffness of the
Quaker remaining, and, though he never said or did a rude
thing, he never made use of any of the forms of politeness.
Not that he avoided them through affectation ; his behaviour
was natural, without timidity, and easy without boldness.
He rarely associated with the young men of the College,
who called him, with a mixture of derision and respect,
' Phenomenon Young,' but he lived on familiar terms with
the Fellows in the Common Boom. He had few friends of
hia own age or pursuits in the University, and not having
been introduced to many of those who were distinguished
either by their situation or talent, he did not seek their
society, nor did they seek him ; they did not like to admit
the superiority of anyone in statu pupillari, and he would
not converse with anyone but as an equal.

It is difficult to say how he employed himself ; he read
little, and though he had access to the College and
University libraries he was seldom seen in them. There
were no books piled on his floor, no papers scattered on his
table, and his room had all the appearance of belonging to
an idle man.

I once found him blowing smoke through long tubes, and
I afterwards saw a representation of the effect in the
1 Transactions of the Royal Society,' to illustrate one of his
papers upon sound ; but he was not in the habit of making
experiments. He walked little and rode less ; but, having
learnt to ride the great horse abroad, he used to pace round
Parker's Piece on a hackney : he once made an attempt to
follow the hounds, but a severe fall prevented any future
exhibition.

He seldom gave an opinion, and never volunteered one.
He never laid down the law like other learned doctors,
or uttered apophthegms or sayings to be remembered.
Indeed, like most mathematicians (though we hear of
abstract mathematics), he never seemed to think ab-
stractedly. A philosophical fact, a difficult calculation, an

1799. -£h\ 26.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 235

ingenious instrument, or a new invention, would engage his
attention ; but he never spoke of morals, of metaphysics,
or of religion. Of the last I never heard him say a word,
nothing in favour of any sect, or in opposition to any
doctrine ; at the same time, no sceptical doubt, no loose
assertion, no idle scoff, ever escaped him.

On July 8, 1799, he sent from Emmanuel College a
paper to the Koyal Society, entitled c Outlines of Ex-
periments and Inquiries respecting Sound and Light.'
In it he established the great principle of the inter-
ference of sounds, and he wrote one section on the
analogy of sound and light. In 1800 he referred, in
the ' British Magazine,' to a young gentleman of Edin-
burgh c who certainly promises, in the course of time,
to add considerably to our knowledge of the works
of nature, but who had a paper in the " Philosophi-
cal Transactions" for 1798, in which what was new
was not true, and what was true was not new.' Dr.
Eobison, in his article on Music in the fc Encyclopaedia
Britannica,' criticised Young's papers. In Nicholson's
' Philosophical Journal ' for 1801 Young answered
Eobison, and published an extension of the principles of
interferences from sound to light. This was the pre-
liminary announcement of his views regarding the
undulatory theory of light.

His first paper on the ' Theory of Light and Colours '
^ras read to the Royal Society, November 12, 1801.
His second paper on this subject was read July 1, 1802,
and his third November 24, 1803. His 'Syllabus of
Lectures at the Royal Institution,' dated January 19,
1802, p. 116, gives the first printed account of his views.

236 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

He says, c Speaking of Newton's views, it will be suffi-
cient for our present purpose to enumerate the respective
explanations of the principal phenomena of light as they
are furnished by the Newtonian system, and by the theory
lately submitted to the Eoyal Society'; and (p. 117) he
says, ' The colours of thin and of thick plates, and the
fringes produced by inflection, are referred by Newton
to the very complicated effects of an undulating medium
on the corpuscles of light, but without any attempt to
accommodate the explanations to the measures obtained
from his own accurate and elegant experiments ; those
of striated surfaces he has not noticed. But the
general law by which all these appearances are governed
may be very easily deduced from the interference of
two coincident undulations which either co-operate or
destroy each other in the same manner as two musical
notes produce an alternate intermission and remission
in the beating of an imperfect unison.

' The young gentleman of Edinburgh,' afterwards
known as Lord Brougham, in the ' Edinburgh Eeview,'
January 1803, criticised the Eoyal Society papers.

It is difficult [he said] to argue with an author whose mind
is filled with a medium of so fickle and vibratory a nature.
Were we to take the trouble to refute him, he might tell
us, My opinion is changed, and I have abandoned that hy-
pothesis, but here is another for yon. We demand if the
world of science which Newton once illuminated is to be
as changeable in its modes as the world of taste, which is
directed by the nod of a silly woman or a pampered fop ?
Has the Eoyal Society degraded its publications into
bulletins of new and fashionable theories for the ladies who
attend the Eoyal Institution ? proh pudor I Let the

1801. J2r. 28.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 237

Professor continue to amuse his audience with an endless
variety of such harmless trifles, but, in the name of science,
let them not find admittance into that venerable repository
which contains the works of Newton, and Boyle, and
Cavendish, and Maskelyne, and Herschel.

Young's most famous experiment of stopping the rays
which passed on one side of a thin card exposed to a
sunbeam in a dark chamber Brougham threw aside,
with the assertion that the experiment was inaccurately
made. Dr. Young replied :

The reviewer has here afforded me an opportunity for
a triumph, as gratifying as any triumph can be where an
enemy is so contemptible. Conscious of inability to explain
the experiment, too ungenerous to confess that inability,
and too idle to repeat the experiment, he is compelled to
advance the supposition that it was incorrect. ' Let him
make the experiment, and then deny the result if he can.'

He took no special means to make his answer
known, and only one copy of his reply was sold. The
poison sank deep into the public mind, and Dr. Young's
researches remained comparatively unnoticed until
Arago, in 1815, when reporting upon the optical dis-
coveries of Fresnel, showed that a greater discoverer
than Newton had anticipated the researches of the
French philosopher.

Dr. Young gives the following account of his dis-
covery of the general law of the interference of light :

It was in May 1801 that I discovered, by reflecting on
the beautiful experiments of Newton, a law which appears
to me to account for a greater variety of interesting phe-
nomena, than any other optical principle that has yet been

238 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

made known. I shall endeavour to explain this law by a
comparison : — Suppose a number of equal waves of water
to move upon the surface of a stagnant lake, with a certain
constant velocity, and to enter a narrow channel leading
out of the lake ; suppose, then, another similar cause to have
existed, another equal series of waves will arrive at the
same channel with the same velocity, and at the same time
with the first. Neither series of waves will destroy the
other, but their effects will be combined. If they enter the
channel in such a manner that the elevations of one series
coincide with those of the other, they must together pro-
duce a series of greater joint elevations ; but if the
elevations of one series are so situated as to correspond to
the depressions of the other, they must exactly fill up those
depressions, and the surface of the water must remain
smooth ; at least I can discover no alternative either from
theory or from experiment.

Now I maintain that similar effects take place whenever
two portions of light are thus mixed, and this I call the
general law of the interference of light.

Within three months he became Professor at the
Koyal Institution.

In 1801, on the 6th of July, Count Rumford reported
to the managers that, c at the recommendation of Sir
Joseph Banks, he had had a conversation with Dr. Young
respecting his engaging as Professor of Natural Philo-
sophy at the Royal Institution and Editor of the
Journals, together with a general superintendency of
the house, and it appearing from the report of Count
Rumford that Dr. Young is a man of abilities equal to
these undertakings, it was resolved that Count Rumford
be authorised to engage Dr. Young in the aforesaid
capacities at a salary of 300£. per annum.' l

1 See Appendix II.

1801. Mi. 28.] PEOFESSOE YOUNG. 239

On August 3, at the managers' meeting (Count Eum-
ford in the chair; present, Henry Cavendish, E. J.
Sullivan ; secretary J. P. Auriol), Count Eumford re-
ported that, agreeably to the authority granted him
by the managers, he had engaged Dr. Thomas Young.
A copy of his letter to Dr. Young, expressing the
conditions of his engagement, was at the same time
laid before the committee. „

The first number of the Journal had been published
by Eumford on April 5, 1800. Dr. Young alone
edited the fourth number in the autumn of 1801,
the fifth number in December 1801, and, after editing
two more numbers alone, he joined with Davy in the
editorship till the Journal stopped in 1803.

On January 1 9 Dr. Young printed, at the press of the
Eoyal Institution, a syllabus of his first course of lectures.

The first part was on Xatural Philosophy ; the second
part on Hydrodynamics ; the third part on Physics ;
and the fourth part on Mathematical Elements.

Each had a Greek or Latin motto prefixed, and the
following advertisement to the first part was printed :

In order to adapt the delivery of these lectures as mnch
as possible to the convenience of different persons who may
be disposed to attend them, they will be divided into three
parts of nearly equal magnitude, and in great measure in-
dependent of each other. Two parts will be delivered in
suceession on Mondays and Wednesdays, at two o'clock,
and the third on Friday evenings at eight. And in future
winters, each part will be taken in turn for the evening
lecture, so that the whole course may be heard at either
hour. The fourth part contains all the preliminary know-
ledge that is necessary for those who may wish to enter

240 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

mathematically on the various subjects of the lectures ; it
will save considerable pains in consulting other authors, and
the most experienced may often find it convenient for occa-
sional reference. It was the more desirable that something
of this kind should be inserted, as mathematical arguments
will be avoided as much as possible in the lectures ; and for
this reason the demonstrations which occur in the syllabus
are distinguished from the principal text by a smaller type,
and a separate place in the page. In a future edition a fifth
part will probably be added, containing a catalogue of the
best authors, with references to their works upon each
subject. One acknowledgment must, however, be inserted
here for the extensive use that has been made of the valuable
articles contributed by Professor Kobison to the 'Ency-
clopedia Britannica.'

Royal Institution, Albemarle Street,
January 19, 1802.

The volume forms an octavo of upwards of 250
pages ; and it is quite evidence enough that the matter,
no less than the manner of the lectures of Dr. Young,
were more fitted for Cambridge than for the Eoyal
Institution.

Dr. Paris thus contrasts Davy's manner with that of
Young :

To judge fairly of the influence of a popular style we
should acquaint ourselves with the effects of an opposite
method, and, if an appeal be made to experience, I may very
safely abide the issue. Dr. Young, whose profound
knowledge of the subjects he taught no one will venture
to question, lectured in the same theatre, and to an audience,,
similarly constituted to that which was attracted by Davy ,
but he found the number of his attendants diminish daily ,
and for no other reason than that he adopted too severe am.!
didactic a style.

1802. JET. 29.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 241

The first afternoon lecture was given by Dr. Young,
on Wednesday, January 20, 1802, and the first evening
lecture on Friday, January 22.

At the commencement he gave an introductory view
of the nature and objects of the Eoyal Institution and
of the particular plan of the lectures. Afterwards he
proceeded to the subject of mechanics with the doctrine
of motion.

In the introductory lecture, when dwelling on the
objects of the Koyal Institution and the dissemination
of elementary knowledge, he said :

Those who possess the genuine spirit of scientific in-
vestigation, and who have tasted the pure satisfaction
arising from an advancement in intellectual acquirements,
are content to proceed in their researches without inquiring
at every step what they gain by their newly-discovered
lights, and to what practical purposes they are applicable ;
they receive a sufficient gratification from the enlargement
of their views of the constitution of the universe, and ex-
perience in the immediate pursuit of knowledge that
pleasure which others wish to obtain more circuitously by
its means. And it is one of the principal advantages of a
liberal education that it creates a susceptibility of an en-
joyment so elegant and so rational.

On the subject of the education of females at the
Eoyal Institution he said :

The many leisure hours which are at the command of
females in the superior orders of society may surely be ap-
propriated with greater satisfaction to the improvement of
the mind, and to the acquisition of knowledge, than to such
amusements as are only designed for facilitating the insipid
consumption of superfluous time.

The Royal Institution may in some degree supply the

242 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

place of a subordinate university to those whose sex or
situation in life has denied them the advantage of an
academical education in the national seminaries of learning.

With regard to the special objects of the Institution,
the theory of practical mechanics and of manufactures,
he said :

We must be more practical than academies of science and
more theoretical than societies for the improvement of arts ;
while we endeavour at the same time to give stability to
our proceedings by an annual recurrence to the elementary
knowledge which is subservient to the purposes of both
and, as far as we are able, apply to practice the newest
lights which may from time to time be thrown on particular
branches of mechanical science. It is thus that we may
most effectually perform what the idolised sophists of an-
tiquity but verbally professed — to bring down philosophy
from the heavens and to make her an inhabitant of the
earth.

We may venture to affirm that out of every hundred of
fancied improvements in arts or in machines ninety at least,
if not ninety-nine, are either old or useless ; the object of
our researches is to enable ourselves to distinguish and to
adopt the hundredth. But, while we prune the luxuriant
shoots of youthful invention, we must remember to perform
our task with leniency, and to show that we wish only to
give additional vigour to the healthful branches, and not to
extirpate the parent plant.

He spoke of the repository of models as being a
supplementary room for apparatus exhibited and de-
scribed in the lectures, and i where a few other articles
may perhaps deserve admission.' He mentioned the
library and the Journals as free from commercial
shackles, but made no mention of the workshops nor of
the education of artisans.

1802. JET. 29.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 243

When all the advantages which may reasonably be ex-
pected from this Institution shall be fully understood and
impartially considered, it is to be hoped that few persons
of liberal minds will be indifferent to its success or un-
willing to contribute to it and to participate in it.

To that regulation which forbids the introduction of any
discussions connected with the learned professions I shall
always most willingly submit and most punctually attend.
It requires the study of a considerable portion of a man's
life to qualify him to be of use to mankind in any of them,
and nothing can be more pernicious to individuals or to
society than the attempting to proceed practically upon an
imperfect conception of a few first principles only. In
physic the wisest can do but little, and the ignorant can
only do worse than nothing ; and anxiously as we are disr
posed to seek whatever relief the learned and experienced
may be able to afford us, so cautiously ought we to avoid
the mischievous interference of the half-studied empiric. In
politics and in religion we need but to look back on the
history of kingdoms and republics, in order to be aware of
the mischiefs which ensue when fools rush, in where angels
fear to tread.

With regard to his prospectus and lectures he said :

For the sake of those who are not disposed to undertake
the labour of following with mathematical accuracy all the
steps of the demonstrations on which the doctrines of the
mechanical sciences are founded, I shall endeavour to avoid
in the whole of this course of lectures every intricacy
which might be perplexing to a beginner, and every
argument which is fitter for the closet than for a public
theatre. Here I propose to support the same propositions
by experimental proofs, not that I consider such proofs as
the most conclusive, or as more interesting to a truly
philosophic mind, than a deduction from general principles,
but because there is a satisfaction in discovering the co-

244 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

incidence of theories with visible effects, and because objects
of sense are of advantage in assisting the imagination to
comprehend, and the memory to retain, what in a more
abstracted form might fail to excite sufficient attention.
With regard to the mode of delivering these lectures, I
shall in general entreat my audience to pardon the
formality of a written discourse in favour of the advantage
of a superior degree of order and perspicuity. It would
unquestionably be desirable that every syllable advanced
should be rendered perfectly easy and comprehensible even
to the most uninformed, that the most inattentive might
find sufficient variety and entertainment in what is sub-
mitted to them to excite their curiosity, and that in all
cases the pleasing, and sometimes even the surprising, should
be united with the instructive and the important. But,
whenever there appears to be a real impossibility of re-
conciling these various objects, I shall esteem it better to
seek for substantial utility than temporary amusement ;
for if we fail of being useful, for want of being sufficiently
popular, we remain at least respectable ; but if we are un-
successful in our attempts to amuse, we immediately appear
trifling and contemptible. It shall, however, at all times be
my endeavour to avoid each extreme, and I trust that I
shall then only be condemned when I am found abstruse
from ostentation or uninteresting from supineness. The
most difficult thing for a teacher is to recollect how much
it cost himself to learn, and to accommodate his instruction
to the apprehension of the uninformed. By bearing in mind
this observation I hope to be able to render my lectures
more and more intelligible and familiar, not by passing
over difficulties, but by endeavouring to facilitate the task
of overcoming them ; and if at any time I appear to have
failed in this attempt, I shall think myself honoured by any
subsequent inquiries that my audience may be disposed to
make.

The division of the whole course of lectures into three

1802-3. JET. 29-30.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 245

parts was originally suggested by the periodical succession
in which the appointed hours recur, but it appears to be
more convenient than any other for the regular classification
of the subjects. The general doctrines of motion and their
application to all purposes, variable at pleasure, supply the
materials of the first two parts, of which the one treats of
the motions of solid bodies and the other of those of fluids,
including the theory of light. The third part relates to the
particular history of the phenomena of nature, and of the
affections of bodies actually existing in the universe in-
dependently of the art of man, comprehending astronomy,
geography, and the doctrine of the properties of matter,
and of the most general and powerful agents that influence
it.

The synthetical order of proceeding from simple and
general principles to their more intimate combinations in
particular cases, is by far the most compendious for con-
veying information with regard to sciences that are at all
referable to certain fundamental laws. For these laws being
once established, each fact, as soon as it is known, assumes its
place in the system, and is retained in the memory by its
relation to the rest as a connecting link. In the analytical
mode, on the contrary, which is absolutely necessary for
the first investigation of truth, we are obliged to begin by
collecting a number of insulated circumstances, which lead
us back by degrees to the knowledge of original principles,
but which, until we arrive at these principles, are merely a
burden to the memory. For the phenomena of nature
resemble the scattered leaves of the Sibylline prophecies ;
a word only, or a single syllable, is written on each leaf,
which, when separately considered, conveys no instruction
to the mind, but when, by the labour of patient investigation,
every fragment is replaced in its appropriate connexion, the
whole begins at once to speak a perspicuous and a har-
monious language.

246 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

On July 5 he requested leave of the managers to be
absent during the months of August and September,
taking care in the meantime to provide sufficient
matter for the publication of the Journals. He went
with the late Duke of Richmond and his brother to
France. At Paris he was introduced to the First Consul
at the Institute.

This year he was appointed foreign secretary of the
Royal Society, and he held this office for the remainder
of his life. He refused the appointment of secretary
in 1812, because he thought it would interfere with his
medical reputation.

In 1803, on January 26, the lectures at the Institution 1
recommenced. Young and Davy each gave weekly two •
day lectures and one evening lecture. On Tuesday and
Friday the lectures were in the evening.

On February 21 Young proposed his preface1 to the ]
second volume of the Journal of the Institution.

This year, in March, he took his first Cambridge
medical degree ; he did not receive his degree as
Doctor of Medicine until 1808.

On July 4 the engagement of Dr. Young with the
Royal Institution terminated.2

On October 3 he was elected a subscriber for life for
his services to the Institution.

On November 6 he wrote to the managers :

40 Welbeck Street.

I beg to return you my sincere thanks for the privi-
leges of a life subscriber to the Royal Institution, which

J See p. 205. » See p. 210.

1804-11. JET. 31-38.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 247

you have conferred upon me. I consider this honour both
as a flattering mark of your approbation of the unremitting
attention which it was my endeavour to pay to the objects
of the Institution while I was employed in its service, and
as a substantial advantage in giving me access to a
collection of books so valuable as that which is now forming
in it. For this privilege I cannot show my gratitude better
than by endeavouring to make such use of it as to render
the publication of my lectures, which I am preparing, more
and more worthy of the Institution in which they were de-
livered, and fitted to co-operate in its exertions for the
advancement and dissemination of mechanical knowledge

After this time Dr. Young took no part in the
progress of the Eoyal Institution. A very short sketch
of the remainder of his life, therefore, will be given.

When between thirty-one and forty-one years of age
he used his utmost endeavours to succeed in practice
in Welbeck Street. In 1804 he married, and he built
a house at Worthing, where he practised in the
autumn for sixteen years. In 1807 he tried to become
physician to the Middlesex Hospital. In this he failed,
but he lectured there on Chemistry, Physiology,
Nosology, Practice of Medicine, and Materia Medica.
Many of the lectures formed afterwards part of his
work on 6 Medical Literature.'

This year he published his ' Course of Lectures at
the Eoyal Institution ' in two quarto volumes. The
long delay was occasioned partly from the increase of
matter and partly from the difficulty of the engravings.
Through the bankruptcy of his publisher, Johnson, he
lost the 1,000£. he was to receive for his work. The
Dean of Ely says of these volumes : ' They form alto-

248 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

gether the most comprehensive system of natural phi-
losophy and of what the French call physics that has
ever been published in this country ; equally remark-
able for precision and accuracy in the enunciation of
the vast multitude of propositions and facts which they
contain, for the boldness with which they enter upon
the discussion of the most abstruse and difficult sub-
jects, and for the addition or suggestion of new matter
or new views in almost every department of philosophy.'

In the autumn of 1810 he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks
an account of ' an agricultural micrometer for measur-
ing the fineness of wool.' See Appendix II.

On January 24, 1811, he was elected one of the
physicians of St. Greorge's Hospital. The contest, he
says, was almost unparalleled. ' The Cabbells were
very naturally confident of triumphant success ;. parlia-
mentary influence and the natural wish to serve a man
who is likely to be Lord Chancellor made Sir S. Eomilly's
nephew, Dr. Eoget, very formidable.' ' Mrs. Young has
emerged from death to life by the event of this con-
test.' Before and after this time he wrote frequently
for the ' Quarterly Eeview,' to which he contributed
eighteen articles. Perhaps the most celebrated was
on the ' Herculanean Manuscripts,' of which eighteen
hundred were discovered. 'It is a consolation to
know,' said a friend, ' that Brougham, who took advan-
tage of the growing circulation of the 'Edinburgh
Keview' to desseminate his vile abuse of you, and
JefFery, who permitted him to do so, should be con-
demned to hear your praises on all sides, and to feel

1814-22. Mt. 41-48.] PROFESSOR YOUXG. 249

that the publication in which they are engaged is
suffering, and is likely to suffer, by your means.'

In 1814 he was asked to contribute to the new
supplement of the c Encyclopaedia Britannica,' but he
declined, because ' it was necessary to abstain as much as
possible from appearing before the public as an author
in any department of science not immediately medical.'

During the next ten years of Dr. Young's life the
failure of his efforts to succeed as a physician led him
to the highest literary success that could be attained.

In 1814 he began his < Hieroglyphical Eesearches,'
and throughout the summer and autumn he worked at
the Rosetta Stone.

At the end of the year he wrote to Mr. Hudson
G-urney, who had got him Champollion's book — ' Egypt
under the Pharaohs :' 'I have only spent literally five
minutes in looking over Champollion, turning by means
of the index to the parts where he has quoted the in-
scription of Rosetta. He follows Akerblad (a Swedish
attache at Paris, a good classical and first-rate Coptic
scholar, who had written a letter on this stone to Sil-
vestre de Sacy) blindly, with scarcely any acknowledg-
ment. But he has certainly picked out the sense of a
few passages in the inscription by means of Akerblad's
investigations, although in four or five Coptic words
which he pretends to have found in it he is wrong in all
but one, and that is a very short and a very obvious one.
My translation is printed ; it is anonymous, and must
for some time remain so, but everybody whose appro-
bation is worth having will know the author.' In the

250 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

summer of this year Arago and Gay-Lussac visited him
at Worthing. Young then learned what Fresnel was
doing on the diffraction of light, and they saw what
Young had published in his lectures in 1807.

In 1816 he proposed to the editor of the 'Encyclopaedia
Britannica ' to write for him. He says : ' I would also
suggest (in addition to sound) alphabet, annuities, at-
traction, capillary action, cohesion, colour, dew, Egypt,
eye, forms, friction, halo, hieroglyphics, hydraulics, mo-
tion, resistance, ship, strength, tides, and waves. Any-
thing of a medical nature which you might think de-
sirable would of course be doubly so to me. Nor should
I be difficult with respect to any other subject that might
occur to you. L' alti non temo, e 1' umili non sdegno.'
He contributed sixty-three articles ; forty-six were
biographical. This year he published his ' Translation
of the Hieroglyphics ' with a correspondence with De
Sacy and Akerblad.

In 1818 he wrote the article ' Egypt ' for the En-
cyclopaedia. ' It was pronounced to be the greatest
effort of scholarship and ingenuity of which modern
literature could boast ; yet it was only a popular and
superficial sketch of the vast mass of materials which
his diligence had collected and his genius had inter-
preted.'

He was this year appointed superintendent of the
' Nautical Almanac ' and secretary of the Board of
Longitude, which was established to relieve the Astro-
nomer Eoyal from all scientific questions regarding the
interests of navigation. He immediately set himself to
correct all the errors of the Almanac that endangered

1822-8. jET. 48-55.] PKOFESSOR YOUNG. 251

the safety of ships, but, considering it as intended for
nautical and not astronomical use, he resisted the
changes which practical astronomers strongly urged on
him and on the Government.

In 1822 he wrote to Mr. Grurney from Paris :

In my own pursuits I have found abundance of novelty
to interest me, both the scientific and literary departments
of the Institute happening at this moment to be particularly
engaged with my investigations, and a Frenchman having
in each of them been engaged in going over my own
ground without being fully acquainted with what I had
done, and having had to exclaim, ' Pereant qui ante nos
nostra dixerunt.' Fresnel, a young mathematician of the
civil engineers, has really been doing some good things
in the extension and application of my theory of light, and
Champollion, the author of the book you brought over, has
been working still harder upon the Egyptian characters.
He devotes his whole time to the pursuit, and he has been
wonderfully successful in some of the documents which he
has obtained.

How far he will acknowledge everything which he has
either borrowed or might have borrowed from me, I am
not quite confident, but the world will be sure to remark
que c'est le premier pas qui coute, though the proverb is
less true in this case than in most others, for here every
step is laborious.

The best comparative estimate of the value of the
work of Young and Fresnel on light was given by Sir
John Herschel, in 1827, at the end of his view of the
undulating theory of light in the ' Encyclopaedia Metro-
politana ' :

Such is the beautiful theory of Fresnel and Young, for
we must not, in our regard for one great name, forget the

252 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

justice which is due to the other ; and to separate them, and
to assign to each his share, would be as impracticable as in-
vidious, so intimately are they blended together throughout
every part of this system — early, acute, and pregnant
suggestion characterising the one, and maturity of thought,
fulness of systematic development, and decisive ex-
perimental illustration equally distinguishing the other.

During the last five years of Dr. Young's life, when
he was between fifty-one and fifty-six years old, he
ceased to be a practising physician, and occupied him-
self with science and literature only.

In 1827, at the' anniversary of the Koyal Society,
after the resignation of the presidency by Sir Hum-
phry Davy, the claims of Dr. Young were too strong to
be altogether neglected.

Writing to his sister he says :

I find there has been pretty general conversation about
making me President of the Royal Society, and I really
think if I were foolish enough to wish for the office, I am at
this moment popular enough to obtain it; but you well
know that nothing is further from my wishes.

Davies Gilbert was chosen. c I told him,' says
Young, ' that he had not quite enough of the devil in
him, that Sir Joseph Banks should have left his
eyebrows to go with his cocked hat, if he had left the
Society nothing else.'

In the summer of 1828 he visited Paris for the last
time on his way to Geneva. He was then one of the
eight foreign associates of the Academy. To Mr. G-urney
he wrote :

My principal object was Champollion, and with him I
have been completely successful as far as I wanted his

1828-9. M-r. 55-56.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 253

assistance, for, to say the truth, our conferences have not
been very gratifying to my vanity. He has done so much
more and so much better than I had any reason to believe
he would or could have done, and, as he feels his own im-
portance more, he feels less occasion to be tenacious of any
trifling claims which may justly be denied him, and in this
spirit he has borne my criticisms with perfect good humour,
though Arago has charged me with some degree of undue
severity, and wanted to pass the matter over as not having
been published as mine ; but to this I could not consent :
and, supposing that Champollion might have been un-
acquainted with the remarks, I thought it a matter of
conscience to carry them to him this morning, before 1
allowed him to continue his profuse liberality in furnishing
me with more than I want.

From Geneva Young sent Arago, at his request, a
statement of his claims. He gave full justice to Cham-
pollion. But when Arago, a few years later, read his
eloge of Young, he still said that Young's principle of
pbonetisation of the hieroglyphics was mixed with error,
chiefly by making symbols stand for words and sylla-
bles, instead of for letters only. He also denied Young's
knowledge of two or more signs for the same letter.

His health up to this time, with the exception before
mentioned, had been perfect. During this summer
excursion he was most easily fatigued, and appeared to
age rapidly.

In a letter written soon after his return he says :

As for myself, I am perfectly content with the life I lead —
walking on business of routine every day from eleven to
two, the rest of the day sitting over my hieroglyphics, or
my mathematics, and conversing in my library with people
beyond the Alps or the Mediterranean. I have lost all

254 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

ambition for a more bustling life, or more active scenes,
and I believe I am as happy as a person so old in soul is
capable of being. In mental faculties I am not yet old,
and I amuse myself almost daily with some petty bonnes
fortunes among some of the nine sisters. I hear nothing
whatever from the Admiralty, and so much the better,
except receiving 300Z. a year instead of four. As for
Croker, I never believe a word of his going out, and he
may remain in for aught I care, and be Lord Melville's
master if he chooses ; for the stronger of two heads will
generally direct the weaker in the long run. I am deep
in the value of life, and I really begin to think that people
do live longer than was formerly supposed, though not
in the extravagant degree that was asserted.

In 1828, at the Eoyal Society, when the President,
Davies Gilbert, announced Wollaston's donation of
2,0001. for the promotion of scientific research and his
own gift of 1,000£., Young, as senior officer, returned
thanks for the Society. He tells Mr. Grurney, ' I
summoned up courage to take the first opportunity of
muttering out, " Mr. President, a gentleman on my
right says he never heard me make a speech." '

In January 1829 he wrote :

Our new Committee of Longitude is settled, at least for
the present, though the radical abuse of the ' Nautical
Almanac ' is likely to continue ; but, fortunately for my
security, they have put the Admiralty and the ' Nautical
Almanac' together; so they may do their worst. Croker has
appointed Sabine and Faraday and me to constitute a
scientific committee to advise the Admiralty, which was all
that the Board of Longitude would do, and it is better that
things should be called by their right names.

Immediately a memorial was sent to the Prime
Minister, the Duke of Wellington, against the ' Nautical

1829. JET. 56.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 255

Almanac.' A report on this paper was made by Dr.
Young in February.

Though, his health was at this time rapidly declining, his
observations were written with his usual precision and
ability, giving way in one instance only to feelings of
personal resentment, if a stronger term may not be used,
which had been provoked by attacks of unusual violence
and bitterness. It is hardly necessary to add that he
adhered substantially to the views which he had previously
maintained. His death, which took place on May 10, put
an end to the contest.

The life of Dr. Young began, continued, and ended
strangely. Throughout he was a phenomenon. His
course was very different from what might have been
expected and quite opposed to that which would have
been most suited to him.

He was the great physicist of his time, and yet ' at
no period of his life was he fond of repeating experi-
ments or even of originating new ones. He considered
that, however necessary to the advancement of science,
they demanded a great sacrifice of time ; and that, when
a fact was once established, that time was better
employed in considering the purposes to which it
might be applied or the principles which it might tend
to elucidate.' He was kind by nature and a Quaker
by education, and yet he was 'always at war for bis
discoveries. He never was free from a scientific or
literary controversy. As a professor at the Eoyal
Institution, as a hospital physician at St. George's,
and still more as a practitioner of medicine in London
and Worthing, his powers were entirely misdirected.

256 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. IV.

With a culture like that of Newton what noble fruit
might not Young have brought forth ! The work he did
for science was undervalued during his life ; neverthe-
less he was content ; and nothing shows that he fore-
saw or wished for that great reputation which has gradu-
ally gathered round his name. Two years before
his death, writing to his sister-in-law regarding the
praise which Herschel had given him in his ' Treatise
on Light,' he said :

I think he has divided the prize very fairly, and I dare
say poor Fresnel, if he had lived, would have preferred his
share of the honour as much as I do mine. It was before I
knew you that mine was earned, and acute suggestion was
then — and indeed always — more in the line of my ambition
than experimental illustration. But surely one that is
conscious that such things may be said with some truth (or
who imagines it) has no further temptation to be President
of the Royal Society even if he could.

His character was drawn by Sir Humphry Davy
thus : ' A man of universal erudition and almost univer-
sal accomplishments. Had he limited himself to any
one department of knowledge he must have been first
in that department. But as a mathematician, a scholar,
and hieroglyphist he was eminent ; and he knew so
much that it is difficult to say what he did not know.
He was a most amiable and good-tempered man ; too
fond, perhaps, of the society of persons of rank for a
true philosopher.'

Mr. Davies Gilbert, the President of the Eoyal
Society, in his speech from the chair on the death of
Young, said :

1829. ^Ex. 56.] PROFESSOR YOUXG. 257

He came into the world with a confidence in his own
talents, growing out of an expectation of excellence en-
tertained in common by all his friends, which expectation
was more than realised in the progress of his future life.
The multiplied objects which he pursued were carried to
such an extent, that each might have been supposed to
have exclusively occupied the full powers of his mind ;
knowledge in the abstract, the most enlarged generalisations,
and the most minute and intricate details were equally
effected by him ; but he had most pleasure in that which
appeared to be most difficult of investigation. The
example is only to be followed by those of equal per-
severance.

258 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

CHAPTEE V.

THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE TIME OP
FARADAY.

1804 to 1814.

IN 1804 the change in the original management and
objects of the Eoyal Institution was completed. The
place which Kumfbrd, with the help of Sir Joseph
Banks, had held was taken by Mr. Bernard, who was
supported by Sir John Hippesley. He knew nothing
of science but much of the world, and his aim for
the Institution can be given in his own words. ' The <
object has been great and important, not less than that
of giving fashion to science.'

In the spring the report of the visitors reflected,
the picture of Mr. Bernard's management, but the
shadow of future greatness was there. Mention was
made of the intention to carry on original inquiries
upon new objects of science.

The visitors said :

There is every reason to suppose that a general interest
in favour of the establishment has been created among the
inhabitants of the metropolis.

The laboratory has been enlarged by the old workshop ;
some of the space has been filled up with seats as a theatre
for those who attend the experiments of research; an
arched opening is being made in the wall in front of the

1804.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 2-J9

table of the laboratory. This part of the establishment is
now found to answer very completely the end of enabling
the Professor of Chemistry and his assistants to prepare
materials for the chemical lectures, and to carry on original
inquiries upon new objects of science. A collection of
minerals has been formed of more than 3,000 specimens,
principally from presents. Great progress has been made
in the library in the old lecture room ; the library of the
late Thomas Astle, Esq., has been purchased for 1,000
guineas. It contains a variety of scarce and valuable books
in ancient British history, topography, and antiquities.
It will soon be opened. The model room has been re-
arranged, and the number of models slightly increased,
but the adequate supply of useful models still continues a
desideratum in our establishment, and seems to call for
every exertion, as forming so interesting a part of the
original prospectus of the Institution. The printing press
has been removed ; its utility has not been found adequate
to its expense. At the same time it has occupied a space
in the upper story which may hereafter be employed to
greater advantage.

The number and variety of the public lectures have been
advantageous.

The great improvements made during the year offer
every reasonable prospect of increased advantage and ex-
tended utility.

In January Mr. Bernard was full of energy for the
lectures. To the managers he said he had reason to
flatter himself that Mr. Fletcher, of Cecil Street, would
lecture on Natural Philosophy (but Mr. Fletcher could
not find room for his course, as Mr. Allen was engaged
on the same subject). Mr. Crowe would lecture on
History ; Dr. Stanger on Physiology, and give another
course on Medicine ; Dr. James Smith on Botany; John
Opie on Painting ; Astley Cooper on Comparative Ana-

s 2

260 THE EAKLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

tomy (but he did not give the lectures). All these
courses were not to cost 150£., if in two or three instances
the privileges of a life subscriber were granted. Davy
was asked to report on the means of escape in case of
fire ; on lighting the theatre ; and whether a plan could
be formed for the regular publication of the Journal.

In February the printing office was discontinued
and the Journals were given up. Mr. Savage bought
the printing press and type and removed them in May,
and became printer to the Eoyal Institution on his
own account.

In April all Sir Guy Carleton's manuscripts on the
American War, including a copy of the treaty of peace
between England and America, signed by Benjamin
Franklin, were given to the library. The bye-laws
regarding the library of reference were made less
strict. In May Mr. Bernard announced his arrange-
ments for the autumn and spring lectures.

Davy agreed to give three courses ; the Rev. Sydney
Smith two courses of ten lectures each on Moral
Philosophy, one from November 10 to January 30 and
the other from February 20 to May 20, for 501.
and the compliment of a life admission to him and
Mrs. Smith. Mr. Fletcher was to give twenty-four
lectures on Natural Philosophy ; Mr. Landseer, three
lectures on Engraving at eight o'clock on Monday
evenings ; Dr. Crotch, six lectures on Wednesday and
Friday evenings.

Two letters written at this time by Sir Joseph Banks
to Count Rumford at Paris give some insight into the
divisions among the managers, the causes of disagree-

1804.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 261

ment, and the different motives that had been working
in the Institution almost from its commencement.
It is clear that Count Kumford and Sir Joseph Banks
especially desired the promotion of scientific knowledge
among the poor and the rich, and that Mr. Bernard
and Sir John Hippesley believed that the success of
the Institution depended upon fashionable popularity.
For the first three years the advancement of scientific
knowledge was the chief object of the Institution; in
the fourth and fifth years this object gave way to
that of fashionable popularity, which was sought for
until the original investigations of Davy again made
science, in the noble function of new discovery, the life
of the Eoyal Institution.

SIR JOSEPH BASKS TO COUNT RUMFORD.

April 1804.

I am very glad to find by your letter that you are
well and happy where you now are. In truth, you seem
so much so that your friends here begin to suppose you
will take root in the soil where you now grow. I cannot,
however, disguise that your not appearing in England
last year, as I had reason to expect you would have done,
has been a material disappointment to me and a great
detriment to the Royal Institution.

It is now entirely in the hands of the profane. I have
declared my dissatisfaction at the mode in which it is
carried on and my resolution not to attend in future. Had
my health and spirits not failed me, I could have kept
matters in their proper level, but, sick, alone, and unsup-
ported, I have given up what cannot now easily be re-
covered.

The Royal Society, however, goes on extremely well ; onr
members are industrious, especially Mr. Hatchett, whose

262 -THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. V.

chemical discoveries do him every day more and more
credit. We shall not now, I trust, go astray, as I think
we have not one attending member who is at all addicted
to politics.

All our subordinate societies also seem to prosper, and
labour diligently in their respective departments ; we have
newly formed one for the improvement of horticulture,
which promises to become very numerous. I send you a
book on the subject of heat, &c. (Leslie), which certainly
contains many interesting experiments and much bad reason-
ing. Upon the whole, however, it appears to me that he
will not be an unlikely candidate for your medal of the next
year. Pray let me have your opinion of the subject ; and,
if you disapprove of him, who do you think a more success-
ful promoter of the science you wish to encourage ?

I send your medals by Mr. . This is the first

opportunity I have had, or you would sooner have received
them. [These were the first Rumford medals, awarded to
Rumford himself.]

SIR JOSEPH BANKS TO COUNT RUMFORD.

Soho Square, June 6, 1804.

As it does not prove convenient to Mr. Livingstone to
take with him the Society's transactions or the observations
of the Royal Observatory, which I wished to have sent, I
am obliged to confine myself to the sending the enclosed
books — * Leslie on Heat ' for your acceptance, the ' Nautical
Almanac' for M. Delambre — and the medals which the
Royal Society decreed to you a year and a half ago.

On the subject of the first T much wish for your opinion
whether the author may be considered a proper person to
receive your medal next year; and, if not, who you think a
more deserving candidate?

Be so good as to deliver the * Nautical Almanac ' to
M. Delambre with my best regards, and to assure the
Institute that I shall never forget the various favours I

1804.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 263

have in my literary character received from them or those
which literary people, my friends, have received from them
on my account. I honour and respect them both as a
body and as individuals more than ever, and look forward
with earnest wishes for the time when I may again com-
municate with them freely, as I once had the happiness of
doing. I have received their medallic diplomas for Mr.
Cavendish, Dr. Maskelyne, Dr. Herschel, and myself, and
will distribute them without delay. Pray remind them,
however, that Mr. James Forbes, F.R.S., is still a prisoner
among them ; though an old man, possibly he does not
wish to return home, as his daughter has married into a
French family. Possibly other insurmountable obstacles
have prevented his release, as the Institute have so nobly
and handsomely proved their wish that the Fellows of the
Royal Society should be restored to their pursuits of
science.

From the tone of your letter it appears to me that you
are likely to take root in the soil in which you now grow.
I am sorry that you did not return to England, as you gave
me every reason to expect you would, last year. Your house
at Brompton is an inadequate pledge of your future resi-
dence here, as experience has confirmed me in believing.

In the meantime the Institution has irrevocably fallen
into the hands of the enemy, and is now perverted to a
hundred uses for which you and I never intended it. I could
have successfully resisted their innovations had you been here,
but, alone, unsupported, and this year confined to my house
for three months by disease (gout), my spirit was too much
broken to admit of my engaging singly with the host of
H.'s and B.'s1 who had possession of the fortress. Adieu,
then, Institution ! I have long ago declared my intention of
attending no more.

You desire that Davy may have your papers for insertion
in the Journals. Alas ! the Journals have ceased for more

1 Hippesleys and Bernards.

264 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

than a year, and the printing office is removed from the
house of the Institution. Your papers, however, shall be
communicated to him, as they have already been to Sir
Charles Blagden.

During this year a series of lectures was begun at
the Institution by the Eev. Sydney Smith, which for
fashionable attraction surpassed any courses that have
ever been delivered there.

Mr. Homer thus wrote to Mr. J. A. Murray :

The Temple, November 15, 1804.

I suppose you know that Smith begins to lecture on
Moral Philosophy next Saturday at the Royal Institution ?
You would be amused to hear the account he gives of his
own qualifications for the task and his mode of manufactur-
ing philosophy ; he will do the thing very cleverly, I have
little doubt, as to general manner, and he is sufficiently
aware of all the forbearances to be observed. Profound
lectures on metaphysics would be unsuitable to the place ;
he may do some good if he makes the subject amusing.
He will contribute, like his other associates of the Institu-
tion, to make the real blue-stockings a little more disagree-
able than ever and sensible women a little more sensible.
It seems to me, for the interest of general conversation, that
these subjects should not be quite so unknown to them as
to be thought unintelligible pedantry if mentioned in their
compapy; and the impertinence of those who set up as
adepts is the price we must pay for this important acquisi-
tion. Your chemists and metaphysicians in petticoats are
altogether out of nature — that is, when they make a trade
or distinction of such pursuits— but when they take a little
general learning as an accomplishment they keep it in very
tolerable order. Tell me if I take this rightly. I know it
is not well settled, and men of letters usually lean too much
on one side. Good afternoon.

1804.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 265

Mr. Homer wrote another letter to Mr. Thomas

Thompson:

The Temple, November 21, 1804.

Our friend Sydney gave his first lecture on Saturday. I
was not there, but all the accounts I have collected from
different sorts of people agree in its favour, and that it took
extremely well.

During the second course Mr. Homer wrote to Lady

Mackintosh at Bombay :

The Temple, April 18, 1805.

We have all this winter had but two topics of conversa-
tion— Young Roscius and the lectures of the Right Reverend
our Bishop of Mickleham.1 His Lordship's success has been
beyond all possible conjecture — from six to eight hundred
•hearers ; not a seat to be found, even if you go half-an-hour
before the time. Nobody else, to be sure, could have exe-
cuted such an undertaking with the least chance of this
sort of success ; for who else could make such a mixture of
odd paradox, quaint fun, manly sense, liberal opinion,
striking language ? You must have had more than enough
of the other great delight of the public — the Roscius. As
it is the propensity of all superior minds to admire, I am
sorry that this occasion has added another to my own proofs
that I must place myself on a very low form ; there never
was such a rage except that for Sydney.

In the 6 Life of Sydney Smith' Lady Holland mentions
that Mr. Bernard obtained these lectures for the Insti-
tution. She says :

He obtained considerable increase of reputation by a
course of lectures on Moral Philosophy, which Sir Thomas
Bernard, who interested himself much about the Royal
Institution, proposed to him to give. He continued to
lecture for three successive years.

1 Where Mr. Sharpe, Sydney Smith's friend, lived.

2G6 THE EAKLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

On May 17, 1804, a new proposal was made for the
advancement of science at the Eoyal Institution. A
special meeting of the managers and visitors was held,
and an address to the proprietors and subscribers was
read and approved, and ordered to be circulated, re-
specting the formation of a mineralogical collection and
an assay office on a large scale for the improvement of
mineralogy and metallurgy.

The Hon. O. F. Greville, Sir J. St. Aubyn, Sir A.
Hume, proposed to raise a fund of 4,000£. to arrange a
collection in a manner which should exhibit all the
interesting series of mineralogical facts ; and they pro-
posed to establish an assay office, to be exclusively
employed for the advancement of mineralogy and
metallurgy. They thought that the whole time of
a mineralogist of considerable talent would be em-
ployed ; and that the continued attention of a chemist
of approved abilities would be required.

It was proposed that a mineralogical institution
like the library institution should be united to the
Royal Institution.

The address relating to the formation of this economic
museum ended thus : ' The proprietors and subscribers
may be assured that the managers and visitors will never
consider their labours as finished, while there remains
any effort to be made for the diffusion and useful appli-
cation of practical science in this country. They would
indeed have deemed themselves extremely culpable if
there had been any delay or neglect on their part in
submitting to the consideration of their members, and
of the public, a plan which promises essentially to

1804.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 267

promote the prosperity of the Koyal Institution, and at
the same time to contribute to the extension of useful
science and to the increase of our national resources.'

A plan was drawn up. There were to be hereditary
patrons, paying 100£. and upwards, and patrons for life,
paying 50L, and subscribers of smaller sums might
unite when they had subscribed sixty guineas and select
one of themselves as patron. The patrons were to elect
a chairman, a deputy-chairman, a treasurer and a
secretary, committees and sub-committees.

In 1804 Lord Dartmouth gave 2001. worth of
minerals, and Mr. Hatchett gave the cases for them.

In 1805 Davy gave his own collection of minerals,
valued at 1 00 guineas.

The committee rooms were made into the mineral
room, and 2501. was spent in fitting it up. Davy went
to Wales and Ireland to collect minerals, and the
following year he again went to the west and north of
Ireland, and took with him William Payne, the boy
belonging to the laboratory.

At the end of 1805 the rooms for the mineralogical
collection were ready, and the arrangement of the
mineralogical and geological specimens was made under
the directions of Mr. Davy. The minerals and fossils
were removed from the model room, where they had
been deposited, and in consequence the models were
arranged to more advantage.

On June 9, 1806, a report was made by Mr. Bernard
on the total failure of the subscriptions to the mineralo-
gical collection. Thereupon the managers resolved that
the three original proposers should receive back their

268 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

subscriptions, and that thanks should be given to them
'for the benefits which they had conferred upon the
Institution by suggesting the idea of a mineralogical
collection, and by showing that it will be practicable to
establish and to support it out of the funds of the
Institution.'

In their answer the proposers said :

We concur in your opinion that the space allotted for
minerals and the plan pursued by the managers, according to
the funds which the Institution can supply, will be found
equal to the illustration of very interesting courses of
mineralogy and geology, and it is bare justice to Mr. Davy
to state that his activity and intelligence in bringing to
notice the important facts of the natural history of Great
Britain and Ireland, with the aid of the managers to make
his assays keep pace with his discoveries, will ensure
much credit to the Royal Institution and great benefit to
the public.

We are still of opinion that, when the importance of a
general collection and of a laboratory of assay in constant
activity is felt as it ought to be, the influence of the
Royal Institution will not be exerted in vain. The plan,
which the managers have limited to the present scale of
their building and to the funds of their Institution, has
obtained general approbation. Its success will give a bias
to public opinion favourable to the progress of mineralogy
and chemistry, and enable the managers at a future time
to extend their buildings, establishments, and plan to the
scale which unsuccessfully we ventured to suggest to be
better proportioned to their importance.

The original proposal was too scientific and not
sufficiently fashionable to agree with the management
of Mr. Bernard at this time.

1804.1 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 269

During this year another proposal was made for the
good of science at the Institution. This is to be seen
in a letter from Mr. Davy to Mr. Bernard, written on
June 2 :

DEAR SIR, — I have reflected on our conversation at
Bright helm stone with regard to the utility of some new
arrangements that may be made in the chemical depart-
ment of the Royal Institution, and I still entertain the
same opinions on the subject.

In all universities and places of public scientific instruc-
tion it is, I believe, usual for the professors or teachers to
admit into their laboratories a certain number of private
or operating pupils, who give their aid in the processes that
are carried on, and at the same time gain practical informa-
tion and are of use to the experimenter. I have several
times been applied to by subscribers to the Royal Institu-
tion who wished to assist in the experiments carried on in
the laboratory ; but, as I have had no instructions on this
point from the managers, I have been unable to give them
permission. I do not think any inconvenience could arise
from the admission of private pupils in the chemical
department of the Institution. Such a plan would gratify
many persons, would tend to facilitate the execution of such
operations as are carried on, and would coincide with the
ends of the establishment without burthening it with any
new expense. If you should think that the idea would not
be disagreeable to the managers, perhaps you will have the
goodness to mention it on Monday.

I enclose a sketch of some regulations for Mr. Sadler and
for myself ; perhaps similar ones or better ones might be
framed for the other persons in the service of the Institution.

I have been thinking upon the lectures of which you
furnished the title, and I shall be very glad to give them at
the end of the next season.

I am, dear Sir, with the warmest respect, your obliged and
grateful H. DAVY.

270 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

It was resolved by the managers ' that Mr. Davy have
permission to admit six subscribers as private pupils in
the laboratory in the manner proposed in his letter.'
The regulations drawn up by Mr. Davy were read, as
well as a draft of the duties of the Professor of
Chemistry and the experimental operator at the
Institution.

In 1 805 the endeavour of Mr. Bernard to make the
Royal Institution fashionable was persevered in with
zeal and success. Early in the spring he announced
eighteen courses of lectures for the following autumn
and spring. The visitors reported that ' the success of
the Royal Institution was a matter of public notoriety,'
that ' all the debts which were owing from the Institu-
tion have been paid, and there is every prospect of
future surplus. The investments directed by the
bye-laws have been continued ; these amount to
1,334^. 4s. The engagement of lecturers of talent and
reputation has given increased interest and effect to
the Institution, and with little additional expense.
Even if otherwise, no contraction of scale ought to be
admitted in this most interesting part of the Institution,
which furnishes not only an abundant source of
amusement, but also the solid materials of instruction
and improvement.'

' Though the mineral collection has not proceeded
with the same rapidity of success as the library of
reference, yet a considerable advance has been made.
The subscriptions and the minerals presented already
amount to the value of about 1, 5001. The managers
'have laudably given up their board and committee

J80.5.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 271

rooms in order to prepare suitable apartments for the
collection, and have resolved to hold their committees
in the library on the days when it is not open to
subscribers in general. Notice has been given that the
laboratory of assay is ready for that useful and
essential part of the plan the analysis of ores and
mineral substances.'

The report said that, ' with a view to the permanent
success of the Institution, as the popularity of the
lectures was so much increased, the terms of subscrip-
tion were altered and a supplementary list was made of
ladies subscribing three guineas and gentlemen six
guineas.' The ordinary subscription being two guineas
and four guineas, the ladies and unmarried daughters
of proprietors were required to subscribe only one
guinea, c as, by relinquishing the transferable right of
one of their tickets, they had contributed to the success
of the plans which the managers had formed for the
improvement of the Institution.'

The visitors ended thus : ' The great degree of im-
provement and advancement under the auspices of the
present managers is shown by this report relating to the
accommodation and convenience of those who attend the
Institution, instead of dwelling upon the means by
which the members might be increased.'

The number of proprietors at this time was four
hundred, and the qualification was raised to one hundred
and fifty guineas.

A committee of proprietors, managers, and visitors
was appointed to revise the bye-laws.

272 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

The Eev. Sydney Smith began his second course of
lectures on March 23.

He thus wrote in April to Francis Jefferey, Esq. :

Doughty Street, April 1805.

My lectures are just now at such an absurd pitch of
celebrity that I must lose a good deal of reputation before
the public settles into a just equilibrium respecting them.
I am most heartily ashamed of my own fame, because I am
conscious I do not deserve it, and that the moment men of
sense are provoked by the clamour to look into my claims
it will be at an end.

Mr. Landseer gave three lectures on Engraving.
From some personal allusions the managers resolved
* that it is their earnest wish that no allusion of a
personal nature be ever offered on any account at the
lectures of the Institution.' The next year Mr. Land-
seer was engaged to give six lectures on Engraving,
including the substance of those already given, on the
same terms as those of the preceding year. In the
announcement of the engagement it was said, c He will
endeavour to add a few lectures of a more general
nature on the Philosophy of Art.' The lectures were
given early in 1806, and on March 17, after the fourth
lecture, the minutes of the managers .state that Mr.
Landseer was called in and informed that the managers
understood that his two last lectures, particulary the
last, were exceptionable from the personal allusions they
contained, and, he having admitted that they were
intended as personal allusions, although introduced
with a view to vindicate and support the art, and it
airoearing that Mr. Landseer had before introduced

1805.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 273

personal allusions in his lectures, notwithstanding
notice last season from the managers, it was resolved
' that Mr. Landseer be informed that it is with great
regret that the managers feel themselves obliged to
direct that his lectures be discontinued.' The steward
was ordered to pay Mr. Landseer 30Z., the sum he was tcr
receive for his course of lectures.

On March 25 Mr. Bernard reported to the managers
( that Mr. Davy will give three courses of lectures in the
ensuing season — the first in November, December,
and January, upon that part of Practical Chemistry that
relates to the Experimental History of Water, the Atmo-
spheric Heat, and Electricity ; the second in February
and March next, upon the Chemical History of Water and
the Atmosphere ; and the third in April and May, upon
the Modern History of Science.'

On April 1 the clock in the gallery was ordered.

Mr. Dibden agreed to give ten or twelve lectures on
the Use and Progress of English Literature.

At the first meeting in May the following professors
were proposed for election at the meeting of managers :
Professor of Chemistry, Mr. Davy ; Natural Philosophy,
Mr. Allen; Poetry, Eev. W. Crowe; Belles Lettres,
Rev. John Hewlett ; and Moral Philosophy, the Rev.
Sydney Smith.

The proprietorship was raised to 150 guineas, and
at the end of the year to 200 guineas. The mineral-
ogical room was fitted up for the minerals. The
laboratory was opened for analyses for persons paying
101. at most. Ventilators were placed in the roof and
under the gallery of the theatre. It was impossible to
T

274 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

keep out the wet because of the settlement in the
foundations, so the roof was new-leaded; and Mr.
Soane, the architect, advised that the roof should be
examined twice yearly.

On May 29 Mr. Bernard reported to the managers
< that he had been requested by Sir Francis Baring to
inform them that a plan similar to that of the Royal
Institution was intended to be adopted in London, with
a view to the same laudable and beneficial effects as
have been produced with such extraordinary success in
Westminster under the auspices of the managers of the
lioyal Institution ; that the gentlemen who had taken
the active part in the proposed establishment had no
other object in view but that of promoting, concurrently
with the Eoyal Institution, the prevalence of science
and literature in the metropolis, and in this they have
flattered themselves that they shall receive the appro-
bation and assistance of the managers of the Royal
Institution.' It was resolved unanimously ' that Sir
Francis Baring be informed that the managers view with
great satisfaction the exertions of him and the other
gentlemen to extend the beneficial effects of science
and literature in the metropolis, and that the mana-
gers will be ready to give them any aid and assistance
which they can with propriety in the execution of their
plan, conceiving as they do that the two institutions
will not interfere with each other, but will rather
increase the public interest in favour of their objects
and promote the success of both by the mutual as-
sistance and beneficial co-operation which they may be
enabled to render to each other.'

1806.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 275

In October Sir Francis Baring invited Sir Joseph
Banks to become a vice-president. This he declined by a
letter writen on October 14. He, however, expressed
his wish to purchase a share in the Institution. He
said:

I confess, however, I do not at present foresee the period
at which the utility of your new Institution is likely
to commence. The Royal Society was set on foot by a
number of persons well versed in those matters which its
constitution was intended to promote. The Royal Institu-
tion was at first wholly under the direction of persons
entirely addicted to science, and has not improved since
the management of it has passed into other hands. The
Athenaeum at Liverpool has been formed, I may say, wholly
under the immediate superintendence of Mr. Roscow and
Dr. Currie. All this I can understand, but how the very
worthy and most respectable men you at present look up
to as managers of your new Institution will be able to
guide it into the paths of science and literature is not to
me quite so evident as I sincerely wish it to be.

In 1806 Sir James Mackintosh, writing from India
to his friend Mr. Sharp, also shows how fashion, rather
than science, had become the characteristic of the Royal
Institution.

Your account of the London Institution has delighted
and tantalised me. I wish I were a professor ! But
the printed paper is too general to admit of any dis-
cussion. You do not say how many and who are to be
professors. It may surely be a little more solid than the
fashionable nerves of Albemarle Street could endure with-
out ceasing to be popular.

In 1806 'the attempt to make the Institution
fashionable' by means of the number and quality of

T 2

276

THE EAELY HISTORY OF

[CHAP. V.

the lectures seemed to attain the success that Mr.
Bernard desired. There was an increase of nearly
3,OOOZ. in proprietors' shares and in subscriptions.
The debt of 2,0001. formed in 1802 was paid off, and
the sum in the funds amounted to nearly 4,000£. The
library was completed by a separate subscription ; this
amounted to nearly 7,000£., of which about 5,0001. was
spent in books.

With the exception of the Professor of Moral Phi-
losophy the same professors were this year re-elected.

In the report of the visitors in 1807 the following
statement of the lectures and of the general result of the
management in 1805-6 and in 1806-7 is made :

Lecturers

Subjects

Number of
Lectures.
Season
1805-6

Season
1806-7

Mr. Davy .
Mr. Allen . . .
Rev.W. Crowe .
Rev. T. F.Dibden
Rev. J Hewlett

Geology and Chemistry . .
Natural Philosophy . . .
Poetry and Dramatic Poetry
English Literature ....
Belles Lettres ....

22
25

21
10

8

28
32
24
12

8

Dr. Crotch . .

13

25

Rev. E. Foster .
Mr.Douglas Guest
Mr Wood . .

History of Commerce . . .
State of the Fine Arts in Spain
Perspective . . . . .

8
4
9

Dr. Shaw . . .

12

12

Dr. Smith (after-
wards Sir James)

14

14

Mr. Craig. . .
Rev.Sydney Smith
Mr Opie

Drawing in Water Colours .
Moral Philosophy ....
Painting

8
14

Q

8

Mr Landseer

Engraving

4.

6 Nothing,' the visitors said, < seems necessary for sub-
stantiating and promoting the interests of the Institu-
tion but that the managers should proceed in the
track which they have hitherto pursued, and should
continue to receive that approbation which has so
fully rewarded their former labours.'

1806.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 277

On May 26, 1806, Mr. Bernard reported to the
managers that Mr. Davy would in November next begin
a course of twenty lectures in the higher departments
of experimental chemistry, on Vegetable and Animal
Analysis and on tire Experimental History of Heat,
Light, and Electricity ; and that in the spring he would
begin another course of twenty lectures on the Chemis-
try of Nature, containing elucidations of the design,
order, and harmony of the chemical arrangements in
the globe. In the first course he proposed to give two
lectures a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and in
the second course one lecture a week, on Wednesdays ;
the hour of the lecture to be two o'clock. The ventila-
tion of the lecture room was considered this day.

Mr. Bernard later reported that Mr. Coleridge would
give two courses of eight lectures on the Principles
Common to the Fine Arts for 1201. ; to commence in
November, every Thursday at two.

Mr. Lawrence, the surgeon, proposed to give a course
of lectures on the Animal Economy. These were not
accepted. The Rev. Sydney Smith proposed to give a
fifth course of eight lectures in the ensuing spring for
a compliment of 90Z. ; ' and, in case it should be in his
power, he would give some additional lectures, not
exceeding six, for a compliment of 101. a lecture.'
These lectures circumstances obliged him to give up.
He was paid 120Z. for his third and fourth courses,
which he gave in 1806. His lectures were not printed
until after his death.

But it was not by the success of the lectures that
this year deserves to be remembered in the history

278 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

of the Institution. Lectures, indeed, are the support
of the Institution, but discovery constitutes its great
success ; and this year is famous for the first of those
great discoveries on which the credit of the Institution
depends. The union of chemistry and electricity was
established by Davy.

Volta sent the first account of his discovery of the
voltaic pile to Sir Joseph Banks. His paper was
printed in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1800---
on the ' Electricity Excited by the mere Contact of
Conducting Substances of Different Kinds.' Davy, on
October 20, 1800, wrote, ' Galvanism I have found, by
numerous experiments, to be a process purely chemical,'
and on June 18, 1801, the first paper Davy sent to the
Royal Society was on a galvanic combination of a
single metallic plate and two fluids. In May 1802 he
says, ' A battery of immense size has been made for
the Institution, and I am now examining the agencies
of it upon certain substances that have not been de-
composed.' His lectures on Agriculture, Mineralogy,
and Greology so occupied his time that very little
remained for original research, and it was not until
this year that a close examination of the decomposi-
tion of water by electricity led him to investigate
the action of the voltaic battery, and to establish
the union of electricity and chemistry. For this and
his former work the name of Davy ought for ever
to be inseparably united with the discovery of chemical
electricity. But the honour at that time paid to Davy
was not for establishing the production of electricity
by chemistry, but for endeavouring to prove that all

1807.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 279

chemical action was caused by electricity. He received
no praise as the founder of chemical electricity, but he
was looked on as the discoverer of electro-chemistry —
that is, of the theory that the electrical condition or
polarity of each element determined its chemical
action.

The following year (1807) is still more memorable
in the annals of the Institution on account of the
originality of the discoveries made in the laboratory.
No year in the life of the Institution has equalled
this in the magic novelty of the results that were
obtained. Davy (set. 28) proved that the bases of the
alkalies were solid metals. He called them potassium
and sodium, and he showed that they made potass
and soda when united with oxygen.

The year 1831 was a noble year for the Royal Institu-
tion. In it Faraday (aet. 40) discovered that the magnet
produced electricity and founded magneto-electricity.

Great discoveries in different sciences made at differ-
ent periods do not admit of any accurate comparison. It
may, however, be said that in unimagined novelty the
results of Davy far surpassed the results of Faraday ;
for the discovery of magneto-electricity had been fore-
shadowed by the discovery of electro-magnetism ; but
in its telegraphic and other applications the discovery
of magneto-electricity will keep the name of Faraday
for ever in the remembrance of the world.

How much the prosperity of the Institution depended
upon Davy was made very evident by his illness, which
occurred soon after his discoveries were made. In the
early part of the year the managers had not recognised

280 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

the fact that original discovery belonged to him, and
that their committees were useless for investigation.
They did give Davy early in the year a new assistant ; l
but on March 9 they resolved that, in consequence of
the completion of the chemical laboratory, which was
furnished with the necessary utensils and materials
for carrying on operations and experiments, ' the
chemical professor, besides his regular annual courses
of lectures delivered in the lecture room, shall make,
direct, superintend, and explain as far as may be
necessary all chemical experiments, or courses of ex-
periments, which the managers from time to time
shall direct to be made in the laboratory, and give
his assistance in all committees appointed by the
managers for the purpose of scientific investigation
which may require his aid or stand in need of the use
of the laboratory for prosecuting their experiments or
researches.'

In May the visitors said ' the Institution continued to
afford every prospect of realising in their fullest extent
those results which its original promoters had in view.'

On July 13 the lectures of Mr. Davy were announced
to the managers. In the autumnal session, which was
to begin the first week of December, he intended to
give twenty-six lectures on the General Elements of
Chemistry, and in the spring sixteen lectures on
Chemistry in its Connexion with Physiology and the
Phenomena of Animated Nature. The same day Mr.
Davy informed the managers that he proposed going
into Cornwall for five weeks, with a view to collect

1 Mr. E. Davy, his cousin.

1808.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 281

specimens for the collection of minerals, and that he
wished William Payne, the attendant on the laboratory,
to accompany him. It was resolved that William
Payne's expenses in the journey, and those incurred by
Mr. Davy in collecting the specimens, should be defrayed
by the managers.

In October Davy made his great discoveries,1 and the
last week of November he was laid low with fever,
caught whilst disinfecting Newgate Prison.

On December 7 the following notice was ordered to
be sent round to the proprietors and subscribers : * Mr.
Davy having been confined to his bed this last fortnight
by a severe illness, the managers are under the painful
necessity of giving notice that the lectures will not
commence until the first week of January next.'

The lectures began on January 13, but Davy did
not lecture until March 12.

This interruption of the lectures stopped the income
of the Institution in the autumn. The difficulties
regarding the finances became urgent. From the time
when Davy's support was temporarily removed until
the reign of Faraday was far advanced the Institution
remained in a state of great poverty.

In 1808 the visitors made the following report on
the state of the Institution :

' Since 1803 the bills of each preceding year have
been paid out of the subscriptions received in the
beginning of the succeeding year. The amount has
varied in different years, and is now about 2,000£. This
was not attended with inconvenience until this year,
1 See below, p. 350, Life of Professor Davy*

282 THE EARLY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. V.

when, by some disappointment as to lectures and by the
postponement of the autumnal course in consequence
of the lamented illness of their excellent Professor of
Chemistry, the subscriptions have been diminished and
, their payment postponed.

' The expenses have increased. The library required
5201. There was some extra expense — about 1661. — in
the laboratory, so honourable to the Royal Institution
and so beneficial to the interests of science in every
part of the world. The fitting up and forming the
mineralogical collection has cost 404£.

4 It is proposed that l,46l£., to be paid by the repre-
sentatives of Mr. Edward Gray for renewing his lease
of one of the adjoining houses, should be spent, and
that the cost of the proprietors' shares should be re-
duced.

* Mr. Soane, the architect of the corporation, and Mr.
Harris, the librarian, have made a valuation of the
Institution property.

House and buildings, with the two adjoining houses,
subject to the existing under-leases and to the pro-
posed lease , . . £13,000

Books and manuscripts 7,000

Mineralogical collection ...... 1,000

Laboratory and apparatus . 4o6

Mechanical apparatus and models .... 1,000

Furniture of the house 900

Consols 3£, 1,375 at 64 880

„ 4£, 2,684 ,,83 2,297

' With such a property, exempt from any mortgage
or encumbrance, and with views directed to the great
and important advantages which science, literature,
and morality are deriving and may derive from this

1808.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 283

royal and public establishment, the anticipation of a
part of the next year's income will not be deemed of
much importance.

' When it is considered that in the last five years the
library of reference and the mineralogical collection
have been formed and newly completed, the labora-
tory very greatly enlarged and improved, and money
invested, we trust there will be no one disposed to
think unfavourably of the progress of the Institution.

' An anticipation of a part of the next year's income
under circumstances from which a more considerable
deficiency might have been expected will not make the
friends of science and literature doubt of the Eoyal
Institution being now established on a solid and per-
manent basis.'

The income was stated to be 1,929£., and the expen-
diture 1,917Z.

The draft of this report was read by Mr. Bernard
to the managers, and they referred it to a sub-com-
mittee, who approved it. The Committee of Visitors
was then introduced, consisting of Lord Berkeley, Dr.
Glasse, Mr. Hammersley, who considered and approved
it.

Mr. Dibden was requested to read his opening
lecture on Literature on January 13. He began
with a short statement of Davy's great discovery and
of his illness. Probably Davy was at this time
ill in bed ; for the managers did not buy him a sofa,
for which they paid three guineas, until January 25.

On February 22 Mr. Davy attended the meeting of
managers at their request, and said he would commence

284 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

his course of lectures on Electro-Chemical Science on
Saturday, March 12, at two, and those on Geology on
Wednesday evening, March 1 6, at eight.

At the end of the previous year Mr. Bernard had re-
ported that Mr. Coleridge would give in the ensuing
session five courses of five lectures each on the Distin-
guished English Poets, in illustration of the general
principles of poetry arranged under the following heads :
1. Shakespear. 2. Spencer and Allegorical Poetry.
3. Milton. 4. Dryden and Pope, and the fifth course
Modern Poetry. These lectures were to begin imme-
diately, one or two weekly, as might be convenient, for
a compliment of 140£., of which 601. was proposed to be
paid in advance.

In February Mr. Bernard paid Mr. Coleridge 40£.
in advance. The lectures were still delayed.

At the end of April Mr. Bernard reported that Mr.
Coleridge had offered gratuitously to give a lecture on
Education on Tuesday, May 3, proposing it to be twice
the length of his other lectures.1

On June 13 the steward, Mr. Savage, laid before the
managers the following letter from Mr. Coleridge :

DEAR SIR, — Painful as it is to me, almost to anguish, yet
I find my health in such a state as to make it almost death
to me to give any further lectures. I beg that you would
acquaint the managers that, instead of expecting any re-

1 This lecture was given. In it Mr. Coleridge made a violent personal
attack on Mr. Joseph Lancaster, and a year afterwards, at the annual
meeting of proprietors, a resolution was carried unanimously that ' this
attack was in direct violation of a known and established rule of the
Royal Institution, prohibiting any personal animadversions in the lec-
tures there delivered.'

1809.] ' THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 285

muneration, I shall as soon as I can repay the snm I have
received. I am, indeed, more likely to repay it by my
executors than myself. If I could quit my bedroom, I
would have hazarded everything rather than not have come,
but I have such violent fits of sickness and diarrhoea that
it is literally impossible. S. T. COLERIDGE.

' Ordered, — That Mr. Coleridge's lectures be discon-
tinued, and that Mr. Savage make out an account of
the number of lectures that Mr. Coleridge has given,
in order that a proportional payment may be made.'

On June 20, 2,000£. being wanted for the payment of
the tradesmen's bills and salaries, the managers and
visitors subscribed it as a loan without interest. The
tradesmen were paid to December 1806.

The terms of subscription to the Institution were
altered thus : Annual, four guineas ; and life subscrip-
tion, forty guineas ; the qualification for proprietors
was reduced to a hundred guineas.

The position of the Koyal Institution is well seen
in the following report, which the Committee of
Managers made to the Committee of Visitors, on the
deficiency of the income of the Institution, &c., on
March 20, 1809.

They begin by stating ' that the 700 transferable
tickets of the proprietors stopped the annual income
from subscribers. In January 1803 the corporation
were 3,000£. in debt. A subscription was made ;
transferable rights were reduced one-half, so as to
allow of a greater number of annual subscribers.

c The effects of the measures were soon felt. The
income was more than doubled and public interest

286 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

attracted to a very great degree. The debts were
discharged and near 3,000£. invested.'

' The additions that have been made to the Institu-
tion by the library of reference, the mineralogical
collection (which, by the assistance and exertions of
the Professor of Chemistry, has been made at an
expense which bears no comparison to its use and
value), the laboratory, the seat of his interesting and
extraordinary discoveries, the increased variety of
the lectures far exceeding anything in contemplation
on the forming of the Institution, have frustrated
every attempt to keep the scale of expenditure within
the average amount of income.

'The annual expenditure, including 1,055£. for
professors and lectures, is 3,2951. To meet this there
is 133£. dividends, and life and annual subscriptions
of not more than 2,000£. It is for the interest of the
proprietors that some early and decisive measures
should be taken for the preservation of their here-
ditary property, either by new modelling the con-
stitution, so as to make their life and annual subscrip-
tions more productive, or by reducing the expenditure,
or by the proprietors and life members paying some
annual sum. The proprietors now enjoy much greater
advantages than they originally had from the libraries,
collections, lectures, and laboratory, and from that in
which all Englishmen, and particularly the proprietors
of the Eoyal Institution, must glory, that in our
laboratory those discoveries have been made, and are
now making, which excite the surprise and admiration
of the scientific in every part of the civilised world.

1809.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 287

6 For the present support of the Institution, and for
the discharge of their bills up to January 1808, some
of the managers and visitors have advanced on loan
without interest 2,300£. The sale of the stock and
the fine for the sublease -will pay the debts of the
corporation. The proprietors must decide what it will
be prudent and practical to adopt for the support of
the Institution.

k If the support of scientific men is to be obtained,
something must be done to give the Institution more
the form of a public establishment than of private and
hereditary property. The managers have no doubt
that the friends of science will come forward when the
Institution interests the country at large, and they
believe the body of proprietors will make any sacrifice
of personal interest and advantage to erect a public,
national, and permanent establishment devoted to the
cultivation of science and to the promotion of every
improvement in agriculture, manufactures, and the
useful arts of life that may be conducive to the
happiness and prosperity of the British Empire. The
important researches which have distinguished the
laboratory of the Royal Institution, are not only
honourable to the proprietors but to the kingdom at
large.

'The managers trust that an active co-operation of
the proprietors in increasing the number of life and
annual subscribers, and a moderate annual subscription
for the transferable ticket of each proprietor, will be
adequate to secure the stability and prosperity of the
Institution, and to continue and extend its influence

288 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

by the promotion of science and literature, and by the
supply of innocent and useful sources of intellectual
pleasure.'

The visitors made' their report to the proprietors,
April 18, thus :

' The circumstances attending our present situation
seem to call for much consideration and reflection,
and it would become our duty to state what reasonable
expectation could be entertained of more income or less
expenditure. But the managers have done this, and
therefore we forward their report.

6 Upon inspection there seems no deficiency of any-
thing which could contribute to the success or general
utility of the Institution, and our financial state alone
leads us to concur in the necessity of resorting to new
measures for the support of so valuable an establishment.

6 The visitors heartily concur with the managers in
their recommendations.'

In May a committee of the proprietors, with the
managers and visitors, was appointed to consider the
general state of the affairs of the Institution. The
first step was to request Mr. Davy to prepare a plan
for the future management of the Institution, and
every member of the committee was asked to lay
before the committee in writing his ideas or plan.
One proposal was to put an annual tax on the transfer-
able tickets ; another to get a new charter ; another to
get an Act of Parliament ; and another to shut the
Institution at six o'clock daily. By the end of the year
the joint committee had formed a plan which was in
the following year proposed to Parliament.

1809.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 289

The whole of the stock possessed by the Institution,
amounting to 4,058£., was sold ; the managers and
visitors were paid their loan of 100£. each without inte-
rest, and the bills of 1807 and 1808 were paid.

A communication was made to the Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty and other public boards,
suggesting the employment of the Royal Institution
laboratory for analyses and reports.

In November the managers decided to publish a
statement regarding the Royal Institution. This was
probably written by Davy.

The objects of the Royal Institution in it were said
to be fi the advancement and diffusion of useful know-
ledge and the application of experimental science to
the purposes of life.'

Regarding the laboratory it said : c In the
laboratory, which is under the direction of the
Professor of Chemistry, and which is open to any
scientific persons who may propose important chemical
investigations, series of experiments are continually
carried on. Minerals and substances likely to be
useful in agriculture, arts, and manufactures are
analysed and researches tending to the progress of
useful discovery prosecuted. Of the results of these
many have been already published, particularly
researches upon tanning ; the principles of electrical
decomposition ; and the nature of the alkalies, earths,
inflammable bodies, and acids. In this laboratory
there is constructed, in consequence of the liberal con-
tributions of a few individuals, a voltaic apparatus of
great power, which will be exhibited in the lectures,

u

290 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

and many new experiments will be performed with it
and applications of it made to new scientific researches.'

Kegarding the lectures it said : c There are two
terms for lectures, one from December 10 to March 1,
and the other from March 10 to July 7.'

On November 13 Mr. Hatchett and Mr. Davy re-
ported that Mr. Dalton proposed to give twenty lec-
tures : 3 Mechanics, 2 Pneumatics, 1 Hydrostatics,
2 Steam Engine, 2 Electricity, 2 Meteorology,
2 Astronomy, 6 on Heat and Elementary Principles,
to be delivered immediately after Christmas, in the
course of six weeks, for a compliment of eighty
guineas. Twenty other lectures were to be given
by Mr. Allen and Mr. Pond. An evening course
on Electro-Chemical Science, to consist of twelve
lectures, was to be given by Mr. Davy, to commence in
December. A morning course on General Chemistry
and its Applications to Nature and to Art, to commence
after Easter, and to continue through the session, was
also to be given by him.

At the commencement of the year 1810 the managers
refused lectures on Physiology and Comparative
Anatomy, 'because they could not convince them-
selves that scientific lectures can be given on these
subjects without offence to a part of their audience.'

A few facts will show what the difficulties of the
Royal Institution at this time were. Mr. Allen, the
Lecturer on Natural Philosophy, was in February paid
a hundred guineas for his lectures in 1807. The fine
to the city of London for the lease of the house was
due at Michaelmas 1809. The lease lapsed because

1810.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 291

no payment was made. It was not until April that
the Institution could arrange the payment. In the
spring Mr. Easingwood, the Steward and Clerk of
Accounts, left the Institution without notice. The
sum he misappropriated was said to be 1791. 10s. lOd. ;
it was more than 300£., and may have been much
more. His successor in the office afterwards robbed
the Institution of a much greater amount. Temporary
relief from some debts was gained by the payment of a
fine of 1,500Z. from the tenant of the corner house in
Albemarle St.

The proprietors met early in the year, and agreed
to an immediate application to Parliament for an Act
for altering and amending the charter^ and for
enlarging and more effectually promoting the objects
of the Institution.

Great expectations of the permanent prosperity of the
Institution were formed, in consequence of the proposed
conversion of the Institution by Act of Parliament
from a private into a public body. Sir John Sinclair
took charge of the Bill and conducted it through the
House of Commons. It received the royal assent,
April 23. The visit ors^ in their report, said : ' There
is every reason to believe that the establishment on
its new foundation will at once contribute to our
national prosperity and glory. The conduct of the
proprietors upon this occasion has been honourable
both to themselves and to their country. A fund has
been proposed to be raised on the plan of a loan for
three years without interest, and payable by instal-
ments of 10 per cent., for carrying the new scheme,
u 2

292 THE EARLY HISTOKY OF [CHAP. V.

into effect.' 12,5001. was subscribed, but a small part
only was wanted, as very few proprietors accepted the
composition which was offered to them. The actuary
of the Westminster Life Office estimated the value
of each life proprietor's share of 1001. at 4:21.

On March 3 Davy gave a lecture on the 'Plan
which it is proposed to adopt for improving the Royal
Institution and rendering it permanent.' It was
printed by desire of the managers. As a record of the
Institution in its earlier and in its existing state, and
as a reflection of Davy in his full power, this lecture is
of surpassing interest. He said :

* The first plan of the Royal Institution was that of
a school for promulgating the knowledge and use of
important mechanical inventions, for connecting the
views of men of science and artisans, and for the
application of the sciences to the arts of life. The
great feature of the establishment was to be a
collection of models of things used for the common
purposes of life, and to teach their use and relations to
science by lectures. Hence the instruction of manu-
facturers and workmen was of equal importance with
the promotion of the useful arts.

6 Soon after the foundation of the Royal Institution,
a request was made to one of the greatest practical
mechanical philosophers of the age * that he would
examine the details of the establishment, and become
in some way connected with the body. His refusal
was prompt and his expression of disapprobation strong.
"Your object," says he, "is one that every practical in-
1 Probably Mr. Boulton Birmingham.

1810.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 293

ventor ought to discountenance. You would destroy
the value of the labour of the industrious ; by laying
open his invention you would take away the great
stimulus to exertion. Suppose a man, by a great
devotion of time and of labour, by skill and ingenuity,
has made an important combination in chemistry or
mechanics, your object is to publish the details of his
labours, to enable every speculator to profit by his
knowledge. This, could it happen, would be ruinous
to individuals, and would ultimately interfere with
the commercial prosperity of Britain ; for your enemies
would profit by such disclosure more than your country-
men, and it would be absolutely throwing away your
superiority. Were I persuaded such a plan of models
could be executed, I should be seriously alarmed for
the manufacturing interest of the country ; but I am
convinced, from the nature of this part of the scheme,
that it will be ephemeral and that it will die even in
its cradle." I am not sure that these were the very
words of this able reasoner, but I am sure that they
convey his sentiments, which were expressed in my
hearing.

* The object which at first was only secondary — that of
teaching the principles of the sciences by courses of
public lectures — soon became the prime object. The
only difficulty resulted from the nature of the
audiences. To afford satisfaction to all by one series
of subjects was impossible. Numerous courses were
consequently established. A great library of reference
was added, and a mineral collection has likewise been
formed. An object which I hope I shall be pardoned

294 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

for being partial to is the laboratory, which, though
formed upon a small scale and supplied with a small
apparatus only, may yet, by its effects, tend to demon-
strate the importance and uses of such a foundation in
the metropolis.

4 It would be indelicate for me to be the historian
of the whole of the progress of tjris part of the estab-
lishment, nor should I have entered upon it at all
except in consequence of the circumstance that though
it is generally known that some new philosophical
facts have been ascertained here, yet it is not generally
known that the chemical apparatus of the Royal
Institution has given aid upon several occasions to the
useful arts, and that assistance has been afforded to
various great public bodies.

' There is another object on which I can dwell with
more pleasure and more propriety ; I mean the
voltaic apparatus, which has been formed in con-
sequence of a fund raised by subscription. Without a
public establishment like the Royal Institution this
great light of new science might have been lost to us,
and it is not the less honourable to the character of
the nation that the efforts of private individuals have
effected what in other countries flows only from the
Government.

6 The new plan of the Royal Institution is intended
to exalt and enlarge all those parts of the establish-
ment which are acknowledged to be useful and
profitable, so as to create a permanent foundation and
means which can never be misapplied for the advance-
ment of every species of useful knowledge.

1810.] THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 295

c Besides the diffusion of knowledge by popular philo-
sophical lectures, and by other more elementary and
more scientific lectures, the new plan will also embrace,
a design for the promotion of knowledge by experi-
ments and original investigations. It is proposed
that the members of the body shall meet at least once
every week for the purpose of inquiry and discussion.
At these meetings any new facts that have arisen in
the progress of science will be stated, any important
hints for experiments pursued, and in the progress of
investigation those subjects will be most particularly
attended to which promise to increase the perfection
of arts and manufactures.

c Tnat the diffusion and improvement of science may
not be limited to those persons only who can person-
ally attend the Institution, it is proposed to publish
Journals at least quarterly.

' Having described the philosophical objects, it may
be necessary to say something of the manner in which
it is conceived the income of the Institution may be
made permanent.

' In the original plan, as the prime object was the
founding a collection of models and the diffusing the
knowledge of useful mechanical inventions, it was
but strict justice that these models should be regarded
as private property, and belong to the persons by whom
they were originally purchased or their heirs, and that
this property, being of the nature of common property,
might be also transferred by sale.

' But, this idea being found impracticable, and new
and more exalted objects having arisen from this

296 THE EAKLY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. V.

foundation, and the Koyal Institution having fortu-
nately taken the form of a body for promoting experi-
mental science and for diffusing every species of philo-
sophical knowledge, it is obvious that the principles
upon which its funds are to be raised and its members
elected will require considerable alteration.

c On the new plan it is proposed upon a compensation,
which, after long discussion, has been regarded as the
most equitable, to do away entirely the saleable and
hereditary rights, so as to leave no vestiges of them in
the constitution of the body, and to elect new members,
properly recommended, only by ballot.

'The original scheme, by making the proprietary
interest perpetual, left no means for the renovation of
the funds, except by adding new burdens to the
establishment.

6 In giving up their private interests for the purpose
of founding what may be called a national establish-
ment, the proprietors of the Eoyal Institution have a
right to expect the support and encouragement of their
countrymen; and though they will be promoting a
general benefit, yet they may perhaps make a particular
appeal to some of the most distinguished classes of
society — to the great landed proprietors. Whatever
specimens they send will be carefully examined and
reported upon. The simple truth will be stated by
men whose character, as well as motives, will secure
them from any suspicion of inaccuracy ; and, if a general
system of this kind is pursued, much error and dis-
appointment, and even dishonesty, will be prevented.
6 On the attention of the statesman and the politician

1810.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 297

we have likewise no inconsiderable claim. The Koyal
Institution is able to offer assistance in investigations
of great interest connected with public works and the
promotion of arts and manufactures.

' Our doors are to be open to all who wish to profit by
knowledge ; and I may venture to hope that even the
female part of our audiences may not diminish, and
that they will honour the plan with an attention which
is independent of fashion or the taste of the moment,
and connected with the use, the permanence, and the
pleasure of intellectual acquisitions. It is not our
intention to invite them to assist in the laboratories,
but to partake of that healthy and refined amusement
which results from a perception of the variety, order,
and harmony existing in all the kingdoms of nature,
and to encourage the study of those more elegant
departments of science which at once tend to exalt the
understanding and purify the heart.

6 The leisure of the higher female classes is so great,
and their influence in society so strong, that it is
almost a duty that they should endeavour to awaken
and keep alive a love of improvement and instruction.

' Let them make it disgraceful for men to be ignorant,
and ignorance will vanish, and that part of their empire
founded upon mental improvement will be strengthened
and exalted by time, will be untouched by age, will be
immortal in its youth.

6 Even in the common relations of society how much
must be referred to the conduct of the female mind.
The mother gives, or ought to give, most of the early
impressions to the child, and his future habits may

298 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

depend in some measure upon her influence. It may
in some measure depend upon her whether he become
an honour or a disgrace to his country. Her power of
enforcing instruction is the most effectual, as flowing
from love. We know that without feeling the human
being is mere clay, the dust of the earth without the
living soul. Whatever is to be permanently infixed on
the understanding must be associated with hope, or
with joy, or with passion. How much more efficacious
must instruction be when communicated by an object
beloved and venerated, and in infancy almost adored,
and when, instead of being afforded with an effort of
pain and of labour, it is carried into the heart by
kindness and made delightful by caresses and smiles.

4 It has been supposed by some persons who are little
acquainted with the nature of the plan and the general
objects of philosophical associations, that there is a
tendency in them to lessen the importance of our elder
establishments for education, and to diminish the love
of ancient literature. But nothing is further from the
truth. The maxim of improvers is, "Promote whatever
can tend to assist the progress of the human mind," and
letters will always be the greatest, the most powerful
engine to this effect ; it is one that all can employ, the
strong and the weak, in solitude or in the world.
That which is beautiful, that which is pathetic, that
which is sublime, can never lose its effects. There is
one course of passion and feeling in all times and in all
countries ; we should never cease to consider with
admiration and gratitude those models of excellence
which have been happily preserved amongst the wrecks

1810.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 299

of cultivated nations to be our guides in the Middle
Ages, to be our shelter in the storm, and our light in
the darkness, the beacons to guide us to pure taste, to
correct our wanderings, to bring us to nature and
truth. Let us regard them with all respect, but let
not our veneration for them be exclusive; let us
admire them as we admire the works of art of antiquity.
The Apollo Belvidere or the Venus de Medicis were
designed by their artists to be objects of adoration ; let
us wonder at them as statues, as models of perfection,
but not worship them as deities, nor even make them
our only household gods.

' Greek and Eoman literature will always maintain
their importance, always exert their influence ; but let
us not neglect that basis on which the greatness of
modern times and of our own country so peculiarly rests
— experimental philosophy and the experimental arts.
Let their merits be justly estimated and set forth with
dignity and truth ; let not the countrymen of Bacon,
of Newton, and of Boyle neglect those pure springs of
knowledge from which those great men drew such
copious supplies both for profit and for glory ; and let
it not be forgotten that science has its moral and
intellectual as well as its common uses, that its object
is not only to apply the different substances in nature
for the advantages, comfort, and benefit of man, but
likewise to set forth that wonderful and magnificent
history of wisdom and intelligence which is written
in legible characters both in the heavens and on the
earth.'

On May 1, at the annual meeting of the proprietors, it

300 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

was resolved unanimously that the election of managers
and visitors should be for one year only. Notice was
given of alterations of the bye-laws on June 4, for the
election of members in accordance with the new Act of
Parliament.

The first monthly meeting of members was held on
Monday, May 7. A committee of members was ap-
pointed to act with a committee of managers and
visitors in drawing up bye-laws.

On June 4 the bye-laws were read, and on July 2 they
were proposed to the members chapter by chapter and
article by article, and their consideration was continued
on the 4th and 5th. On the 6th the election of
thirty-two members took place ; among them was
Davy.

On August 6 ' Humphry Davy, Esq.,' the first of the
newly-elected members, ' having paid his admission fee
and given his bond for his annual payments, was
admitted a member of the Royal Institution.' Dr.
Wollaston was this day proposed as member.

On November 29 a special general meeting of members
was held to ballot for three scientific and literary
committees. The ballot lasted for ten minutes. For
mathematics, mechanics, and mechanical inventions,
twenty-five members were elected ; the same number
for chemistry, geology, and mineralagy ; and twenty-five
for general science, literature, and arts.

At the December meeting of the members Mr. Auriol
signified his desire of resigning the secretaryship.

This year, by order of a committee of the House of
Lords, the clerk of the House wrote to the secretary of

1811.] THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. 301

the Institution, to request him to attend with any
gentleman belonging to the Institution who might give
advice and assistance to the committee on the subject of
warming and ventilating their House. In this round-
about way Davy was asked to give his advice. He made
a report and his plan was adopted, without success.

At the monthly meeting of managers in February 1811
the following letter from Sir T. Bernard, who, by the
death of his brother, had become a baronet, was read :

It has been for some time my desire and intention to
resign my place in the Committee of Managers, but the
state of the Institution has made me apprehensive of some
inconvenience from withdrawing before the new constitu-
tion was formed and the primary difficulties surmounted.

Nothing more, I conceive, is now wanting except a con-
tinuance of that union and friendly co-operation by which
it has been established ; and, as I can no longer continue a
regular attendant, I resign my situation as a manager of
the Royal Institution. At the same time I beg leave to add
that if the annual meeting should hereafter elect me a
visitor, I will with great pleasure continue my services in
that situation. I beg you will communicate the above to
the next monthly meeting, and have the honour to be, with
the greatest respect, your obedient and very faithful Servant,

T. BERNAKD.

The managers resolved ' that they could not avoid on
this occasion expressing their deep regret at the
prospect of losing the assistance of a gentleman whose
zeal, abilities, and indefatigable industry had so
eminently contributed to the prosperity of the Insti-
tution. They therefore unanimously expressed their
wish that Sir Thomas Bernard would consent to defer
his resignation till the annual meeting in May/ The

302 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V.

next week Sir T. Bernard confirmed his resignation, and
Lord Darnley was elected in his place.

At the annual meeting in May Sir Thomas Bernard
was not nominated as a visitor, but the following
November he was unanimously elected. In 1815 he
was again elected a manager, and he was re-elected
until his death in the autumn of 1818.

In February the energy of the committees of the
Institution gave some signs of activity. The Committee
of Chemistry and Geology, &c., chose Humphry Davy
chairman, Charles Hatchett chairman, and James
Laird, M.D., secretary. The Committee of Mathematics,
Mechanics, and Mechanical Inventions elected the Earl
of Stanhope chairman, the Hon. R. Clifford chairman,
and John Day, Esq., secretary. The Committee of
General Science, Literature, and Arts elected Daniel
Moore, Esq., F.E.S., L.S, chairman, John Disney chair-
man, and John Hinckley, Esq., secretary. For eleven
months Mr. Hinckley had acted as ' honorary secretary
assistant,' and he wished to be elected 'honorary
secretary' of the Institution; but in May Mr. Guillemard
was elected secretary in the place of Mr. Auriol, who
for nine years had apparently taken very slight care of
the records of the Institution.

In March it was proposed at the monthly meeting
of members that a professorship of astronomy should
be created. Reports from the Committee of General
Science were read.

This year all the bills due for 1807, 1808, 1809, and
1810 were paid.
Very feY7 managers attended the meetings; so few, that

1812.J THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 303

at the end of the year it was necessary to call a special
meeting, stating that it was impossible to announce the
lectures for the ensuing year. This brought twelve
managers to the first meeting of 1812, and they decided
that the lectures were to begin on January 25.

Mr. Lawrence the surgeon, Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Wol-
laston, and Mr. Campbell were asked, but declined, to
lecture.

At the monthly meeting in April it was moved that
a scientific journal should be published. The question
of having a Professor of Astronomy and other sciences
connected therewith was again discussed. Dr. Jenner
was proposed as member by Sir H. Davy and three
others. On April 5, at an adjourned general monthly
meeting, a report from the Committee of Mathematics,
and Mechanics was read and referred to the managers.
as proper to be printed.

On April 20 the first report of the visitors since the
passing of the Act of Parliament was made.

They say ' only fifteen proprietors withdrew, and re-
ceived compensation amounting to 630£. 12s. 6d. The*
rest remained with the enlarged view of rendering the
establishment more eminently what it was designed
to be — a great national laboratory and theatre for the
improvement and promulgation of science in all its
branches.'

' Five per cent, only of the intended loan was re-
quired.'

The Committee closed their report by congratulating
their brother members on the promotion, progress, and
diffusion of science, particularly of chemical discovery,

304 THE EAELY HISTORY OF [CHAP V.

owing to the experiments carried on and the lectures
delivered at the Koyal Institution. ' And they hope,
from the energetic spirit of its members, that it will
continue to nourish and tend in its progress to improve
arts and manufactures, increase the resources, and
exalt the scientific glory of the country.'

On May 6, at the monthly meeting, a professorship
of astronomy was established, but no appointment was
made. Three fresh committees of twenty-five members
each were formed. The resolution for publishing
journals was carried, but no journals were published.

On June 8 the election of chairmen and secretaries
to the committees was reported to the members.

In 1812 a great change was about to come over the
Eoyal Institution. Sir Humphry Davy, by his splendid
discoveries, had made the Institution famous, and, by
his attractive lectures, had brought it most material
support. How little it could afford to lose his help
is seen by the balance to December 31, 1811. This was
only Zl. 9s. lid. Early in 1812 a committee was
formed for the publication of a journal, and in April
Mr. Wyatt presented a plan for a proposed new theatre.
Davy was married on April 1 1 ; the day previous he gave
his last lecture. The new theatre was no longer needed.

On May 11 Mr. Hatchett reported ' that Sir H. Davy,
though he cannot pledge himself to deliver lectures,
will be willing to accept the offices of Professor of
Chemistry and Director of the Laboratory and Mineral-
ogical Collection without salary.' It was immediately
resolved ' that the managers hear with great regret
the notification which they have just received that Sir

1812.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 3.05

Humphry Davy cannot pledge himself to continue the
lectures which he has been accustomed to deliver with*
so much honour to the Institution and advantage to
the public ; but, at the same time, they congratulate
themselves on the liberal offer which Sir Humphry
Davy has made to superintend the chemical depart-
ment, and to assist and advise any lecturer the mana-
gers may be pleased to appoint.' The managers
immediately appointed him Director of the Laboratory
and Mineralogical Collection, and expressed their high
sense of his past services, gave him their thanks,
and ordered a special general meeting to be called to
nominate him Professor of Chemistry. He was elected
Professor of Chemistry on June 1. On the same day
twenty-five members were also elected on each of the
committees.

A quarrel in the Institution must here be men-
tioned, because it shows that the changed circum-
stances of Davy led to the engagement of Faraday.
The apparatus and models of the Institution had been
under Davy's care; they were now placed under the
care of Mr. Pepys, and he was made Honorary In-
spector of the Models and Apparatus, and Mr. Newman,
the instrument maker, was put under him. Soon after
the managers ordered that William Payne, originally
the laboratory boy, should be employed in cleaning
and repairing the apparatus in conjunction with Mr.
Xewman.

In December Dr. Smith was appointed to lecture on
Botany ; Dr. Eoget on Comparative Anatomy ; T. Camp-
bell on Poetry ; Mr. Brande on Chemical Philosophy ;

306 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. V.

Rev. J. Powell on Natural Philosophy ; Mr. Thompson
on Sculpture.

Before the lectures began in 1813 Mr. Edmund
Davy, chemical assistant in the laboratory, resigned ;
and, at the beginning of the year, Payne's salary was
increased to 25s. weekly. He had had a room in the
house for nearly six months. On the increase of his
salary his duties were thus laid down by the managers,
and five weeks afterwards they became the duties of
Mr. Faraday : ' To attend and assist the lecturers and
professors in preparing for and during lectures. Where
any instruments or apparatus may be required, to at-
tend to their careful removal from the model room and
laboratory to the lecture room, and to clean and replace
them after being used, reporting to the managers such
accidents as shall require repair, a constant diary being
kept by him for that purpose. That in one day in each
week he be employed in keeping clean the models
in the repository, and that all the instruments in
the glass cases be cleaned and dusted at least once
within a month.'

Towards the end of February Mr. Harris, the
Librarian and Superintendent of the House, reported to
the managers ' that, hearing a great noise one evening
in the lecture room, he went to see the cause of it.
He found Mr. Payne and Mr. Newman at high words,
and Mr. Newman complained of having been struck
by Payne for representing to him his neglect of duty
in being absent when he should have attended on Mr.
Brande.' The managers immediately resolved that
Mr. Payne should be dismissed from the Royal Insti-

1813.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 307

tution, and that a gratuity of Wl. should be paid him
in consideration of his long services. He had come
as a boy to the Institution before November 1803.

At the following meeting (March 1) Sir Humphry
Davy 'had the honour to inform the managers that
he had found Michael Faraday,' and the managers
engaged him and resolved ' that the clerk furnish him
with a copy of the order relating to his duties accord-
ingly.'

In March 1813 the chairman of the Committee of
Chemistry having through Sir H. Davy expressed a
desire that an open committee of chemistry should be
held in the ensuing week, the managers resolved that
' a committee of chemistry, open to all members and
gentlemen personally introduced by members, should
be held in the theatre of the Institution on Wednesday,
March 31, at three o'clock, when the Professor of
Chemistry will demonstrate a new series of facts on the
fluoric principle ' (fluorine).

At the general meeting of members on April 5 Sir
Humphry Davy begged leave to resign his situation
of Professor of Chemistry. ' He by no means wished
to give up his connection with the Eoyal Institution,
as he should ever be happy to communicate his re-
searches in the first instance to the Institution in the
manner he did in the presence of the members last Wed-
nesday, and to do all in his power to promote the interest
and success of this Institution.' Sir H. Davy having re-
tired, Earl Spencer moved 'that the thanks of this
meeting be returned to Sir Humphry Davy for the ines-
timable services rendered by him to the Royal Institu-

x 2

308 THE EAELY HISTOKY OF [CHAP. V.

tion.' The motion was seconded by the Earl of Darnley
and agreed to unanimously. Earl Spencer further moved
' that, in order more strongly to mark the high sense of
this meeting of the merits of Sir Humphry Davy, he
be elected Honorary Professor of Chemistry.' The Earl
of Winchester, the President of the Royal Institution,
was requested to sign these resolutions and to convey
them to Sir Humphry Davy, and Mr. Brande was
elected to the professorship of chemistry.

At the end of June the two rooms that had been
occupied by Sir Humphry Davy were ordered to be
prepared for Mr. Brande. A few months later he was
appointed Superintendent of the House, and was allowed
to transfer his chemical class of students of medicine
to the laboratory.

On October 4 Sir H. Davy reported to the managers
that 'Michael Faraday had expressed a wish to ac-
company him on his scientific travels, but that he
would not engage Mr. Faraday if the Professor of
Chemistry considered his services as at all essential to
the Institution, or if the managers had the slightest
objection to the measure.' Mr. Brande reported that
6 arrangements could be made to prevent Mr. Faraday's
resignation being felt, and that, as he had shown con-
siderable diligence and attention in cleaning and ar-
ranging the mineral collection, he recommended his
services to the managers' attention, as this was not his
immediate duty.'

The managers permitted Mr. Faraday to resign his
situation, and ordered that he should be paid a month's
wages on the day of his departure.

1814-20.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 309

The assistant porter was engaged as assistant in
the laboratory on the same terms as Michael Faraday.

This year Campbell again lectured on Poetry, and
Southey and Moore declined to lecture. Flaxman
gave two lectures gratuitously, and was elected a life
subscriber. Two o'clock was tried as the lecture hour,
but a change was soon made back to three as heretofore.

In 1814, during the absence of Sir H. Davy, the
Institution did little for science, but, though poor, it
strove to be fashionable. On May 23 it gave ' a cold
collation ' to the Grand Duchess of Oldenburgh, for
which Grunter, of Berkeley Square, was paid by contract
twenty guineas. The funds of the Institution were by
no means nourishing; the balance in favour of the
Institution on the accounts of 1813 was 66L, but many
bills were paid out of the ' benefactions to the fund for
discharging the debts and for providing for the future
support of the Institution.' A list of the benefactors
was ordered to be sent round to the members and
subscribers on the two last Saturdays in June.

For the promotion of science the three committees
(1) on chemistry and geology, (2) on general science
and literature, and (3) on mathematics and mechanics
were requested by the managers to meet and to elect
each two chairmen and a secretary.

In 1815, in February, Mr. Babbage began a course
of lectures on Astronomy.

On May 15 Sir Humphry Davy was present at the
meeting of managers. That day Mr. Brande stated that
he wanted assistance in the laboratory, and that Michael
Faraday was ' willing to resume his situation.' The

310 THE EAKLY HISTOKY OF [CHAP. V.

managers resolved that the assistant porter should be
discharged, and that the former assistant porter should
take his place, and ' that Michael Faraday be engaged
as assistant in the laboratory and mineralogical collec-
tion and superintendent of the apparatus at a salary of
30s. a week, and that he be accommodated with apart-
ments in the house under the superintendence of Mr.
Brande.'

The rooms given to him were 25 and 26, the two
furthest on the attic floor. The sister of the librarian,
Mr. Harris, occupied the smallest of these (26), and
there were difficulties about any other arrangement, so
that a few weeks afterwards the librarian asked per-
mission to reside out of the house.

In 1816 the managers decided that, in consideration
of the additional labour caused to Michael Faraday by
the lectures of Mr. Brande in the laboratory, his salary
should be raised to WOl. per annum. The pecuniary dif-
ficulties of the Institution were increasing, and Sir
Humphry Davy, Mr. Auriol, and Mr. Solly were ap-
pointed as a sub-committee to examine the expendi-
ture. In 1817 the debts increased.

In 1818 the bill for coals in 1816 was paid. Mr.
Fuller, who ultimately founded the Fullerian Professor-
ships, allowed one thousand pounds, which he had
invested for the benefit of the Institution, to be used
for the payment of debts. In the autumn Sir Thomas
Bernard died.

In 1819 Mr. Brande applied to the board, on the
part of Mr. Faraday, for permission to occupy the two
southernmost front rooms on the second floor.

1821-4.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 311

In 1820 an anniversary dinner was held on May 8
at Willis's Eooms. The following year Mr. Faraday
was given the use of two more rooms on the second
floor, and appointed Superintendent of the House and
Laboratory in the absence of Mr. Brande.

In 1822 the treasurer had to advance 1,000£. to pay
the bills, and in 1823 a loan of 4,000£. without interest
was raised amongst the members.

In 1824 Faraday first lectured at the Eoyal Institu-
tion, and was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society for
his discoveries made in the laboratory.

From 1815 the life of Faraday and the history of
the Eoyal Institution became inseparable, and from
1824 it was kept alive by his unselfish devotion to its
welfare.

512 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

CHAPTEE VI.

LIFE OF DAVY.
1778 to 1829.

THE history of thirteen years of the life of Davy, like
that of fifty of the life of Faraday, is closely inter-
woven with the history of the Eoyal Institution.
Their lives were the life of the place ; and hence, to
complete the history of the Institution to the time of
Faraday, a sketch of Davy and his scientific life must
be given here.

Humphry Davy was born on December 17, 1778, at
Penzance. He was the son of a wood carver and was
apprenticed to a surgeon.

Mr. Davies Gilbert heard that the boy was fond of
making chemical experiments. He encouraged him
and spoke of him to Dr. Beddoes, Professor of Greology
and Chemistry at Oxford, who happened to be at work
upon the ' Greology of Cornwall.'

Afterwards Dr. Beddoes established the Pneumatic
Institution at Clifton, and he required an assistant to
prepare the gases and superintend the Pneumatic
Hospital, and Mr. Gilbert proposed Davy. He went
on October 2, 1798, 'to superintend experiments on
the medical powers of factitious airs or gases.'

1798-9. JET. 20-1.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 313

Davy thus wrote to Mr. Davies Gilbert :

November 12, 1798.

I have purposely delayed writing until I could communi-
cate to you some intelligence of importance concerning
the new Pneumatic Institution. The speedy execution of
the plan will, I think, interest you both as a subscriber and
a friend to science and mankind. The present subscription
is, we suppose, nearly adequate to the purpose of investigat-
ing the medicinal powers of factitious airs. It still con-
tinues to increase, and we may hope for the ability of
pursuing the investigation to its fall extent. We are
negotiating for a house in Downe Square, the proximity of
which to Bristol and its general situation and advantages
render it very suitable for the purpose. The funds will, I
suppose, enable us to provide for eight or ten patients in
the Hospital, and for as many out of it as we can procure.

We shall try the gases in every possible way.

"We are printing in Bristol the first volume of the ' West
Country Collection,' which will, I suppose, be out the
beginning of January.

Believe me, dear Sir, with affection and respect, truly
yours,

HUMPHRY DAVY.

The first two hundred pages of this collection, consti-
tuting very nearly half the volume, consist of essays of
Davy on 4 Heat, Light, and the Combinations of Light,'
on 'Phos- Oxygen or Oxygen and its Combinations,'
and on the ' Theory of Eespiration.'

He wrote on February 22, 1799, to Davies Gilbert :

DEAR FRIEND, — (For I love you too well to call you by a
more ceremonious name), I have delayed writing to you,

314 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

expecting that some of our experiments would produce
results worthy of communication.

I am now as much convinced of the non-existence of
caloric as I am of the existence of light.

Our laboratory in the Pneumatic Institution is nearly
finished.

I hope the gaseous oxide of azote will prove to be a
specific stimulus for the absorbents.

I know of little general scientific news. Berthollet makes
sulphuretted hydrogen out to be an acid.

I remain, with affection and respect, yours,

HUMPHRY DAVY.

Again on April 10, 1799, to Mr. Gilbert, writing of
light and heat, he said :

The supposition of active powers common to all matter
from the different modifications of which all the phenomena
of its changes result, appears to me more reasonable than
the assumption of certain imaginary fluids, alone endowed
with active powers, and bearing the same relation to com-
mon matter as the vulgar philosophy supposes spirit to
bear to matter.

It is only by forming theories, and then comparing them
with facts, that we can hope to discover the true system of
nature.

I made a discovery yesterday which proves how necessary
it is to repeat experiments. The gaseous oxide of azote is
perfectly respirable when pure. It is never deleterious
but when it contains nitrous gas. I have found a mode of
obtaining it pure, and I breathed it to-day in the presence of
Dr. Beddoes and some others — sixteen quarts of it for near
seven minutes. It appears to support life longer than even
oxygen gas, and absolutely intoxicated me. Pure oxygen
gas produced no alteration in my pulse nor any other
material effect, whereas this gas raised my pulse upwards

1799-1800. Mi. 21-2.] PEOFESSOR DAVY. 315

of twenty strokes, made me dance about the laboratory as a
madman, and has kept my spirits in a glow ever since.

Yours, with affection and respect,

HUMPHRY DAVY.

Dr. Paris says Coleridge gave him this account of
of the caution of Davy at this time :

Dr. Beddoes thought nitrous oxide gas would cure para-
lysis. A patient was to be treated by Davy, He first took
the temperature by means of a small thermometer placed
under the tongue. The patient immediately declared that
he felt better. The opportunity was too tempting to be
lost. Davy cast an intelligent glance at Mr. Coleridge, and
desired the patient to renew his visit on the following day,
when the same ceremony was again performed, and repeated
every succeeding day for a fortnight, the patient gradually
improving during that period, when he was dismissed as
cured, no other application having been used than that of
the thermometer.

Southey thus wrote his opinion and that of Cole-
ridge regarding Davy at this time : ' He is a marvel-
lous young man, whose talents I can only wonder at/

Later he wrote :

My residence at Westbury was one of the happiest
portions of my life. . . . J was in habits of the most
frequent and intimate intercourse with Davy, then in the
flower and freshness of his youth. We were within an
easy walk of each other over some of the most beautiful
ground in that beautiful part of England. When I went
to the Pneumatic Institution he had to tell me of some new
experiment or discovery and of the views which it opened
for him, and when he came to Westbury there was a fresh
portion of Madoc for his hearing.

316 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

On July 3, 1800, Davy wrote from Bristol to Gilbert :

We have been repeating the galvanic experiments with
success. Nicholson, by means of a hundred pieces of silver
and zinc, has procured a visible spark. Cruickshank has
revived oxidated metals in solution by means of the nascent
hydrogen produced from the decomposition of water by the
shock, and both he and Carlisle have absolutely resolved
water into oxygen and hydrogen by means of it, making
use of silver and platina wires. An immense field of
investigation seems opened by this discovery; may it be
pursued so as to acquaint us with some of the laws of
life!

You have undoubtedly heard of Hersohel's discovery
concerning the production of heat by invisible rays
emitted from the sun ?

Coleridge is gone to reside in Cumberland.

Yours, with sincere affection,

HUMPHEY DAVY.

On October 20, 1800, again he wrote to Gilbert:

In pursuing experiments on galvanism during the last
two months I have met with unexpected and unhoped-for
success. Some of the new facts on this subject promise to
afford instruments capable of destroying the mysterious veil
which nature has thrown over the operation and properties
of ethereal fluids.

Galvanism I have found, by numerous experiments, to be
a process purely chemical.

I remain, with sincere respect and affection, yours,

HUMPHEY DAVY.

During this year he published a volume entitled
'Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly con-
cerning Nitrous Oxide and its Kespiration,'

1801. JET. 23.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 317

In the spring of 1800 Mr. Underwood, a geologist
and artist, had become a proprietor of the Royal
Institution. He had several conversations with Count
Eumford on the subject of Davy's superior talents and
the advantages that would accrue to the Institution
from engaging him as a lecturer. ' The Count called
on me,' Underwood says, ' on January 5, 1801, having
received from the managers of the Institution full
powers to negotiate upon this subject. On this occa-
sion, however, I thought it advisable to introduce the
Count to Mr. James Thompson, as being the more
eligible person to treat in behalf of Davy, not only on
account of his greater intimacy with him, but because,
not being a proprietor, he was unconnected with the in-
terests of the Institution. Mr. Thompson wrote to Davy.
With, his characteristic energy Davy answered in person,
and had several conferences with Count Eumford. The
following letter from Count Eumford to Davy, written
from the Eoyal Institution, is dated February 16, 1801 :

DEAR SIR, — In consequence of the conversations I have
had with you, respecting your engaging in the service of
the Royal Institution of Great Britain, I this day laid the
matter before the managers of the Institution at their
meeting,1 and I have the pleasure to acquaint you that
the proposal I made to them was approved, and the follow-
ing resolution unanimously taken by them : * Resolved, —
That Mr. Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the
Royal Institution in the capacity of Assistant Lecturer in
Chemistry, Director of the Chemical Laboratory, and As-

1 Present, Sir Joseph Banks, Earl of Morton, Count Rumford, and
Richard Clark, Esq.

318 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

sistant Editor of the Journals of the Institution, and that
he be allowed to occupy a room in the house and be fur-
nished with coals and candles, and that he be paid a salary
of 1001. per annum.'

On this occasion I did not neglect to give an account to
the managers of the whole of what passed between us
respecting the situation it was intended you should fill in
the Institution on your engaging in its service, and the
prospects that could with propriety be held out to you of
future advantages, and the managers agreed with me in
thinking that, as you had expressed your willingness to
devote yourself entirely and permanently to the Institution,
it would be right and proper to hold out to you the prospect
of becoming, in the course of two or three years, Professor
of Chemistry in the Institution, with a salary of 300?.
per annum, provided that within that period you shall
have given proofs of your fitness to hold that distinguished
situation.

Although you must ever consider the duties of the offices
you may hold under the Institution as the primary objects
of your care and attention, yet the managers are so far
from being desirous that you should relinquish the private
philosophical investigations in which you have hitherto been
engaged, and by which you have so honourably distinguished
yourself and attracted their attention, that it will afford them
the sincerest pleasure to encourage and assist you in these
laudable pursuits, and give you every facility which the
philosophical apparatus at the Institution can afford to
make new and interesting experiments.

You will naturally consider the Journals of the Institu-
tion as the most proper vehicle for communicating to the
public from time to time short accounts of the progress you
may make in your investigations ; this will, however, by no
means be considered as precluding you in any degree from
presenting to the Royal Society of London, or any other
earned body, philosophical papers or memoirs on such

1801. 2&i. 23.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 319

scientific subjects as may engage your attention, or from
publishing in any other manner the results of your re-
searches.

As you are fully informed with respect to the nature and
objects of the Royal Institution and are acquainted with
the respectable character of those distinguished persons
with whom I have the honour to act in the management of
its concerns, you cannot, I think, entertain the smallest
doubt of their constant protection and of their readiness on
all occasions to do fall justice to the zeal and abilities you
may display in the situation in which they have placed
you.

It is with much esteem and a sincere desire that the
talents which at so early a period of life you discovered
may be cultivated with care, and always employed with
success, that I am, dear Sir, your most obedient Servant,

RUMFORD.

On March 8 Davy wrote to Davies Gilbert :

I cannot think of quitting the Pneumatic Institution
without giving you information of it in a letter ; indeed, I
believe I should have done this some time ago had not the
hurry of business and the fever of emotion produced by the
prospect of novel changes in futurity destroyed to a certain
extent my powers of consistent action.

You, my dear sir, have behaved to me with great kindness,
and the little ability I possess you have very much contri-
buted to develope ; I should therefore accuse myself of in-
gratitude were I to neglect to ask your approbation of the
measures I have adopted with regard to the changje of my
situation and the enlargement of my views in life.

In consequence of an invitation from Count Rumford,
given to me with some proposals relative to the Royal
Institution, I visited London in the middle of February,
where, after several conferences with that gentleman, I was

320 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

invited by the managers of the Royal Institution to become
the director of their laboratory and their assistant professor
of chemistry. At the same time I was assured that, within
the space of two or three seasons, I should be made sole
professor of chemistry, still continuing director of the la-
boratory.

The immediate emolument offered was sufficient for my
wants, and the sole and uncontrolled use of the apparatus in
the Institution for private experiments was to be granted me.

The behaviour of Count Rumford, Sir Joseph Banks,
Mr. Cavendish, and the other principal managers was
liberal and polite, and they promised me any apparatus
that I might need for new experiments.

The time required to be devoted to the services of the
Institution was but short, being limited chiefly to the winter
and spring. The emoluments to be attached to the office
of sole professor of chemistry are great, and, above all, the
situation is permanent and held very honourable.

These motives, joined to the approbation of Dr. Beddoes,
who, with great liberality, has absolved me from my engage-
ments at the Pneumatic Institution, and the strong wishes
of most of my friends in London and Bristol determined
my conduct.

Thus I am quietly to be transferred to London, whilst
my sphere of action is considerably enlarged, and as much
power as I could reasonably expect, or even wish for at my
time of life, secured to me without the obligation of labour-
ing at a profession.

The Royal Institution will, I hope, be of some utility to
society. It has undoubtedly the capability of becoming a
great instrument of moral and intellectual improvement.
Its funds are very great. It has attached to it the feelings
of a great number of people of fashion and property, and
consequently may be the means of employing to useful
purposes money which would otherwise be squandered in
luxury and in the production of unnecessary labour.

1801. &T. 23.] PEOFESSOR DAVY. 321

Count Rumford professes that it will be kept distinct
from party politics. I sincerely wish that such may be
the case, though I fear it. As for myself, I shall become
attached to it, full of hope, with the resolution of employing
all my feeble powers towards promoting its true interests.

I have been pursuing galvanism with labour and some
success ; I have been able to produce galvanic power from
single plates, by effecting on them different oxidating and
deoxidating processes.

After the llth I shall be in town — my direction, Royal
Institution.

I am, my dear Friend, with respect and affection, yours,

HUMPHRY DAVY.

At the meeting of the managers of the Royal Insti-
tution on February 16 (present. Sir J. Banks, Earl
Morton, Count Rumford, and Mr. R. Clark, Chamberlain
of the City of London), it was resolved 'that Mr.
Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the
Royal Institution in the capacities of Assistant Lecturer
in Chemistry, Director of the Laboratory, and Assistant
Editor of the Journals of the Institution ; that he be
allowed to occupy a room in the house, and be fur-
nished with coals and candles ; and that he be paid a
salary of one hundred guineas per annum.'

On March 16 Count Rumford, after reporting that
a room had beeen prepared and furnished, stated that
Mr. Davy had arrived at the Institution on Wednesday,
March 11, and taken possession of his situation.

Davy gave three courses of lectures in the spring of
1801.

His first course consisted of five lectures on the
' New Branch of Philosophy ' — the galvanic phenomena.

T

322 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

His first lecture was on Tuesday evening, April 25.
He began with the history of galvanism, detailed the
successive discoveries, and described the different
methods of accumulating galvanic influence. Polished
plates of different metals and the effect of their lying
together in contact with water and air were exhibited.
6 Air is absolutely necessary to the oxydating process.'
He observed that c it was difficult to prove that hydrogen
was given out in the decomposition of water in this
way, and that it seemed rather probable that alkali
was formed.' He showed the effects of galvanism on
the legs of frogs, and exhibited some interesting ex-
periments on the galvanic effects on the solution of
metals in acids. As a recent discovery of his own he
showed that with one kind of metal only, more powerful
effects may be produced than with two, as heretofore
employed ; but in this case there must be more than
one liquid interposed between the plates. He stated
that copper, for example, and discs of cloth or paste-
board, moistened with diluted nitrous acid and solu-
tions of muriat of soda and sulphuret of potash, and
arranged in the order named (viz. copper, nitrous acid,
muriat of soda, sulphuret of potash, &c.), give much
more sensible shocks than the pile as at first constructed.
The reporter added : ' Sir Joseph Banks, Count Rumford,
and other distinguished philosophers were present.
The audience was highly gratified, and testified their
satisfaction by general applause. Mr. Davy, who ap-
pears to be very young, acquitted himself admirably
well ; from the sparkling intelligence of his eye, his
animated manner, and the tout ensemble we have no
doubt of his attaining a distinguished eminence.'

1801. JET. 23.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 323

The second lecture was given on the 28th, and the
others were to be delivered on the Tuesday and Saturday
evenings till completed. He gave another short course
on Pneumatic Chemistry. ' The lectures were extremely
ingenious and excited considerable attention.' The
concluding lecture was on June 20, on Respiration, and
after the lecture an opportunity was given to such as
wished it to breathe some of the nitrous oxide. The
reporter said, 'Mr. Grosvenor Bedford, Mr. Stodart, and
Mr. Underwood breathed the gas, and the effects it
produced, and especially on the last, were truly wonder-
ful. Mr. Underwood experienced so much pleasure from
breathing it that he lost all sense of everything else, and
the breathing bag could only be taken from him at
last by force.' ' The irresistible tendency to muscular
action produced by this gas was such as cannot be
described. It must be witnessed to be conceived.'

6 Professor Pictet, of Geneva, who is now on a visit in
this country, Count Rumford, and other philosophers
of eminence were present, and seemed not a little
gratified with the exhibition of the gas.' l

6 Another galvanic course was also given by Mr. Davy,
which, being delivered in the fore part of the day, was
attended not only by men of science, but by numbers
of people of rank and fashion, a proof that the Insti-
tution bids fair to promote a taste for philosophical
pursuits among those whose wealth has but too often

1 The substance of these lectures was published in the fourth num-
ber of the Journals-of the Royal Institution, p. 49, edited by Dr. Young.
The paper is called Outlines of a View of Galvanism. It is dated
September 1801.

Y 2

324 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

fostered the idea that such subjects were beneath the
notice of independence.'

At a meeting of managers, held on June 1, it was
resolved 'that Mr. Humphry Davy, Director of the
Chemical Laboratory and Assistant Lecturer in Chemis-
try, since he has been employed at the Institution, has
given satisfactory proofs of his talents as a lecturer, and
also it was resolved that he be appointed and' in future
denominated Lecturer on Chemistry at the Koyal
Institution, instead of continuing to occupy the place
of Assistant Lecturer, which he has hitherto filled.'

On June 18 his first paper was read at the Royal
Society. It was an account of some galvanic combina-
tions formed by an arrangement of single metallic
plates and fluids analogous to the galvanic apparatus
of M. Volta.

On June 29 a permanent committee for the general
purposes of chemical investigation and analysis was
appointed at the Eoyal Institution, and the Minutes
say that Mr. Davy was instructed to prepare himself
to give in the month of December next a course of
lectures on the Philosophical and Chemical Principles of
the Art of Dyeing, or on the Arts of Staining or Printing
with Colours, Woollen, Linen, and Cotton (roods. < That
Mr. Davy have permission to absent himself during the
months of July, August, and September for the purpose
of making himself more particularly acquainted with
the practical part of the business of tanning.'

Davy first went to Bristol, and thence he wrote to
his friend Mr. Underwood to join him for a tour in
Cornwall.

1801. ^!T. 23.] PEOFESSOE DAVY. 325

MY DEAR UNDERWOOD, — That part of Almighty God
which resides in the rocks and woods, in the blue and
tranquil sea, in the clouds and sunbeams of the sky, is
calling upon thee with a loud voice ; religiously obey its
commands, and come and worship with me on the ancient
altars of Cornwall.

I shall leave Bristol on Thursday next, possibly before ;
so that by this day week I shall probably be at Penzance.
Ten days or a fortnight after I shall expect to see yon, and
to rejoice with you. We will admire together the wonders
of God — rocks and the sea, dead hills and living hills
covered with verdure. Amen.

Write to me immediately, and say when yon will come.
Direct, H. Davy, Penzance. Farewell, being of energy.
Yours with unfeigned affection,

H. DAVY.

On November 14 he wrote to Davies Gilbert from
the Eoyal Institution :

I didn't arrive in London until the 20th of September.
On my arrival I found that Count Rumford had altered
his plans of absence, and had left London on that very
day for the Continent, purposing to return in about two
months. He is now at Paris, and in about a fortnight we
expect him here.

I yesterday ascertained rather an important fact ; namely,
that a galvanic battery may be constructed without any
metallic substance. By means of ten pieces of well-burnt
charcoal, nitrous acid, and water, arranged alternately in
wine-glasses, I produced all the effects usually obtained
from zinc, silver, and water.

The Bakerian lecture ' by Dr. Young, our Lecturer on
Natural Philosophy, is now reading before the Royal

1 This was the first memoir on the Theory of Light and Colours,
read Nov. 12, 1801.

326 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

Society. He attempts to revive the doctrine of Huygens
and Euler, that light depends upon undulations of an
ethereal medium. His proofs (i.e. his presumptive proofs) are
drawn from some strong and curious analogies he has dis-
covered between light and sound.

You should fix your permanent residence in London,
where alone you can do what you ought — instruct and
delight numbers of improved men. I am, my Friend, yours
with unfeigned esteem and respect,

HUMPHRY DAVY.

On January 5, 1802, a syllabus of Davy's course of
lectures on Chemistry was printed at the press of the
Eoyal Institution. He wrote for it the following adver-
tisement :

It is generally admitted that the best method of teaching
the sciences is to begin with simple facts, and gradually to
proceed from them to the more complicated phenomena.

In the following pages, which contain the outlines of a
course of lectures on Chemistry, an attempt has been made
to employ such a method. Hence the abstruse doctrines
concerning the imponderable fluids have been separated
from the history of simple chemical action, and the applica-
tions of the science from the science itself. The classification
of substances adopted is founded rather upon facts than
analogies, and in consequence certain bodies have been
placed among the simple principles which, from their resem-
blance to other bodies of known composition, have been
generally arranged in the class of compounds. This is an
imperfection, but on the principles assumed it could not
easily be avoided. And it will be fortunate for the author
if a discerning public should not discover many more im-
portant imperfections.

Part I. 'The Chemistry of Ponderable Substances.'

Part II. ' The Chemistry of Imponderable Substances.'

1802. JET. 24.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 327

Div. 1, of Heat or Caloric ; Div. 2, of Light ; Div. 3, of the
Electric Influence ; Div. 4, of Galvanism.

Part III. « The Chemistry of the Arts.' Div. 1, of Agri-
culture ; Div. 2, of Tanning ; Div. 3, of Bleaching ; Div. 4,
of Dyeing ; Div. 5, of Metallurgy ; Div. 6, of the Manu-
factory of Glass and Porcelain ; Div. 7, of the Preparation
of Food and Drink ; Div. 8, of the Management of Heat and
Light Artificially Produced.

He gave his introductory lecture to the morning
course on General Chemistry on Thursday, January 21,
and to the evening course on Outlines of Chemical
Science and Chemistry of the Arts on February 9. The
allusion 'to the Eoyal Institution with which he ended
his first lecture was full of poetry.

4 In reasoning concerning the future hopes of the
human species we may look forward with confidence to
a state of society in which the different orders and classes
of men will contribute more effectually to the support
of each other than they have hitherto done. This
state, indeed, seems to be approaching fast ; for, in con-
sequence of the multiplication of the means of instruc-
tion, the man of science and the manufacturer are daily
becoming more assimilated to each other.

' The arts and sciences also are in high degree
patronised by the rich and privileged orders.

' The unequal division of property and of labour, the
differences of rank and condition amongst mankind, are
the sources of power in civilised life — its moving
causes and even its very soul. In considering and
hoping that the human species is capable of becoming
more enlightened and more happy we can only expect

328 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

that the different parts of the great whole of society
should be intimately united together by means of
knowledge and the useful arts, that they should act as the
children of one great parent with one determinate end,
so that no power may be rendered useless, no exertions
thrown away.

* In this view we do not look to distant ages or amuse
ourselves with brilliant though delusive dreams con-
cerning the infinite improvability of man, the annihi-
lation of labour, disease, and even death ; but we
reason by analogy from simple facts ; we consider only
a state of human progression arising out of its present
condition ; we look for a time that we may reasonably

expect, FOR A BRIGHT DAT OF WHICH WE ALREADY
BEHOLD THE DAWN.'

The following day Sir H. Englefield wrote to Mr.
Underwood from Tilney Street, 'Davy, covered with
glory, dines with me at five to-day. If you could meet
him it would give me great pleasure.'

At this dinner Sir Henry wrote a request to Davy to
print his lecture.

A friend of Davy's some years afterwards thus
mentioned the success of his lectures to Dr. Paris :

6 The sensation created by his lectures at the Insti-
tution and the enthusiastic admiration which they
obtained is at this period scarcely to be imagined.
Men of the first rank and talent, the literary and the
scientific, the practical and the theoretical, blue-
stockings and women of fashion, the old and the young,
all crowded, eagerly crowded, the lecture room. His
youth, his simplicity, his natural eloquence, his

1802. .Ex. 24.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 329

chemical knowledge, his happy illustrations and well-
conducted experiments excited universal attention and
unbounded applause.

6 Compliments, invitations, and presents were
showered upon him in abundance from all quarters. His
society was courted by all, and all appeared proud
of his acquaintance.'

On February 5 he again dined with Sir H. Englefield
at his house at Blackheath. Eighteen long years
afterwards, looking back through Davy's career, Sir H.
Engleneld said of this evening, ' It was the last flash of
expiring nature.'

On May 31, 1802, at the managers' meeting, it was
resolved that Mr. Humphry Davy be for the future
styled Professor of Chemistry to the Eoyal Institution.
In July 4 he respectfully requested leave of the managers
that he may be permitted to spend a few weeks
during the summer in the country. It is not amuse-
ment alone that he hopes to gain during his short
absence, but he believes that he may be able to collect
some information that may be useful in the lectures to
be given on Agriculture in the spring, and which may
be in other ways connected with the views of the
Institution. He will take care that his absence shall
not interfere with the regular publication of the
Journals, and he will never be so far from town but
that he can speedily return whenever his presence may
be necessary.'

He wrote to Davies Gilbert, October 26 :

DEAR FRIEND, — The anxieties and hopes connected with
a new occupation have prevented me from paying sufficient

330 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

attention even to the common duties and affections of life.
. . . Your correspondence is to me a real source of pleasure,
and, believe me, I would suffer no opportunity to escape of
making it more frequent and regular.

My labours in the theatre of the Royal Institution have
been more successful than I could have hoped from the
nature of them. In lectures the effect produced upon the
mind is generally transitory ; for the most part they amuse
rather than instruct, and stimulate to inquiry rather than
give information. My audience has often amounted to four
or five hundred and upwards, and amongst them some
promise to become permanently attached to chemistry.
This science is much the fashion of the day.

I mentioned to you in a former letter the great powers
of galvanism in effecting the combustion of metals. I have
lately had constructed for the laboratory of the Institution
a battery of immense size ; it consists of four hundred plates
of five inches in diameter and forty of a foot in diameter.

I am now examining the agencies of it upon certain
substances that have not as yet been decomposed.

Have you seen the theory of my colleague, Dr. Young, on
the undulations of an ethereal medium as the cause of
light ? It is not likely to be a popular hypothesis after
what has been said by Newton concerning it. He would
be very much flattered if you could offer any observations
upon it, whether for or against it.

We are publishing at the Royal Institution a ' Journal
of Science,' which contains chiefly abridged accounts of
what is going on in different parts of Europe, with some
original papers ; and, in hopes that its diffusion may become
more general, we have fixed its price at one shilling.

I am beginning to think of my course of lectures for the
winter. In addition to the common course of the Institu-
tion, I have to deliver a few lectures on Vegetable Sub-

1803. JEx. 25.] PEOFESSOE DAVY. 331

stances, and on the Connexion of Chemistry with Vegetable
Physiology, before the Board of Agriculture.

I am, dear Sir, with affection and respect, yours,

H. DAVY.

In April Davy joined Dr. Young in editing the
eighth number of the Journal. Count Rumford had
edited the three first and Dr. Young the four follow-
ing numbers. In the third number Davy had given
an account of a new eudiometer, and in the fourth
outlines of a view of galvanism. In another number
he gave an account of a method of copying paintings
upon glass, and of making profiles by the agency of
light upon nitrate of silver, invented by T. Wedgwood,
Esq. He says, ' Nothing but a method of preventing
the unshaded parts of the delineation from being
coloured by exposure to the day is wanting to render
the process as useful as it is elegant.'

On February 24, 1803, an account of some experi-
ments and observations on the constituent parts of
certain astringent vegetables, and on their operation in
tanning, was read by Davy at the Royal Society.

He was proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society
on April 20, and elected on November 17.

A letter from Coleridge to Mr. Purkis, dated Feb-
ruary 17, 1803, from Nether Stowey, thus speaks of
Davy at this time :

I rejoice in Davy's progress. There are three suns
recorded in Scripture — Joshua's, that stood still ; Hezekiah's,
that went backward ; and David's, that went forth and
hastened on his course like a bridegroom from his chamber,
our friend prove the latter ! It is a melancholy thing

332 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

to see a man, like the sun in the close of the Lapland sum-
mer, meridional in his horizon, or like wheat in a rainy
season, that shoots up well in the stalk, but does not kern.
As I have hoped and do hope more proudly of Davy than
of any other man, and as he has been endeared to me more
than any other man by the being a thing of hope to me
(more, far more, than myself to my own self in my most
genial moments), so of course my disappointment would
be proportionably severe. It were a falsehood if I said that
I think his present situation most calculated of all others to
foster either his genius or the clearness and uncorruptness
of his opinions and moral feelings. I see two serpents at
the cradle of his genius — dissipation with a perpetual in-
crease of acquaintances and the constant presence of
inferiors and devotees, with that too great facility of attain-
ing admiration which degrades ambition into vanity ; but
the Hercules will strangle both the reptile monsters. I
have thought it possible to exert talents with perseverance,
and to attain true greatness wholly pure even from the
impulses of ambition, but on this subject Davy and I always
differed. . . My book is not, strictly speaking, metaphysical,
but historical. It, perhaps, will merit the title of a history
of metaphysics in England, from Lord Bacon to Mr. Hume
inclusive. I confine myself to facts in every part of the
work, excepting that which treats of Mr. Hume ; him I
have assuredly besprinkled copiously from the fountains of
bitterness and contempt. As to this and the other works
which you have mentioned, ' have patience, lord, and I will
pay thee all.'

Mr. T. Wedgwood goes to Italy in the first days of May.
Whether I accompany him is uncertain ; he is apprehensive
that my health may incapacitate me. If I do not go with
him, I shall go off myself in the first week of April if
possible.

Davy bimself wrote, on May 5, to bis friend Mr.
Thomas Poole :

1803. JET. 25.] PROFESSOE DAVY. 333

Be not alarmed, my dear friend, as to the effect of
worldly society on my mind. The age of danger has passed
away ; there are in the intellectual being of all men per-
manent elements, certain habits and passions that cannot
change. I am a lover of nature with an ungratified imagi-
nation ; I shall continue to search for untasted charms, for
hidden beauties.

My real, my waking existence is amongst the objects of
scientific research; common amusements and enjoyments
are necessary to me only as dreams to interrupt the flow of
thoughts too nearly analogous to enlighten and to vivify.
Coleridge has left London for Keswick. During his stay in
town I saw him seldomer than usual ; when I did see him
it was generally in the midst of large companies, where he
is the image of power and activity. His eloquence is un-
impaired ; perhaps it is softer and stronger. His will is
probably less than ever commensurate with his ability.
Brilliant images of greatness float upon his mind like the
images of the morning clouds upon the waters : their forms
are changed by the motions of the waves, they are agitated
by every breeze, and modified by every sunbeam. He
talked in the course of one hour of beginning three works,
and he recited the poem of ' Christabel ' unfinished and as
I had before heard it. What talent does he not waste
in forming visions sublime, but unconnected with the real
world ! I have looked to his efforts as the efforts of a
creating being, but as yet he has not even laid the founda-
tion for the new world of intellectual forms.

When my agricultural lectures are finished I propose to
visit Paris, and perhaps Geneva.

On May 10 the first lecture was given before the
Board of Agriculture, and five others on succeeding
Fridays and Tuesdays. They were corrected and
published in 1813.

334 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

Later he wrote again to Mr. Poole :

Often, very often, in the midst of the tumults of the
multitude in this great city has my spirit turned in quiet-
ness and solitude towards you.

I hope soon to see you in Somersetshire, where we may
worship nature and the Spirit that dwells in nature in your
green fields and under your tranquil sky. My communica-
tions with you, and Coleridge, and Southey, and other
ornaments of the great existing Being have excited feelings
which cheer me in the apathy of London, and which make
me love human nature.

In December 1803 Dr. Dalton gave a course of
lectures at the Royal Institution. Early in January
he wrote to a friend from the Eoyal Institution :

I was introduced to Mr. Davy, who has rooms adjoining
mine ; he is a very agreeable and intelligent young man,
and we have interesting conversations in the evening ; the
principal failing in his character as a philosopher is that he
does not smoke. Mr. Davy advised me to labour at my first
lecture ; he told me the people here would be inclined to
form their opinion from it. Accordingly I resolved to write
my first lecture wholly ; to do nothing, but to tell them what
I would do and enlarge upon the importance and utility of
science. I studied and wrote for near two days, then
calculated to a minute how long it would take me reading,
endeavouring to. make my discourse about fifty minutes. The
evening before the lecture Davy and I went into the theatre ;
he made me read the whole of it, and he went into the
farthest corner. Then he read it, and I was the audience.
We criticised each other's method. Next day I read it to an
audience of about 150 or 200 people, which was more than
were expected. They gave a very general plaudit at the
conclusion, and several came up to compliment me upon
the excellence of the introduction. Since that I have

1804. M-s. 26.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 335

scarcely written anything; all has been experiment and
verbal explanation. In general my experiments have
uniformly succeeded, and I have never once faltered in the
elucidation of them ; in fact, I can now enter the lecture
room with as little emotion nearly as I can smoke a pipe
with you on Sunday or Wednesday evening.

Before Coleridge left for Malta Davy wrote to Mm :

Twelve o'clock, Monday (probably March 1804).

MY DEAR COLEKIDGE, — My mind is disturbed and my
body harassed by many labours, yet I cannot suffer you to
depart without endeavouring to express to you some of
the unbroken higher feelings of my spirit, which have you
at once as their cause and object.

Years have passed away since we first met, and your
presence, and recollections with regard to you have afforded
me continued sources of enjoyment.

Some of the better feelings of my nature have been
elevated by your converse, and thoughts which you have
nursed have been to me an eternal source of consolation.

In whatever part of the world you are you will often live
with me, not as a fleeting idea, but as a recollection pos-
sessed of creative energy, as an imagination winged with
fire, inspiring and rejoicing.

You must not live much longer without giving to all
men the proof of power which those who know you feel in
admiration. Perhaps, at a distance from the applauding
and censuring murmurs of the world, you will be best able
to execute those great works which are justly expected from
you ; you are to be the historian of the philosophy of feel-
ing. Do not in any way dissipate your noble nature. Do
not give up your birthright. May you soon recover perfect
health, the health of strength and happiness ! may you
soon return to us confirmed in all the powers essential to
the exertion of genius ! You were born for your country, and
your native land must be the scene of your activity. I
shall expect the time when your spirit, bursting through

336 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

the clouds of ill-health, will appear to all men, not as an
uncertain and brilliant flame, but as a fair and permanent
light, fixed, though constantly in motion, as a sun which
gives its fire not only to its attendant planets, but which
sends beams from all its parts into all worlds.

May blessings attend you, my dear friend ! Do not forget
me ; we live for different ends and with different habits
and pursuits, but our feelings with regard to each other
have, I believe, never altered. They must continue ; they
can have no natural death. I trust they can never be
destroyed by fortune, chance, or accident.

H. DAVY.

In October Davy thus wrote to a friend on the
death of Gregory Watt, the son of James Watt :

We are deceived, my dear Clayfield, if we suppose that
the human being who has formed himself for action, but
who has been unable to act, is lost in the mass of being.
There is some arrangement of things which we can never
comprehend, but in which his faculties will be applied.

The caterpillar, in being converted into an inert scaly
mass, does not appear to be fitting itself for an inhabitant of
the air, and can have no consciousness of the brilliancy of
its future being. We are masters of the earth, but perhaps
we are the slaves of some great but unknown beings. The
fly that we crush with our finger or feed with our viands,
has no knowledge of man and no consciousness of his
superiority. We suppose that we are acquainted with
matter and with all its elements, and yet we cannot even
guess at the cause of electricity or explain the laws of the
formation of the stones which fall from meteors.

There may be beings — thinking beings — near us, sur-
rounding us, which we do not perceive, which we can never
imagine. We know very little, but, in my opinion, we
know enough to hope for the immortality — the individual
immortality — of the better part of man.

1805. &T. 27.] PROFESSOK DAVY. 337

I have been led into all this speculation, which you may
well think wild, in reflecting upon the fate of Gregory ; my
feeling has given erring wings to my mind. He was a
noble fellow and would have been a great man.

His letters to me only three or four months ago were full
of spirit, and spoke not of any infirmity of body, but of an
increasing strength of mind. Why is this in the order of
nature, that there is such a difference in the duration and
destruction of her works ? If the mere stone decays, it is
to produce a soil which is capable of nourishing the moss and
the lichen ; when the moss and the lichen die and decompose,
they produce a mould which becomes the bed of life to
grass and to a more exalted species of vegetables. Vege-
tables are the food of animals, the less perfect animals of
the more perfect, but in man the faculties and intellect are
perfected ; he rises, exists for a little while in disease and
misery, and then would seem to disappear without an end
and without producing any effect.

Another mention of Coleridge occurs in February,
when Davy wrote to Mr. Poole :

There has been no news lately from Coleridge ; the last
accounts state that he was well in the autumn and in
Sicily. On that poetic ground we may hope and trust that
his genius will call forth some new creations, and that he
may bring back to us some garlands of never-dying verse.
I have written to urge him strongly to give a course of
lectures on Poetry at the Royal Institution, where his feel-
ing would strongly impress and his eloquence greatly
delight.

In January 1805 Davy presented his collection of
minerals to the Royal Institution. They were valued
at one hundred guineas.

On February 4, as Director of the Laboratory, he
received an addition of ] OOl. to bis salary.

z

338 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI'

He had two papers read at the Royal Society, one
on a ' New Mineral, consisting of Alumine and Water,'
and the other on a ' New Mode of Analysing Minerals
containing Fixed Alkali by Boracic Acid,' and for these
and his other papers he received the Copley medal.

In September he thus wrote to Davies Gilbert :

I came from Ireland by the Western Road about a fort-
night ago.

The Irish are a noble race degraded by slavery and
bearing the insignia of persecution — extreme savageness or
the lowest servility. Yet they are ingenious and active,
and seem to me to possess all the elements of power and
usefulness ; but amongst the lower orders there is a most
unfortunate equality, destructive of all great and efficient
exertion, and amongst the higher classes the greatest degree
of activity is awakened only by the desire of imitating
the English, and that not so much in their virtues as in
their luxuries and follies.

And to his friend Poole he wrote, October 9 :

I have very much to say about Ireland. It is an island
that might be made a new and a great country. It now
boasts a fertile soil, an ingenious and robust peasantry, and
a rich aristocracy, but the bane of the nation is the equality
of poverty amongst the lower orders. All are slaves with-
out the probability of becoming free. They are in the
state of equality which the sans-culottes wished for in
France, and until emulation and riches and the love of
clothes and neat houses are introduced amongst them there
will be no permanent improvement.

Changes in political institutions can at first do little
towards serving them ; it must be by altering their habits,
by diffusing manufactures, by destroying middle men,
by dividing farms, and by promoting industry, by mak-

1806. 2Ex. 28.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 339

ing the pay proportioned to the work. But I ought
not to attempt to say anything on the subject when my
limits are so narrow.

Up to 1806 the lectures given by Davy had brought
to him repute and to the Eoyal Institution success.
To his high reputation as a lecturer he was now
about to add that of a great original discoverer. As
early as July 3, 1800, he wrote to Davies Gilbert,
6 We have been repeating the galvanic experiments
with success.' (See p. 316.) These experiments led
him to think that all chemical decompositions might
be polar. He electrised different compounds at the
different poles of the battery, but he made no great
discovery for five years. The assertion that acid and
alkali were generated by the action of the voltaic
pile in the decomposition of water led him to undertake
fresh galvanic experiments in 1806. Before long he
was rewarded by his great discoveries regarding chemi-
cal electricity, the decomposition of the alkalies, and
the composition of chlorine.

It appears from the Laboratory Books that in
September he first made experiments on phosphorus
with the galvanic spark, and in the- last week of
October he 'tried to decompose phosphorus by the
galvanic fluid.' He fused the phosphorus into a tube
through which a platinum wire passed. This was the
form of the experiment which be made a year after^
wards to compel potash to give up its oxygen.

On November 20 his first Bakerian lecture was
given at the Eoyal Society. It had this long title:
On the ' Chemical Agencies of Electricity ; ' on the

z 2.

340 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

c Changes Produced in Water by Electricity ; ' on the
4 Agencies of Electricity ; ' on the ' Decomposition of
various Compound Bodies ; ' on the ' Transfer of certain
Constituent Parts of Bodies by the Action of Electri-
city ; ' on the ' Passage of Acids, Alkalies, and other
Substances through various Attracting Chemical Men-
strua by Means of Electricity;' • Some General Obser-
vations on these Phenomena, and on the Mode of
Decomposition and Transition ; ' on the ' General
Principles of the Chemical Changes Produced by
Electricity ; ' on the ' Kelations between the Electrical
Energies of Bodies and their Chemical Affinities ; ' on
the 'Mode of Action of the Pile of Volta, with
Experimental Elucidations ; ' on ' Some General Illus-
trations and Applications of the Foregoing Facts
and Principles.'

This was the first dawn of light regarding the in-
separable union between chemical and electrical
motions. The two ends of the pile of metals gave in
quantity and quality different chemical results, and
the chemical products varied with the variations of
the liquid into which the poles were put. The
identity of chemical affinity and electricity was
imagined, and a new division of elements was made
into electro-positive and electro-negative, according as
the one or other end of the pile attracted them. The
kind of polarity of each matter was thought to
determine the electrical and chemical actions shown
by it.

Napoleon had founded a prize of 2,400£. for a
discovery comparable to that of Franklin or Volt a, and

1807. ^T. 29.] PROFESSOR DAVY. . 341

at the same time he founded with the interest a medal,
of 1201. value yearly, for the best experiment on the
galvanic fluid. This medal for the year 1807 was
given to Davy for this paper, which was then printed.
Davy wrote to Mr. Poole, ' Some people say I
ought not to accept this prize, and there have been
foolish paragraphs in the papers to that effect ; but if
the two countries or governments are at war, the men
of science are not. That would indeed be a civil war
of the worst description ; we should rather, through the
instrumentality of men of science, soften the asperities
of national hostility.'

On January 22, 1807, Davy was elected secretary of
the Royal Society.

Dr. Young wrote to a friend :

I believe your pheasants have assisted in bringing my
friend Davy into a hundred a year and the office of secre
tary of the Royal Society. It had never occurred to him
to offer himself till I suggested it to him one day when he
dined with me. The next day he heard of poor Gray's
death, and, upon applying to the President, he was, after
some deliberation, approved, although another person had
before been encouraged. If I had not been a member of an
illiberal profession I should have liked the situation myself,
but perhaps the public is right in discouraging a divided
attention.

At the end of August Davy wrote to Mr. Poole :

I am obliged to be in the neighbourhood of town during
the greater part of the summer for the purpose of correct-
ing the proofs for the ' Philosophical Transactions.'

If Coleridge is still with you, be kind enough to Eay to
him that I wrote nearly a week ago two letters about

342 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

lectures, and, not knowing where he was, I addressed them
to him at different places. I wish very much he would
seriously determine on this point. The managers of the
Royal Institution are very anxious to engage him, and I
think he might be of material service to the public and of
benefit to his own mind, to say nothing of the benefit his
purse might also receive. In the present condition of
society his opinions in matters of taste, literature, and
metaphysics must have a healthy influence ; and, unless he
soon becomes an active member of the living world, he
must expect to be hereafter brought to judgment for hiding
his light.

Seven months afterwards Davy again wrote to Mr.
Poole :

Coleridge, after disappointing his audience twice from
illness, is announced to lecture again this week. He has
suffered greatly from excessive sensibility, the disease of
genius. His mind is a wilderness in which the cedar and
the oak, which might aspire to the skies, are stunted in their
growth by underwood, thorns, briars, and other parasitical
plants. With the most exalted genius, enlarged views,
sensitive heart, and enlightened mind he will be the victim
of want of order, precision, and regularity. I cannot think
of him without experiencing the mingled feelings of admi-
ration, regard, and pity.

Why do you not come to London ? Many would be happy
to see you, but no one more so than your very sincere Friend,
my dear Poole, H. DAVY.

The Laboratory Books show that the last week in
September 1807 he exposed magnesia upon a glass
plate at the positive pole with distilled water. Four
days afterwards he put oxide of zinc in a coagulated
state round the positive pole.

1807. ^ET. 29.] PEOFESSOR DAVY. 343

On October 6 he began * a new series of experiments
on polarity.'

From the account he gives of one experiment,
it appears that he exposed different substances on a
glass plate to the action of the platinum wires from
a galvanic battery of 100 plates of 6 inches.

He tried the following substances : oxalic acid, dry ;
succinic acid ; oxalic acid ; soap ; alcohol ; water ;
carbonate of ammonia ; nitrate of potash. He wrote,
' Pure potash, as dry as it can be made, discharges
the negative in a remarkable degree and insulates the
positive.'

6 Remarkable, Phenomena with Potash. It soon — '
Here the laboratory note ends, but his paper in the
' Philosophical Transactions ' says — ' fused, became a
conductor, and gave brilliant light with the appear-
ance of flame at the negative wire. When it was
slightly moistened, to make it a better conductor, the
potash began to fuse at both its points of electrisation;
there was a violent effusion at its upper or positive
surface, while at the lower or negative surface there
was no liberation of an elastic fluid, but a formation of
small granules resembling quicksilver, which occasion-
ally burst with explosion.'

He then tried carbonate of ammonia, sulphuric acid
and water, soap, and the flame of a candle.

The following day carbonate of ammonia and
oxalic acid were tried, sulphuric acid, water, and
alcohol.

From the 7th to the 16th no experiments were
entered in the Laboratory Book ; but to the substance

344 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

that produced the gas and globules lie gave the name
first of alkaligen ; for on the 1 6th he says, ' Gras
from alkaligen in alcohol;' also 'gas from ether and
gas from oil of turpentine.'

On the 17th he again experimented on this gas
from the alkaligen in ether and turpentine, and says,
' The gas which had been collected from the globules
under oil of turpentine by the action of water burnt
in contact with the air. Does it (the matter of the
globules) not form gaseous compounds with ether,
alcohol, and the oils ?'

Then he notes the action of the alkaligen on
mercury. ' Forms with it a solid amalgam, which soon
loses its alkaligen in the air.' ' This amalgam amalga-
mates with platina and iron, but soon flies off on ex-
posure to the air.' * Query, Does it amalgamate with
phosphorus ? '

'Probably whenever it meets with hydrogen it
dissolves in it.' ' Probably forms an aeriform com-
pound with ether.'

On October 19 he made his famous experiment by
which he showed beyond question that potash can
give up its oxygen. ' When potash was
introduced into a tube having a platina
wire attached to it, so (fig.), and fused
into the tube so as to be a conductor
— i.e. so as to contain just water enough,
though solid — and inserted over mercury,
when the platina was made negative, no gas was
formed and the mercury became oxydated, and a
small quantity of the alkaligen was produced round the

1807. ^Ex. 29.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 315

platina wire, as was evident from its quick inflammation
by the action of water. When the mercury was made
the negative, gas was developed in great quantities
from the positive wire, and none from the negative
mercury, and this gas proved to be pure oxygen — a
capital experiment, proving the decomposition of potash.
' A small quantity of alkaligen was produced round the
platina wire.'

' The gas produced from alkaligen confined under
mercury by the contact of water seemed to be hydrogen
nearly pure. Soda decomposed with different pheno-
mena.'

Davy made no more notes on that day.

On the 20th he worked on the gas obtained from
sodagen and potagen, and writes, ' Barytes gave at the
oxygen side, when touched with the wire, an appearance
like combustion — a bright rose-coloured light. Mem. :
To try what effect the hydrogen side will have upon it.'

On the 21st he again worked on the gas, and says
the gas from ether, when properly washed, seemed to
be pure hydrogen.

He then says, ' Examined the effect of heat this day
and last night of the peculiar substance.' Then he
notes the results, and then he continues, 'what can
be the reason if the metallic globule is composed of
A and H (alkaligen and hydrogen) — What is the reason
that water and ether and alcohol saturated with potash
still act on it so energetically ? '

On the 24th he tried the substance with sulphur and
phosphorus.

On the 25th, 26th, and 27th he worked on barytes, &c.

346 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

On the 27th harytes heated to whiteness did not
become a conductor.

On October 30 he was still at work on the gas.

On October 31 he says, 'When the substance amalga-
mated with mercury, was distilled in a glass retort, and
the contents received over mercury, no air was gene-
rated ; nor over water till the sublimed substance came
in contact with the water, when hydrogen was evolved.'

On November 2 he was still working on potagen.

' Probably this substance combines with oxygen in
two proportions, the red colour owing to this ; and it
is owing to this that it acts upon plate-glass.'

'The first oxide a peculiar substance capable of
being procured with much difficulty, the second potash.'

In the midst of his discovery the condition of the
laboratory made him write in the book * some regula-
tions with regard to the state of the laboratory.'

' 1. Everything is to be put in its proper place in
the evening, and everything to be arranged for the
next day's operations.

' 2. The fire to be lighted at eight o'clock, and the
apparatus for the experiments to be prepared by nine.'

On November 4 he writes, ' The result of the dis-
tillation of as pure a piece (of potagen) as I could
obtain seemed to be hydrogene nearly pure.

'The gas given out from an amalgam of it with
mercury likewise hydrogene.'

On November 5 many experiments were made.

On November 6 he still worked on the gas. His
notes say ' on the combustion of sodagen and potagen
with oxygen.'

1807. ^ET. 29.] PEOFESSOK DAVY. 347

' Potagen certainly sublimes unaltered at a tem-
perature below red heat. It is twenty times lighter
than mercury.'

On November 13 he wrote to his friend Mr. Pepys:

I have decomposed and recomposed the fixed alkalies and
discovered their bases to be two new inflammable substi-
tutes very like metals, but one of them lighter than ether
and infinitely [more] combustible ; so that there are two
bodies decomposed and two new elementary bodies found.

The Bakerian lecture was read on November 19,
only four days before Davy was obliged to take to his
bed by illness. The first sketch of this famous paper
was thus made in the Laboratory Book :

6 The substance is analogous to some of those im-
agined to exist by the alchemical visionaries.

' Possessing all the physical properties of metals ex-
cept high specific gravity, it seems to combine with all
of them, and form with them truly metallic amalgams ;
but in all cases it is capable of being separated from
them by its greater facility of oxidation.'

Then he gives the action on water and ice.

The theory of its operation upon water is extremely
simple.

3. 'When,' he says, 'the peculiar substance was
brought in contact with a thin piece of phosphorus and
pressed upon, there is a considerable action.'

4. ' When it was brought in contact with sulphur in
fusion in tubes filled with the vapour of naphtha, they
combine with varied ignition.'

5. ' The new substance produces some beautiful re-
sults with mercury.'

348 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

Then he describes the alloys.

4 The basis of potash, when thrown into the strong
mineral acids, inflames and burns on the surface.'

Then he describes the effects with sulphuric acid,
and nitrous acid.

' The action of the basis of potash on fat and volatile
oils, and on various bodies, is less violent than on any
other class of compound substances containing oxygen,
as might have been expected from the small quantity
of this principle which they hold in combination.

' The application of naphtha to its preservation I
have already mentioned. On the colourless and per-
fectly transparent naphtha distilled from petroleum or
from brown naphtha at a low heat, and defended from
air, it has scarcely any action at common temperatures.'

Then he describes the further action on naphtha.
'The fat and volatile oils closely related to naphtha
in composition resemble it likewise in their habitudes
with the basis of potash. The lightest naphtha that I
have been able to procure by double distillation was
of spec. gr. 770, water being 1,000, and was almost
colourless. In this fluid, confined in close vessels, the
globules swam for hours without apparently affecting
it, but by degrees a yellow film formed upon them, the
naphtha became brown at its point of contact, and the
globules sank to the bottom of the vessel. After
some days the fluid surrounding the globule appeared
black and turbid.

' The fat and volatile oils approach to naphtha in their
habitudes with respect to the basis of potash.

' The fat oils follow naphtha in the order of bodies

1807. ^ET. 29.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 349

that slightly act upon it ; and the volatile oils, the fat
oils ; but they all contain sufficient oxygen to render
the basis of potash alkaline, if it is exposed to them
for a sufficient time and in proper quantities, and that
more or less rapidly, according to the circumstances.
When naphtha or the oils are exposed to air they soon
alkalise the basis. Oxygen is absorbed from the air,
and a soap is formed, brown from the decomposition of
the compound fluid during the time of the alkalisation.
If air be excluded the process is a much longer time
in taking place ; no gas is emitted in the fixed oils or
in naphtha; but in the volatile oils hydrocarbonate
is produced in small quantities, and in all these cases
charcoal is deposited. In oil of turpentine the process
is more rapid than in any other oil I have tried, and
this oil contains either water or the elements of water,
and perhaps a larger proportion of oxygen to its
inflammable matter.

' Nor ought we to be surprised that these substances
have never been produced in nature. Their strong
attraction for oxygen renders it impossible.'

' The division into two poles :

4 The basis of potash, by its strong attraction for
oxygen, decomposes all the metallic oxides which
I have exposed to it by a gentle heat.

4 The oxides of lead it instantly acts upon, and the
metal is revived and alkali formed. In consequence
of this operation it cannot be preserved in tubes of
flint glass.

' Are the bases of the fixed alkalies simple bodies ? I
perhaps shall be asked.

350 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

'But are these singular bodies themselves compounds ?
Have we reached the limits of our analysis — More
capable of combining with oxygene than the basis of
water ?

6 The basis of potash serves almost as an accurate
indication of the proportion of oxygene in bodies and
exactly in proportion — camphor, spermaceti, wax,
volatile oils.

* In the course of my inquiries many circumstances
arose at first anomalous, but which soon were capable
of being explained, and which, when understood, seemed
to extend the general facts which had been detailed.'

A long break here occurs in the Laboratory Notes.
On November 23, 1807, Davy was taken ill with fever.

On December 7 the Managers' Minutes say, 'Mr. Davy
having been confined to his bed for the last fortnight
by a severe illness, the managers are under the painful
necessity of giving notice that the lectures will not
commence until the first week in January next.'

On January 18 the managers of the Koyal Institution
ordered 500 copies of the following paper to be printed :

NEW DISCOVERY IN CHEMISTRY.

January 18, 1808.

For the satisfaction of those proprietors who were not
present at the opening of the Rev. Mr. Dibden's introduc-
tory lecture on Wednesday last the managers have obtained
and printed the following note of it :

' Before I solicit your attention to the opening of those
lectures which I shall have the honour of delivering in the
course of the season, permit me to trespass upon it for a
few minutes by stating the peculiar circumstances under

1808, JEfr. 30.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 351

which this Institution is now again opened, and how it
comes to pass that it has fallen to me rather than to a
more deserving lecturer to be the first to address you.

' The managers of this Institution have directed me to
impart to you that intelligence which no one who is alive
to the best feelings of human nature can hear without the
mixed emotions of sorrow and delight.

1 Mr. Davy, whose frequent and powerful addresses from
this place, supported by his ingenious experiments, have
been so long and so well known to you, has for the last
five weeks been struggling between life and death. The
effects of those experiments recently made in illustration
of his late splendid discovery, added to consequent bodily
weakness, brought on a fever so violent as to threaten the
extinction of life. Over him it might emphatically be said,
in the language of the immortal Milton, that —
Death his dart shook, but delayed to strike.

If it had pleased Providence to deprive the world of all
further benefit from his original talents and intense applica-
tion there has certainly been sufficient already effected by
him to entitle him to be classed among the brightest scien-
tific luminaries of his country. That this may not appear
to be unfounded eulogium I shall proceed, at the particular
request of the managers, to give yon an outline of the
splendid discovery just alluded to, and I do so with the
greater pleasure as that outline has been drawn in a very
masterly manner by a gentleman of all others perhaps the
best qualified to do it effectually (Cavendish ?)

' In the course of the last twenty-five or thirty years the
science of chemistry has undergone great changes and has
been astonishingly augmented by various important dis-
coveries, amongst which the most remarkable have been the
decomposition and recomposition of water and of nitric acid,
discovered by Mr. Cavendish, and the consequent knowledge
of the nature of metallic calces (now called oxides) with
that of acids in general.

852 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

* But although the two fixed alkalies called soda and
potash were attacked by the most eminent chemists with
every known chemical agent and by every method which the
improved state of science could suggest, not the smallest effect
could be produced on them ; so that the nature of these two
common substances remained totally unascertained and
became a grand desideratum of chemical science. When,
however, M. Volta had communicated to the Royal Society
his great discovery of the galvanic pile, and when this had
been modified into the more convenient form of troughs by
Crookshank of Woolwich, the electro-galvanic power was
found by various philosophers to produce surprising effects
when applied to different substances, and Mr. Davy in par-
ticular distinguished himself in these researches and made
a number of valuable experiments and observations, some
of the more remarkable of which he communicated to the
Royal Society in the Bakerian lecture read in November
1806. Mr. Davy conceived, however, from what he had
then accomplished, that much more might be done ; and
with equal skill and perseverance he performed a new
series of experiments, in the course of which, by various
means, he again tried the effect of the powerful galvanic
batteries belonging to the laboratory of the Royal Institu-
tion, and particularly devoted his attention to the two fixed
alkalies (soda and potash), with the view of effecting their
decomposition and of ascertaining the nature of them by
means of that powerful agent galvanism.

' This great discovery he at length effected ; and, to the
high gratification of all men of science, he proved that
soda and potash are compound bodies, each consisting of
a peculiar metal, which has so great a tendency to combine
with oxygen that no agent but galvanism can separate them.
The two metals, therefore, of soda and potash have always
hitherto been presented to us in this state of combination
with oxygen, forming the two alkalies. But some of the
primitive earths (as they are called), such as barytes and

1808. MT. 30.] PKOFESSOR DAVY. 353

strontites, have many alkaline properties, which induced Mr.
Davy to subject them to similar experiments ; and in like
manner he discovered that these consisted of metallic bases
united to oxygen, forming compound bodies analogous to
the two fixed alkalies. These may justly be placed amongst
the most brilliant and valuable discoveries which have ever
been made in chemistry, for a great chasm in the chemical
system has been filled up ; a blaze of light has been dif-
fused over that part which before was utterly dark; and
new views have been opened so numerous and interesting
that the more any man who is versed in chemistry reflects
on them, the more he finds to admire and to heighten his
expectation of future important results. Mr. Davy's name,
in consequence of these discoveries, will be always recorded
in the annals of science amongst those of the most illus-
trious philosophers of his time. His country, with reason,
will be proud of him ; and it is no small honour to the
Royal Institution that these great discoveries have been
made within its walls, in that laboratory and by those
instruments which, from the zeal of promoting useful know-
ledge, have with so much propriety been placed at. the dis-
posal and for the use of the Professor of Chemistry.

* This recital [said Dr. Dibden] will be sufficient to con-
vince those who hear of the celebrity which the author of
such a discovery has a right to attach to himself; and yet no
one, I am confident, has less inclination to challenge it. To
us and to every enlightened Englishman it will be a matter
of just congratulation that the country which has produced
the two Bacons and Boyle has in these days shown itself
worthy of its former renown by the labours of Cavendish
and Davy.

* The illness of the latter, severe as it has been, is now
beginning to abate,1 and we may reasonably hope, from

1 Davy always thought he caught the fever during an experiment for
disinfecting Newgate Prison.

A A

354 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

present appearances at least, that the period of convales-
cence is not very remote.'1

The recovery of Davy was slow.

On February 22 he attended at the request of the
Committee of Managers, and informed them that he
should be able to commence his course of lectures on
Electro-Chemical Science on Saturday, March 12, at
two o'clock, and those on Geology on Wednesday
evening, the sixteenth of that month. In his opening
lecture he thus spoke of electro-chemistry and its power
of analysis: 'In this it will be seen that Volta has
presented to us a key which promises to lay open
some of the most mysterious recesses of nature. Till
this discovery our means were limited; the field of
pneumatic research had been exhausted, and little
remained for the experimentalist except minute and
laborious processes. There is now before us a bound-
less prospect of novelty in science, a country unex-
plored but noble and fertile in aspect, a land of
promise in philosophy.'

In the Laboratory Book, probably about this
time, he wrote, ' An instrument for procuring those
metals that have not yet been reduced — for decompos-
ing muriatic acid gas, fluoric, &c., and boracic acid
gas:

1 Some time after his recovery it was said in the Institution that his
laboratory experiments caused his illness.

' Says Davy to Baryt, " I've a strong inclination

To try to effect your deoxidation ; "

But Baryt replied, " Have a care of your mirth,

Lest I should retaliate and change you to earth." '

1808. JET. 30.] PROFESSOR DA.VY. 355

On April 19 and 20 Davy was again at work with
the battery of 520 pair of plates,

He began thus : ' Indications of the decomposition
of muriatic acid. To use every effort to ensure
accuracy in the results.'

' A given quantity of muriatic acid gas was acted
upon by dry charcoal ; there was continued vivid light
in the galvanic circuit. The action was continued for
ten minutes ; when a little water was added no ab-
sorption took place, so that all the muriatic acid gas
was decomposed. Some other experiments were made
with dry muriate of lime and mercury and with a
solution of muriate of lime, strontium, and soda.'

On June 30 he had a paper read at the Royal Society
on the ' Decomposition of the Earths Strontia, Lime,
Magnesia, by Means of Iron at the Negative End of
the Battery.' Berzelius having mentioned in a letter
that he had succeeded by using mercury as the
negative pole, Davy repeated Berzelius's experiment,
and decomposed alumina and silica by an amalgam
of mercury and potassium at the negative end of the
battery.

On July 11 he laid before the managers of the
Royal Institution the following paper :

A new path of discovery having been opened in the
agencies of the electrical battery of Volta, which promises to
lead to the greatest improvements in chemistry and natural
philosophy and the useful arts connected with them ; and
since the increase of the size of the apparatus is absolutely
necessary for pursuing it to its full extent, it is proposed to
raise a fund by subscription for constructing a powerful

A A 2

356 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

battery, worthy of a national establishment and capable
of promoting the great objects of science.

Already in other countries public and ample means have
been provided for pursuing these investigations. They
have had their origin in this country, and it would be dis-
honourable to a nation so great, so powerful, and so rich
if, from the want of pecuniary resources, they should be
completed abroad.

An appeal to enlightened individuals on this subject can
scarcely be made in vain. It is proposed that the instru-
ment and apparatus be erected in the laboratory of the
Royal Institution, where it shall be employed in the
advancement of this new department of science.

The Managers' Minutes then say :

The above paper having been laid before the board of
managers, they felt it their indispensable duty instantly to
communicate the same to every member of the Institution,
lest the slightest delay might furnish an opportunity to other
countries for accomplishing this great work, which origi-
nated in the brilliant discoveries recently made at the
Royal Institution.

Lord Dundas, W. Watson, Thomas Bernard, and C.
Hatchett, the managers present, agreed to subscribe to this
undertaking, and ordered that a book be opened at the
steward's office for the purpose of entering the names of all
those who may wish to contribute towards this important
national object.1

The sum wanted was soon raised, and Davy thus
described the battery :

' It consists of 200 instruments, connected together
in regular order, each composed of ten double plates,
arranged in cells of porcelain, and containing in each

1 The voltaic subscriptions amounted to 5201.

1808. ^T. 30.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 357

plate thirty-two square inches ; so that the whole
number of double plates is 2,000, and the whole
surface 128,000 square inches. This battery was
charged with sixty parts water and one .part of nitric
acid. It gave a spark from charcoal points through
four inches of air.'

On July 12 the Laboratory Notes say, ' Tried the ex-
periments upon the decomposition of the earths by iron
wire with the happiest results.' These were obtained
with the battery of only twenty pair.

On July 18 he wrote, 'In pursuit of the researches on
the deoxygenation of diamond and charcoal.

< Is not diamond the 2-oxide of carbon, charcoal
the 1 -oxide, the gaseous oxide of carbon a triple
compound of hydrogen, nitrogen, and charcoal ? '

On September 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 experiments
were tried on the production of cold by induced elec-
tricity. He tried the decomposition of sulphur ' with
success.' He tried to decompose mercury in the
Torricellian vacuum ' with success apparently. '

' Sulphur, after giving out hydrogen by electricity,

had lost its yellow colour and was become brownish,

but still non-conducting, crystalline, and transparent.'

Numberless experiments were made on the action of

potassium on ammonia and on nitrogen.

In November he must have injured his right hand,
for his notes are made with his left hand on the 19th
and 20th of this month.

On December 15 he gave another Bakerian lecture
on New Analytical Researches on Alkalies, Phosphorus,
Sulphur, &c. In this paper he says his chief object

358 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

was to show that there was oxygen in ammonia, and
that potassium was not a compound of the metal and
hydrogen. He made further experiments also on
the decomposition of boracic, fluoric, and muriatic
acids.

On December 27, 1808, Davy wrote to Coleridge :

Alas, poor Beddoes is dead! He died on Christmas
Eve. He wrote to me two letters on two successive days —
22nd and 23rd. From the first, which was full of affection
and new feeling, I anticipated his state. He is gone at
the moment when his mind was purified and exalted for
noble affections and great works.

My heart is heavy. I would talk to you of your own
plans, which I shall endeavour in every way to promote ; I
would talk to you of my own labours, which have been in-
cessant since I saw you and not without result ; but I ani
interrupted by very melancholy feelings, which, when you
see this, I know you will partake of. Ever, my dear Cole-
ridge, very affectionately yours,

H. DAVY.

On December 28 he wrote in the Laboratory Book,
' We have tried a number of experiments within the last
few days on the muriatic and fluoric acids, heating
them with potassium.'

Early in 1809 Davy sent an appendix to his last
Bakerian lecture to the Royal Society. In it he spoke
* of the general results being decisive with regard to a
decomposition of nitrogen having been effected.'

In a letter at this time he told his friend Mr.
Children ' he hoped to show him nitrogen as a
complete wreck, torn to pieces in different ways.'

On January 18 he wrote, 4 Capital result from the

1809. JET. 31.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 359

action of potassium on ammonia. Nitrogen was lost.
If the nitrogen is to be considered as converted into
oxygen and hydrogen, it must be regarded as containing
much more oxygen than water ; and if we do not adopt
this supposition, the only alternative is that water is
the ponderable matter which, under different modifica-
tions of electro-chemical existence, constitutes oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen, and the nitrous compounds.'

On February 15 he wrote in the Laboratory Book,
' Were a description, indeed, to be given of all the
experiments I have made, of all the difficulties I have
encountered, of the doubts that have occurred, and the
hypotheses formed — ' The sentence was not finished,
and more time was lost on the investigation.

Throughout the spring and summer more experiments
were made on ammonia and nitrogen.

He ignited potassium by the voltaic spark in nitrogen,
and found that some hydrogen was evolved and some
nitrogen lost ; but when the potassium was free from
potash this did not occur, and at last he gave up trying
to show that nitrogen was a compound of oxygen and a
metallic basis.

At the end of August he was working on tellurium
and made telluretted hydrogen.

To his mother he wrote in August :

At present, except when I resolve to be idle for health's
sake, I devote every moment to labours which I hope will
not be wholly ineffectual in benefiting society, and which
will not be wholly inglorious for my country hereafter ; and
the feeling of this is the reward which will continue to keep
me employed.

360 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

On September 13 he wrote in the Laboratory Book
this verbal picture of his laboratory :

Objects mucli wanted in the laboratory of the Royal
Institution: Cleanliness, neatness, and regularity.

The laboratory must be cleaned every morning when
operations are going on before ten o'clock.

It is the business of "W. Payne l to do this, and it is the
duty of Mr. E. Davy to see that it is done and to take care
of and keep in order the apparatus.

There must be in the laboratory pen, ink, paper, and
wafers, and these must not be kept in the slovenly manner
in which they usually are kept. I am now writing with a
pen and ink such as was never used in any other place.

There are wanting small graduated glass tubes blown
here and measured to ten grains of mercury.

There are wanting four new stopcocks fitted to our air-
pump.

There are wanting twelve green glass retorts.

There are wanting most of the common metallic and
saline solutions, such as acetate of copper, nitrate of
silver, nitrate of barytes — most of these made in the
laboratory. -

All the wine-glasses should be cleaned.

And, as all operation ceases at six o'clock in the evening,
there is plenty of time for getting things in order before
night ; but if they are not got into order the same night,
they must be by ten o'clock the next day.

The laboratory is constantly in a state of dirt and con-
fusion.

There must be a roller with a coarse towel for washing
the hands and a basin of water and soap, and every week
at least a whole morning must be devoted to the inspection
and ordering of the voltaic battery.

For Thursday — i.e. to-morrow — the experiments in the

1 The predecessor of Mr. Faraday.

1809. JET. 31.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 361

morning are on the excitation of radiant heat and elec-
tricity in different gases. For the experiments on
Friday, which will be on tellurium, there
are wanting very pure hydrogen ; two bot-
tles of new, very pure oxymuriatic gas ; two
new stopcocks cemented into retorts, with stop-
pers, either green or white ; some tubes of

this bore f I or near it, closed at one

O

end and six inches long ; a spirit lamp made
from a phial of large bore and the tube larger
than that at present used.

On September 14 he tried various experiments
on the excitation of electricity. The Laboratory Book
says, ' Present in these and the former experiments,
Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Herscbel, Mr. Herschel, Sir Charles
Blagden (not in the second set on electricity) ; Dr.
Wollaston, Mr. Warburton.'

The repulsion of the machine was compared to the
repulsion in a partial vacuum, in hydrogen, in carbonic
acid, and in rarefied carbonic acid. The former experi-
ments the same day were on the rise of a thermometer
heated by a coil of platinum wire in different gases.

On September 21 the Note-Book says :

An Experiment to Decompose Muriatic Acid Gas. — A
balloon having three openings, to one of which a stop-
cock was cemented, and in the other two were corks con-
taining wires, so adapted to each other that a contact might
be made. Pieces of well-burnt charcoal were fastened to
the ends of the wires. The apparatus, being air-tight, was
exhausted and filled with hydrogen ; another exhaustion
being made, the balloon was filled with oxymuriatic gas
from a gas-holder, with which it was connected by means

362 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

of a stopcock. The two wires being joined to the voltaic
apparatus and a contact of the charcoal made, the ignition
was brilliant without any apparent combustion ; white
fumes were presently produced, which in a short time dis-
appeared again, and were afterwards, during the remaining
time the experiment was in hand, only formed when two
new points of charcoal came in contact, or when the flame
played on the copper wire which fastened the charcoal.
The light emitted was a brilliant yellowish colour, frequently
assuming a fine lake. After an hour's time the gas appeared
unaltered, of its original colour. The higher parts of the
pieces of charcoal were covered with a fine greenish-yellow
powder, otherwise unaltered.

Tin-leaf thrown in through one of the openings began
immediately to form with the oxymuriatic acid gas the
fuming liquor of Libavius. When shook it inflamed.

On September 23, 1809, in a letter to Mr. Children, he
mentions this experiment, and says ' it is as difficult to
decompose as nitrogen, except when all its elements
can be made to enter into new combinations.'

On October 3, among ' the hints for experiments ' in
the Note-Book is this, to detonate together hydrogen
and oxymuriatic acid.

Another Bakerian lecture was given, and then he con-
tinued his researches on ammonia.

On November 24 ' experiments to be in progress '
are thus entered in the Laboratory Book :

1. To decompose sulphuretted hydrogen by electricity
in an apparatus by which the results can be accurately
known.

2. To pass potassium through ignited powdered quartz.

3. To decompose muriatic acid gas by potassium, so as
to ascertain the quantity of hydrogen formed.

4. To weigh ammonia, hydrogen, and nitrogen,

1810. JET. 32.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 363

sulphuretted hydrogen and gaseous fluoric acid, nitrous
oxide, and oxymuriatic acid gas.

5. To make a series of experiments upon the ores and
products of cast iron.

6. To ascertain with greater precision than has been yet
obtained the nature of the acid matter formed in pure
water, oxygenated or not.

7. To decompose fluoric acid gas, and to ascertain the
source of the hydrogen which it gives by the operation of
potassium.

8. To make various experiments on the amalgamation of
ammonia, using different amalgams of mercury and different
modes of excluding water.

9. To endeavour to bring the vcwp theory to a test
of producing oxygen from water without hydrogen.

10. To decompose muriate of soda and litharge and other
bodies that contain no water by electricity, and to see what
happens.

In the early part of 1810 the experiments were
chiefly on the action of potassium on sulphur and
phosphorus.

From analogy oxygen had been considered as the acidi-
fying principle of the muriatic acid, or spirit of salt.
It was thought to combine with more oxygen, and then
was called oxygenated muriatic acid, although its powers
as an acid were weakened and it became more volatile
and bleached.

Davy sent two papers to the Eoyal Society, on this
subject. The first was on July 12, ' Kesearches on Oxy-
muriatic Acid and the Elements of Muriatic Acid ; with
Experiments on Sulphur and Phosphorus,' and the
second, on November 15, was the ' Bakerian Lecture on
Some of the Combinations of Oxymuriatic Gas and

364 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

Oxygen, and on the Chemical Kelalions of these Princi-
ples to Inflammable Bodies.'

In the first paper he says, ' Scheele considered
oxymuriatic acid as more simple than muriatic acid,
and that it became muriatic acid by union with
phlogiston. Berthollet said it contained oxygen.
The vivid combustion of many bodies in this gas has
favoured the presumption that it contained oxygen very
loosely combined, and ready to exert its utmost power
of affinity ; but it is mere presumption, since heat and
light result also from the intense agency of any other
combination without the presence of oxygen.'

On July 3 he wrote, ' Equal parts of oxymuriatic acid
and hydrogene, both dried, were detonated. There was
a diminution equal to about y^, and muriatic gas was
formed ; and this was over mercury, and some of the
oxymuriatic acid burnt the mercury, and there was an
excess of J hydrogene. Equal parts of oxymuriatic
acid and sulphuretted hydrogene, diminution about -£-§.
Muriatic gas formed; sulphuretted hydrogene ap-
parently in excess.'

A most important experiment had be^n made on
September 21, 1809, on the resistance of oxymuriatic
acid to galvanic decomposition ; and as long previously
as April 19, 1808, he had decomposed muriatic acid
with a battery of 520 pair of plates.1

1 The discovery of the simplicity of chlorine was claimed by the
French chemists; Davy afterwards said of Gay-Lussac's paper in the
Annales de.Chimie for July 1814, ' The historical notes attached to it are
of a nature not to be passed over without animadversion. M. Gay-Lussac
states that he and M. Thenard were the first to advance the hypothesis
that chlorine was a simple body, and he quotes M. Ampere as having

1810. ^T. 32.] PEOFESSOE DAVY. 365

The experiments which were detailed in the Bakerian
lecture read during the absence of Davy on November
15, were made in July and August.

On August 30, after entering things wanted, he
wrote in the Laboratory Book :

<Xo experiments are to be made or carried on
in the laboratory without the consent and approbation
of the Professor of Chemistry. The attempt at original
experiment, unless preceded by knowledge, merely
interferes with the progress of discovery. There are a
sufficient number of new and interesting objects which
a modest student would wish to pursue, and in which
the path is marked and distinct.'

On September 8 he was again experimenting on the
decomposition of nitrogen. He wrote, ' And if it be
said that no air and no water were present (in the
potassium, boracic acid, and ammonia), the experiment
is decisive as to the destruction of nitrogen and its
containing the same kind of elementary matter as
water.'

To the like experiment, September 13, he wrote,
' This experiment seems almost decisive on the decom-
position of nitrogen.'

Soon after he wrote, ' Query, Does not the general
tenor of the last experiments lead to the suspicion
of the decomposition of nitrogen ? '

entertained that opinion before me. On the subject of the originality
of the idea of chlorine being a simple body I have always vindicated the
claims of Scheele, but I must assume for myself the labour of having
demonstrated its properties and combinations and of having explained
the chemical phenomena it produces, and I am in possession of a letter
from M. Ampere that shows he has no claims of this kind to make.'

366 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

On September 16 he made this note : 'Objects to be
attempted during the next week : To-morrow, oxy-
muriatic acid pure, to try absorption by two grains of
different metals — tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth,
copper, platina, lead, zinc.'

On October 4, when he was about to start for Dublin,
he wrote in the Laboratory Book, ' The principal thing,
the laboratory in complete order.' He was absent from
October 4 to the middle of December. No experiments
were entered until October 27 ; then there are some on
oxymuriatic acid by E. Davy.

On November 15 the action of oxymuriatic gas on
dried nitrous gas was repeated.

The next experiment was on November 24. 'Two
grains of silver were entirely converted into horn-silver ;
the absorption of chlorine gas was •£§ of a cubic inch.'
This was the first use of the word CHLOKINE in the
Note-Book; it occurs daily afterwards. Oxymuriatic
gas continued the chief subject of the experiments in
the laboratory up to the end of February in the follow-
ing year.

This year Davy was invited to deliver a course of
lectures on Electro-Chemical Science, and another
course of six lectures on the Application of Chemistry to
Agriculture, in the new laboratory of the Dublin
Society. Having obtained permission as secretary to
be absent from the meetings of the Royal Society, he
commenced his course on November 8 and finished it
on the 29th, and the Society requested his acceptance
of 500 guineas.

In 1811 he again delivered two courses, one on the

1811. ^ET. 33.] PEOFESSOR DAVY. 367

Elements of Chemical Philosophy and the other on
Greology. For these he received 750£., and Trinity
College made him a Doctor of Laws. Such consideration
for lectures on this side of the Atlantic sounds
fabulous.

He wrote to his mother :

Balina, Ireland, October 24, 1811.

The laboratory in Dublin, which has been enlarged, so
as to hold 550 people, will not hold half the persons who
desire to hear my lectures. The 550 tickets issued for the
course by the Dublin Society at two guineas each were
all disposed of the first week, and I am told now that from
ten to twenty guineas are offered for a ticket.

This is merely for your eye ; it may please you to know
that your son is not unpopular or useless. Every person
here, from the highest to the lowest, shows me every atten-
tion and kindness.

I shall come to see you as soon as I can. I hear with
infinite delight of your health, and I hope Heaven will con-
tinue to preserve and bless a mother who deserves so well
of her children.

I am, your very affectionate Son,

H. DAVY.

During 1811 he made the acquaintance of Mrs.
Appreece, the daughter and heiress of Charles Carr, of
Kelso, and about the end of the year probably he
wrote to his mother :

MY DEAR MOTHER, — You possibly may have heard reports
of my intended marriage. Till within the last few days it
was mere report. It is, I trust, now a settled arrangement.
I am the happiest of men in the hope of a union with a
woman equally distiuguished for virtues, talent, and ac-
complishments.

368 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

Yon, I am sure, will sympathise in my happiness. I
believe I should never have married bnt for this charming
woman, whose views and whose tastes coincide with my
own, and who is eminently qualified to promote my best
efforts and objects in life.

I am, your affectionate Son,

H. DAVY:

He wrote to his brother, at that time a medical
student at Edinburgh :

MY DEAR JOHN, — Many thanks for your last letter. I
have been very miserable. The lady whom I love best
of any human being has been very ill. She is now well
and I am happy. Mrs. Appreece has consented to marry
me, and when the event takes place I shall not envy kings,
princes, or potentates.

I am, my dear Brother, ever most affectionately yours,

H. DAVY.

The Laboratory Note-Book at this time contains very
little work.

On February 21, 1811, he had a paper read to the
Royal Society on a ' Combination of Oxymuriatic Gras
and Oxygen Gras, called Euchlorine.'

In July the action of chlorine on carbonic oxide,
exposed for hours to bright sunshine, was examined.
He wrote, 'The new gas seems to consist of equal
volumes of chlorine and carbonic oxide condensed to
one volume.'

On August 7 Davy wrote in the Laboratory Book,
' To get nitrous oxide, nitrous gas, and very pure
chlorine for experiments. To try to decompose
nitrogen or te combine it with chlorine.'

1812. Mi. 34.] PEOFESSOE DAVY. 369

On the 10 th the exposure to the light had been con-
tinued two days without result.

In the middle of August he experimented on the
action of potassium on silicated fluoric gas.

From September 2 to December 20 there are no
entries in the Laboratory Book. That day — the first
after his return from Ireland — there are experiments on
the electrolization of water.

Early in the following year Sir Joseph Banks wrote
to Sir George Staunton (in China) :

We are going on here as usual, but I think the taste for
science is on the increase. The Royal Society has been
well supplied with papers, and continues to be so. Davy,
our secretary, is said to be on the point of marrying a rich
and handsome widow, who has fallen in love with science
and marries him in order to obtain a footing in the
academic groves ; her name is Apreece, the daughter of
Mr. Carr, who made a fortune in India, and the niece of Dr.
Carr, of Northampton. If this takes place, it will give to
science a kind of new eclat ; we want nothing so much as
the countenance of the ladies to increase our popularity.

Very little laboratory work was done in 1812. It
appears from Davy's notes that a few experiments
on euchlorine were made in January. In February
he was again working on sulphur and phosphorus
and chlorine. In March he was experimenting on
borum with oxygen, and with chlorine.

In August an experiment was made to ascertain
whether there is, according to the received belief, a
neutral part in the voltaic circle.

B B

370 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

The battery consisted of forty double plates, thus
arranged : Each trough, excepting the end ones, was
separately connected with a glassful of mercury by
polished copper wire, and each pair of glasses was
connected by very fine polished iron wire.

The effects took place at the moment of contact
at all the wires, so that there could have been no
neutral point.

For the last time, after innumerable failures, he re-
turned to the decomposition of nitrogen.

On August 13 'experiment very cautiously made of
the action of potassium on nitrogene. Light green
when mercury is employed, red when potassium.'

On October 23 the Laboratory Book says:

e A series of experiments to attempt to decompose
hydrofluoric acid, and to ascertain the constitution of
the fluoric combinations.

6 1. To obtain pure hydrofluoric acid.

< 2. To obtain silicofluoric acid gas, and to decompose
it by potassium and by potash, and to ascertain • the
quantity of fluate of lime they will give.

c 3. To make pure prussic acid.

c 4. To act upon pure prussic acid by chlorine.'

On November 5 a new detonating compound was
formed ; this was the chloride of nitrogen.

This year Davy gave his last course of lectures on
Chemical Philosophy at the Eoyal Institution.

An account of four of these lectures c was taken off
from notes by Mr. Faraday.' The subjects were
Eadiant Matter, Chlorine, Simple Inflammables, and
Metals. After the report of each lecture he gave the

1812. Mr. 34.] PEOFESSOR DAVY. 371

experiments as a sequel, illustrated with drawings ;
the whole made a small quarto of 386 pages, with an
index of twenty-five pages. The volume was bound
by Mr. Faraday, and was sent to Davy as an evidence of
Faraday's ' knowledge, diligence, and order,' when he
asked for an engagement at the Eoyal Institution.

Davy gave the lecture on Radiant Matter on Feb-
ruary 29. He said, ' With respect to radiant or ethe-
real substances all our knowledge of it is obtained
from the effect it produces on us and terrestrial bodies
when in motion.

'In our consideration of this subject it will be
essentially necessary that we distinguish between know-
ledge and speculation. These terms in their meaning
are palpably different, but yet have been intermixed
and combined together in a very singular manner.
The French chemists in particular speak of the
materiality of heat, and of the nature of the compounds
it forms, as confidently and as fluently as if they had
undeniably proved it to be a body. They have blended
their knowledge with speculation, and formed a theory
that is very possibly untrue. The most eminent
phenomena of radiation are to be observed in light.'

And then he passed on to the laws of light and
dwelt on Herschel's discovery that the heating power
of red rays was to the green as fifty-five to sixteen,
and that he had himself found the thermometer
rose still higher beyond the red, and that heating rays
are less refrangible than light rays ; then he showed
a wire heated by the voltaic battery in air and in
vacuo, and said that he had proved ' that the radiat-

B B 2

372 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

ing power is three times as strong in an exhausted
receiver as in the open air,' and, ' fully proves that
radiation is not caused by undulations in the atmo-
sphere. It is strongest when no atmosphere is present.'
He ends his account of the effects of radiant heat thus :
6 Were it not for this terrestrial radiation of earthly
bodies, the heat would accumulate from the rays of the
sun until at last the whole world would be unin-
habitable.

6 But, besides the effects produced by the two species
of radiant matter — radiant light and radiant heat — there
are other effects — chemical effects — that take place
caused by the action of some radiant matter that
comes to us from the sun, perhaps a single substance
that, independent of light and heat, causes effects by
its own power.' And then he showed an experiment of
chlorine and hydrogen exposed to light.

He says, 'There is a very singular analogy that
exists between the rays at the violet end of the spectrum,
hydrogen gas, and the negative pole of the voltaic
battery ; and opposed to it stands the analogy of the
rays at the red end of the spectrum to positive electri-
city ; they produce opposite effects to the first-mentioned
arrangement, but act similar to each other.

6 If that sublime idea of the ancients that there is
only one species of matter in the universe, and that its
different properties depend on the difference of size,
shape and other qualities should be confirmed, it
would simplify the science in a most eminent degree,
and at the same time it would raise it to the acme of
perfection.'

1812. MT. 34.] PKOFESSOK DAVY. 373

Opposing the view that oxygen gas contained light
combined with it, and gave light out in oxidation, he
contrasted slowly oxidised iron with an iron turning
burnt in oxygen.

' When the laws which govern in chemical science are
fully known, there is no doubt it will become a much
more simple science. It cannot fail to be so, since
then it will be complete. Already it is one of the
most useful of the whole circle to man, and when in
its utmost state of improvement it will be one of the
most sublime. It will, I have no doubt, connect
mechanical and chemical sciences together; it will
concentrate them into one and in that one comprehend
the whole universe.

' The first step to truth is the confession of ignorance.
No man could have made the immortal discoveries of
Newton unless he had first thrown up the ridiculous
doctrines of Des Cartes. To attend to our errors and
own them, to sacrifice all selfishness to the science,
not to support errors for the sake of vanity, ought to
be the leading precepts of a philosopher. He should
turn his endeavour to the advancement of science and
not to the increase of his reputation. Let him fix steps
for others to rise on, and he does more real good to
science than if he had spent years in controversy on an
equivocal point. Let him turn his thoughts to general
views and try to contain the whole science in his grasp ;
lie will then be calculated to arrange it, improve it, and
reform it and place it in that order which tends so
•materially to its advancement.'

His lecture on Chlorine was given on Saturday, March

374 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

14; the previous week he had given a lecture on
Oxygen, which was not reported by Faraday.

' I will demonstrate what I affirm in a positive and
satisfactory manner.

' Accustomed for years to consider the chemical prin-
ciples of the French School of Physical Sciences as
correct, I had adopted them and put faith in them
until they became prejudices, and I even felt unwilling
to give them up when my judgment was fully convinced
by experiment that they were erroneous. I know that
this is the case in some degree with almost every person ;
he is unwilling to believe that he is wrong, and there-
fore feels averse to adopt what is right when it opposes
his principles.

' Pelletier died from inhaling this gas (chlorine). It
supports combustion of a taper [experiment] ; it does
not contain oxygen.' He showed by experiment that
pure dry chlorine and hydrogen, when exploded, caused
no moisture ; no • water was formed. This was the
synthetical proof. Decomposition of muriatic acid gas
by potassium was shown as the analytical proof. Com-
pounds with phosphorus, ammonia, and sulphur all free
from oxygen. 4 Oxygen does combine with chlorine. I
have ventured to name the compound euchlorine ; it is of
a very bright yellow green colour. Names should repre-
sent things, not opinions, for in the last case they
often tend to misrepresent and mislead.

' As chlorine contained no oxygen, it became an
inquiry well worth investigation to ascertain the part
which chlorine acted in bleaching. It decomposes
water and forms hydrochloric acid.'

1812. &T. 34.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 375

' Had Mr. Berthollet obtained oxygen from chlorine
there would have been no error in his theory, but by
not attending to the minute circumstances of his
experiment, by not ascertaining that the water present
acted no part and was not decomposed, he fell into an
error, and of course all the conclusions he drew were
false and erroneous. Nothing should be allowed but
what can be proved by experiment, and nothing should
be taken for granted upon analogy or supposition.'

Faraday concludes this lecture thus : - Mr. Davy now
proceeded to comment and make observations on the
former theory of chlorine gas. Here I was unable to
follow him. The plan which I pursue in taking of
notes is convenient and sufficient with respect to the
theoretical and also the practical part of the lecture,
but for the embellishments and ornaments of it it will
not answer. Mr. Davy's language at those times is so
superior (and indeed throughout the whole course of
the lecture) that then I am infinitely below him and
am incapable of following him even in an humble
style. Therefore I shall not attempt it; it will be
sufficient to give a kind of contents of it.

6 He said that hypotheses should not be considered as
facts and built upon accordingly. Nevertheless, if
cautiously pursued, they might lead to mature fruit.
That nothing should be taken for granted unless proved.
By considering oxygen as contained in chlorine the
whole chemical world had been wrapped in error
respecting that body for more than one-third of a
century.

6 He noticed that all the truly great scientific men

376 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

were possessed of great humility and diffidence of
their own opinions and powers. He spoke of Scheele,
the discoverer of chlorine ; observed that he possessed a
truly philosophical spirit, gave up his opinions when
he supposed them to be erroneous, and without hesita-
tion or reluctance adopted those of others which he
considered more correct; admired his spirit and
recommended it to all philosophers ; compared it to
corn, which looked but simple and insignificant in
blossom and asked for little praise, yet was the support
of man.'

In this lecture Faraday gives the details of twenty
experiments.

On April 8 Professor Davy lectured on Simple
Inflammable Bodies. ' Their number, excepting the
metals, is six, which unite with oxygen and chlorine,
the subjects of the two last lectures.' He showed
a jet of oxygen burning in hydrogen, and said,
' In the burning of tallow, wax, oil, and wood it is
the hydrogen of their bodies that causes the flame ;
though in most cases it is also combined with carbon,
yet it is the hydrogen that produces the flame. . . .

CI have here a bladder filled with nitrous oxide gas ;
I will breathe it once or twice, but not so far as to
incapacitate me from continuing the lecture. It
produces a very pleasing sensation (far superior to the
most exquisite liquors, such as champagne), and I have
no doubt that if I were to continue it a few minutes
longer I should make a very interesting exhibition to
the company ; but I would rather be excused. . . .

* If we suppose that the diamond is pure carbon.

1812. JEx. 34.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 37?

and is therefore the same as charcoal, we have a very
strong presumptive reason to suppose that all matter
is alike in all substances. If substances so opposite
and so different as charcoal and diamond are in
reality the same kind of matter, then the difference in
other bodies is no proof that they also are not of the
same kind of matter ; and this would lead us to
suppose that there is but one matter in nature, and
that the difference in different bodies is owing to
variety in the distance of the particles, to shape, and to
size. . . .

4 In conclusion several of these six simple com-
bustibles I suspect to be compounds, and perhaps their
nature may shortly be discovered. . . .

4 What gives a strong colour to the idea of the
compound nature of nitrogen is the quantity of it
that can be obtained from animal bodies, whereas they
imbibe none, they combine with none.

' Sulphur and phosphorus both appear to be com-
pound bodies when they are subjected to the power of
a voltaic battery. A great quantity of hydrogen gas
is evolved, so that it appears hydrogen is one of their
constituent parts. . . .

' Whether these bodies are compound or not, they
are objects of new research ; they present new fields for
the great, the industrious, the scientific, and the
penetrating mind. .Our horizon extends the higher
we rise. The result of future inquiries will probably
lay a foundation on which future ages and future
generations may erect an edifice that will reach from
earth to heaven.'

378 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

In this lecture Faraday noted twenty-two experi-
ments.

The next day, April 9, Davy was knighted by the
Prince Regent.

On April 10 Sir Humphry Davy gave his last lec-
ture at the Royal Institution ; it was on the Metals.

' All the volatile metals burn with flame, and all
those that are not volatile with sparks. . . .

'These, with the metals of the alkalies and the
alkaline earths which I have had the good fortune to
discover, make up the number to about forty.'

He shewed the mode of obtaining alkaline metals
by voltaic decomposition ; and earths by potassium.

The mode of obtaining the alkaline metals by
chemical action alone was shown, but the experiment
was not made. A quantity of potassium from com-
mon potash by iron was on the table.

'The combustion of metals is according to their
electricity, those containing the most electricity
burning with the most energy. All those metals that
are positive to others are also more inflammable than
those others, and burn more readily. . . .

' That the metals of the earths and alkalies cannot
exist at the surface of our globe we are well assured,
but they may exist in the interior, and if so they will
offer a very complete and a very probable solution of
the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes ; and
perhaps, considered thus, they may lay the foundation
of a new and perfect system of geology.

' We have here a small volcano formed of clay, &c.,
in the shape of a mountain, and having two or three

1812. jET. 34.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 379

pieces of the alkaline metals introduced here and
there. Xow by adding a little water to this volcano
I shall be able to inflame it and cause it to burn
briskly. . . .

' Meteors consist of alkaline metals and iron ; the
iron burns last if it be burnt at all.

6 What I conceive is, that there are certain bodies
that revolve round our earth — a kind of satellites — and
are the same with respect to our globe that comets
are to the sun. Their orbits are ellipses, whose longer
diameters, like those of the comets, far exceed their
shorter ones. They must move with very great
velocity to counteract the attraction of the earth. . . .

Regarding transmutation of metals he said ' the be-
ginning was deceit, the progress falsehood, and the end
beggary, said Lemery.'

' It was supposed till lately that the fixed alkalies
were simple bodies, but I have had the good fortune
to prove them compounds ; and that pure potash
should contain a metal, oxygen, and water is not
more probable than that the metals are compounds,
yet it not only is probable but it is possible, and in
reality is so. ...

' From the mercurial amalgam and from the quantity
of hydrogen given out by metals when exposed to the
action of a vigorous voltaic battery, either this
hydrogen is combined with the metal or it is one of
its constituent parts. . . .

' If, then, we suppose that hydrogen constitutes a part
of all metals, they will be compounds of it and a base.
The hydrogen will give them their genuine characters

380 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

and make them metals, and their base will bestow on
them their own peculiar properties.

' I should wish particularly on this point to be
understood rightly. I am not an advocate for
alchemy and its attendant frauds ; that will appear
from the tenor of my discourse ; but I conceive it to be
a noble and glorious object to follow up the paths
trod by those chemists who wish for the improvement
of science to ascertain the compound nature of
metals. It is a subject well worthy of pursuit, and
whenever the discovery is made it will confer
immortal honour on the discoverer, the age, and the
country that it is made in.'

Faraday then says, ' Having thus given the general
character of the metals, Sir H. Davy proceeded to make
a few observations on the connection of science with the
other parts of polished and social life. Here it would
be improper for me to follow him. I should merely
injure and destroy the beautiful, the sublime observa-
tions that fell from his lips. He spoke in the most
energetic and luminous manner of the advancement of
the arts and sciences, of the connection that had
always existed between them and other parts of a
nation's economy. He noticed the peculiar con-
geries of great men in all departments of life that
generally appeared together, noticed Anaximander,
Anaximenes, Socrates, Newton, Bacon, Elizabeth,
&c., but, by an unaccountable omission, forgot
himself, though I will venture to say no one else
present did.

4 During the whole of these observations his delivery

1812. JEr. 34.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 381

was easy, his diction elegant, his tone good, and his
sentiments sublime.'

Faraday ends his volume with the notes of eighteen
experiments that were made in this lecture.

The same day Davy wrote to his brother. It was
the eve of his wedding.

Friday, April 10, 1812.

MY DEAR BROTHER, — You will have excused me for not
writing to you on subjects of science. I have been absorbed
by arrangements on which the happiness of my future life
depends. Before you receive this these arrangements will,
I trust, be settled, and in a few weeks I shall be able to return
to my habits of study and scientific research. I am going
to be married to-morrow, and I have a fair prospect of
happiness with the most amiable and intellectual woman I
have ever known.

The Prince Regent, unsolicited by me or by any of my
intimate friends, was pleased to confer the honour of knight-
hood on me at the last levee. This distinction has not
often been bestowed on scientific men, but I am proud of it,
as the greatest of human geniuses bore it ; and it is at least
a proof that the world has not overlooked my humble
efforts in the cause of science.

I am, my dear Brother, most affectionately yours,

H. DAVY.

On June 12 he published his 'Elements of Chemical
Philosophy.' It is dedicated to Lady Davy, 4 as a
pledge that he shall continue to pursue science with
unabated ardour.'

Dr. Thomas Young, in the ' Quarterly Review ' for
September 1812, enables us to see what was thought
of Sir H. Davy and of his book at this time.

382 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

e In attempting a review of this work we cannot
avoid professing that we are far from entertaining the
impression of sitting down as competent judges to
decide upon the merits or demerits of the author ; on
this point the public voice, not only within our own
islands, but wherever science is cultivated, has already
pronounced too definite a sentence to be weakened or
confirmed by anything that we can suggest of ex-
ception or approbation. Our humble labours on such
an occasion must be much more analytical and
historical than critical ; at the same time we are too
well acquainted with the author's candour to suppress
any remark which may occur to us as tending to
correction or improvement. It has most assuredly
fallen to the lot of no one individual to contribute to
the progress of chemical knowledge by discoveries so
numerous and important as those which have been
made by Sir Humphry Davy ; and, with regard to
mere experimental investigation, we do not hesitate to
rank his researches as more splendidly successful than
any which have ever before illustrated the physical
sciences in any of their departments. We are aware
that the " Optics " of Newton will immediately occur to
our readers as an exception ; but, without attempting
to convince those who may differ from us on this
point, we are disposed to abide by the opinion that for
a series of well-devised experiments and brilliant
discoveries the contents of Davy's " Bakerian Lectures "
are as much superior to those of Newton's " Optics " as
the " Principia " are to those or to any other human work
for the accurate and refined application of a sublime

1812. JET. 34.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 383

and simple theory to the most intricate and apparently
anomalous results derived from previous observation.

' Until the year 1 806 Sir Humphry Davy had been
remarkable for the industrious and ingenious applica-
tion of those means of experiment only which had
been long known to chemists. He had acquired at a
very early period of his life a well-established celebrity
among men of science throughout Europe by the
originality and accuracy of his researches, and at the
same time the fluent and impressive delivery of his
lectures had obtained him the most flattering marks of
approbation from the public of the metropolis. But
it was in the summer of that year that, in repeating
some electro-chemical experiments of very doubtful
authority (the production of acid and alkali by the
decomposition of water), he was led into a new train of
reasoning and investigation, which enabled him to
demonstrate the important laws of the connection
between the electrical affections of bodies and their
chemical powers. This was his first great discovery. . . .
Our author's next great step was the decomposition of
the alkalies, which he effected the succeeding year ;
and this, though less interesting and important with
regard to the fundamental theory of the science, was
more brilliant and imposing from its capability of
being exhibited in a visible, tangible form. The third
striking feature which distinguishes the system ad-
vanced in the present work is the assertion of the
existence of at least two empyreal principles — oxygen
and the elastic fluid called the oxymuriatic acid gas
(chlorine). . . .

384 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

' A fourth peculiarity, which, however, is less exclu-
sively and originally a doctrine of Sir Humphry Davy,
is the theory of the simplicity of the proportions in
which all bodies combine — a theory the explicit
illustration and general and minute application of
which the science is principally indebted to our
countryman Mr. Dalton.'

How far later discoveries have advanced our know-
ledge can be seen in the strange words, as they now
sound, which Dr. Young uses when he mentions the
first researches of Davy.

' Certain bodies which attract each other chemically,
and combine when their particles have freedom of
motion, when brought into contact still preserving
their aggregation, exhibit what may be called electrical
polarities, and by certain combinations these polarities
may be highly exalted ; and in this case they become
subservient to chemical decompositions, and, by means
of chemical arrangements, the constituent parts of
bodies are separated in uniform order and in definite
proportions.'

The review then gives the account of the discovery
of potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, magnesium,
aluminum, glycinium, zirconium, silicium, and itrium
and boron.

On the subject of oxymuriatic acid gas Dr. Young
says ' we cannot help thinking his tone somewhat more
decisive than the present state of the investigation alto-
gether authorises,' and he strongly objects to Davy's
terminology ; which never was adopted by chemists.

1812. MT. 34.] SIE HUMPHRY DAVY. 385

As no table of the proportional weights of chemical
substances entering into combination is to be found in
Sir H. Davy's work, Dr. Young says he took the liberty
of inserting one formed from Davy's numbers and from
the experiments of Berzelius and Eichter.

He thus ended his review, ' The character of Sir Hum-
phry Davy's researches has always been that of the most
interesting originality, and we have certainly no reason
to complain that he has in his experiments very
commonly forsaken the beaten path.

6 With all its excellences this work must be allowed
to bear no inconsiderable marks of haste, and we would
easily have conjectured, even if the author had not
expressly told us so in his dedication, that the period
employed on it " has been the happiest of his life." In
that and in every other happiness which may have
befallen him we shall ever most sincerely rejoice ; nor
shall we think the public will have any reason to
reproach him with having done too little for science,
even if he should fail at any future time in his avowed
resolution of pursuing it " with unabated ardour ; " that
he has not yet so failed is become from a late accident
a matter of public notoriety, and if we may expect
perseverance to be at all commensurate to success, we
have no reason to be apprehensive of his passing any
part of his life in inactivity.

6 The style and manner of this work are nearly the
same with those of the author's lectures delivered in
the theatre of the Eoyal Institution. They have been
much admired by some of the most competent judges

c c

386 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

of good language and good taste, and it has been
remarked that Davy was born a poet, and has only
become a chemist by accident. Certainly the situation
in which he was placed induced him to cultivate an
ornamented and popular style of expression and em-
bellishment, and what was encouraged by temporary
motives has become natural to him from habit. Hence
have arisen a multitude of sentimental reflections and
appeals to the feelings, which many will think beauties
and some only prettinesses ; nor is it necessary for us
to decide in which of the two classes of readers we
wish ourselves to be arranged, conceiving that in
matters so indifferent to the immediate object of the
work a great latitude may be allowed to the diversity
of taste and opinion.'

On June 18 Davy sent a paper to the Eoyal Society
on ' Some Combinations of Phosphorus and Sulphur,'
and in July two other papers — ' Further Observations on
Chloride of Nitrogen ; and on Fluorine and Hydro-
fluoric Acid.'

Late in August he wrote to a friend, 4 1 have just
published a volume of the ' Elements of Chemistry,' and
I hope to publish another in the course of the spring.
Having given up lecturing, I shall be able to devote
my whole time to the pursuit of discovery.'

On October 14, from Edinburgh, he wrote to Mr.
Children :

4 1 have received a very interesting letter from
Ampere. He says that a combination of chlorine and
azote has been discovered at Paris, which is a fluid
and explodes by the heat of the hand, the discovery

1813. Mi. 35.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 387

of which cost an eye and a finger to the author. He
gives no details as to the mode of combining them. I
have tried in my little apparatus with ammonia cooled
very low and chlorine, but without success.'

On October 24 he writes, ' On Wednesday we are to
have a meeting at the Institution, to try to make this
compound of azote and chlorine.'

On November 5 a letter was read at the Royal
Society from Davy to Sir Joseph Banks on this com-
pound, which had been formed by exposing chlorine to
a solution of nitrate of ammonia. During his investi-
gation the substance exploded in a tube, and he
received a severe wound in the eye.

On November 1 6 he wrote to his brother, ' It is not
safe to experiment upon a globule larger than a pin's
head. I have been severely wounded by a piece
scarcely bigger.'

In January 1813 he had another severe attack of
inflammation in the wounded eye, and it was not
perfectly well till April.

On April 4 he wrote to his brother, c I am now
quite recovered, and Jane is very well, and we have
both enjoyed the last month in London. I have been
hard at work (on fluorine). We have now a triad of
supporters of combustion.

' I have just finished printing my * Agricultural
Lectures.'

Soon after he again wrote to his brother :

I communicated to you in a former letter my plans as far
as they were matured. I have neither given up the Institu-
tion nor am I going to France, and, wherever I am, I shall

c c 2

388 THE BOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

continue to labour in the cause of science with a zeal not
diminished by increase of happiness and (with respect to
the world) increased independence.

I have just finished the first part of my ' Chemistry' to my
own satisfaction, and I am going to publish my 'Agricultural
Lectures,' for which I am to get 1,000 guineas for the copy-
right and fifty guineas for each edition, which seems a fair
price. As I shall see you so soon I shall not write about
any matters of science.

I was appointed professor (honorary) to the Institution
at the last meeting (April 5). I do not pledge myself to
give lectures. Brande gives twelve.

If I lecture it will be on some new series of discoveries,
should it be my fortune to make them, and I give up the
routine of lecturing merely that I may have more time to
pursue original inquiries and forward more the great
objects of science. This has been for some time my in-
tention, and it has been hastened by my marriage.

I shall have great pleasure in making you acquainted
with Lady D. She is a noble creature (if I may be per-
mitted so to speak of a wife) and every day adds to my
contentment by the powers of her understanding and her
amiable and delightful tones of feeling. God bless you !
Believe me to be your affectionate brother,

H. DAVY.

In the minutes of the monthly meetings of members
of the Eoyal Institution, April 5, 1813, it is stated that
Sir H. Davy rose and begged leave to resign his situation
of Professor of Chemistry ; ' but he by no means wished
to give up his connection with the Koyal Institution, as
he should ever be happy to communicate his researches
in the first instance to the Institution in the way he
did in the presence of the members last Wednesday
(on hydrofluoric acid), and to do all in his power to
promote the interest and success of this Institution.'

1815-26. .Ex. 37-48.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 389

Earl Spencer moved ' that the thanks of this meeting
be returned to Sir H. Davy for the inestimable ser-
vices rendered by him to the Eoyal Institution,
and that, in order more strongly to mark the high
sense entertained by this meeting of the merits
of Sir H. Davy, he be elected Honorary Professor of
Chemistry.'

Mr. Brande was then nominated Professor of
Chemistry, with a salary of 2001. per annum.

In October Sir H. Davy went abroad with Mr.
Faraday.

In May 1815 he came back, and Faraday was re-en-
gaged as the assistant in the laboratory of the Eoyal In-
stitution. Whilst abroad he had sent as many as seven
papers to the Eoyal Society — on c Fluoric Acid Com-
pounds and Hydrogen Acids.' Two papers on ' Iodine,'
on ' Combustion of the Diamond,' on ' Ancient Colours,'
on a ' Solid Compound of Iodine and Oxygen,' on ' Hy-
peroxy-Muriates.'

When he returned he probably intended to make
greater discoveries in chemistry during the following
ten years than he had made during the fifteen years that
he had been at the Institution. He was in the prime
of life. He had won the highest rank as an original
inquirer. He had a love of research which, in spite of
his marriage, his wealth, and ultimately his ill health,
never ceased until his early death. He had Faraday
as his assistant, and he soon found a subject more
fruitful than the composition of nitrogen, which had so
long baffled his genius.

Many of the details of his work in the laboratory

390 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

until his last experiment on the diffusion of gases, in
February 1826, are to be found in the 'Life of Faraday.'
It will be sufficient to give here a statement of the
original researches which he communicated to the
Eoyal Society.

In November 1815 and January 1816 his papers on
Fire-damp were read. He then worked upon flame, and
in January 1817 his researches on flame and his splendid
invention of the Davy Lamp were laid before the
Eoyal Society. At this time the popular reputation of
Davy reached its climax, and, looking back, we can
now see that his life should have ended here ; he
was then only 38 years old. He was presented with a
service of plate as a token of his invaluable invention
by the coal owners of the Tyne and Wear. He
bequeathed this to the Royal Society for the foundation
of a medal, to be given yearly to the chemist who made
the greatest discovery. This prize should be looked
on as a lasting memorial of the countless lives which
Davy and other chemists, by the application of their
scientific researches, have preserved.

Year after year, from 1817 to 1826, Davy communi-
cated new investigations to the Royal Society. He
worked on chlorine, on phosphorus, on mists. He
went abroad again, and he tried chemically to unfold the
Herculanean papyri. He returned in 1820, and was
elected President of the Royal Society after the death
of Sir Joseph Banks. Then he worked on magnetic phe-
nomena produced by electricity, on electric phenomena
in vacuo, on water in the cavities of crystals, on new
phenomena of electro-magnetism. He became jealous

1826-7. ^Ex. 48-9.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 391

of the discoveries of Faraday, and he sent a paper to the
Koyal Society on the ' Application of Liquids Formed
by the Condensation of (rases as Mechanical Agents.'

In 1823 he began to work on the defence of the
copper sheathing of ships, and in 1824 he had two
papers published on this subject. He went in a Govern-
ment steamboat to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark for
the purpose of trying the influence of motion on his
protectors. He had already suffered for a year at this
time from ill health. In 1825 his paper on the 'Pre-
servation of Metals by Electrochemistry' was published.
In practice his plan failed, and he was too ill to bear
lightly the disappointment of his expectations. In
1826 he had a paper read on the ' Relations of Electrical
and Chemical Changes.' It contained but little new
matter. On November 30 he was elected President of
the Royal Society for the last time. He was danger-
ously ill on the day of election.

In the middle of December 1826 he was struck with
paralysis of the right side.

With the restlessness of disease on January 22, about
a month after his attack, he set out for Italy. He had
the worst possible journey across Mont Cenis, and, after
being three weeks at Ravenna, in the middle of March
he wrote to Mr. Poole':

I am, thank God, better, but still very weak and wholly
unfit for any kind of business and study. I have, however,
considerably recovered the use of all the limbs that were
affected, and, as my amendment has been slow and gradual,
I hope in time it may be complete. But I am leading the
life of an anchorite, obliged to abstain from flesh, wine,
business, study, experiments, and all things that I love ;

392 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

but this discipline is salutary, and, for the sake of being able
to do something more for science, and I hope for humanity,
I submit to it, believing that the Great Source of intellec-
tual being so wills it for good.

One of the last thoughts in his note-book, written at
Ravenna, shows his mind :

' Our real knoivledge is but to be sure that we know
nothing, and I can but doubt if this be a curse or
blessing. Those who hop'e, trust, and believe are
surely happier far than those who doubt ; and the sub-
missive child, who of his father's goodness is secure,
is far more blessed than the froward one, who sets
himself against his powerful will, which, after all his
struggles and vain efforts, he must at last obey, rebelling
against the love which would have made him happy.
Is not this the history of man ? — of that bright and
beauteous garden where in innocence and ignorance
he lived and loved till the false taste of knowledge
made him wretched and he knew that he must die.
And is not .this the glory and the consummation of
the Christian faith, which gives him back his innocence,
his hopes, his confidence in God, which through his
life still gilds the future with a golden blessing of an
expected immortality ? Man fell in Adam ; knowledge
was his bane ; man rose in Christ, recovering his
ignorance or substituting hope for what was doubt.'

Four or five days before he left Ravenna he wrote,
April 6, ' Did not shoot, but returned thanks to the
Great Cause of all being for all His mercies to me, an
undeserving and often ungrateful creature, but now
most grateful. May I become better and more grate-
ful and more humble-minded every day ! '

1827. ^Ex. 49.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 393

' Valde miserabilis ' is not an unfrequent expression at
this time, commonly accompanied with mention of
diminished power of limbs and general feebleness, with
pain and numbness. Sometimes he was in despair of
recovery and resigned to his fate, at other times
indulging in hope, thankful for feeling better, and
expressing thanks (and he does it very often) by the
use of letters ; as Gr. Gr. D. (Thanks and glory to Grod) ;
0. 0. 0. ; or more fully thus, Gr. 0. 0. 0. D.

On July 1 he wrote to his friend Mr. Davies Gilbert,
who was on the council of the Eoyal Society. He says
that the expectations of his complete and rapid recovery
have not been realised.

Under these circumstances I feel it would be highly
imprudent, and perhaps fatal, for me to return and to at-
tempt to perform the official duties of President of the Royal
Society ; and as I had no other feeling for that high and
honourable situation except the hope of being useful to the
society, so I would not keep it a moment without the
security of being able to devote myself to the labour and
attention it demands. I beg, therefore, you will be so good
as to communicate my resignation to the council and to
the Society at their first meeting in November, stating the
circumstances of my severe and long- continued illness as
the cause. At the same time I beg you will express to
them how grateful I feel for the high honour they have
done me in placing me in the chair for so many successive
years. Assure them that I shall always take the same
interest in the progress of the grand objects of the Society,
and] throughout the whole of my life endeavour to con-
tribute to their advancement and to the prosperity of the
body.

394 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

He continued his notes thus :

' September 2. — I took my exercise well with less
fatigue, and certainly feel better. Offered up my
thanksgiving to the 0. 0. 0. with tears of gratitude
and feelings of intense adoration.

6 September 27, ST. GOAR. — A very beautiful and
glorious evening. I thought I was going to be quite
well, as the weakness of the left wrist, which put an end
to my shooting at Spiers, is quite gone ; but I found
my stiff leg as bad as ever. Yet I can hardly be
lower or live lower. Dubito fortissime restaurationem
meam.

' As I have so often alluded to the possibility of my
dying suddenly, I think it right to mention that I am
too intense a believer in the Supreme Intelligence, and
have too strong a faith in the optimism of the system
of the universe, ever to accelerate my dissolution. The
laurel-water and laudanum .and opium that are in my
dressing-case are medicines. I have been and am
taking a care of my health which I fear it is not worth,
but which, hoping it may please Providence to preserve
me for wise purposes, I think my duty. Gr. 0. 0. 0.'

He arrived in London on October 6. Not finding his
health improve, on March 29, 1828, he left England
again. Before he went he sent a paper on Volcanoes to
the Eoyal Society.

In his ' Consolations in Travel' he says, CI was desirous
of again passing some time in Southern Austria and
Italy, in the hope of re-establishing a broken constitu-
tion, and though this hope was a feeble one, yet at least
I expected to spend a few of the last days of life more

1828. 2Ef£. 50.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 395

tranquilly and more agreeably than in the metropolis
of my own country. Nature never deceives us. The
rocks, the mountains, the streams, always speak the
same language. A shower of snow may hide the
verdant woods in spring, a thunder-storm may render
the blue, limpid streams foul and turbulent ; but these
effects are rare and transient ; in a few hours, or at least
days, all the sources of beauty are renovated ; and Nature
affords no continued trains of misfortunes and miseries,
such as depend upon the constitution of humanity, no
hopes for ever blighted in the bud, no beings full of
life, beauty, and promise taken from us in the prime
of youth. Her fruits are all balmy, bright, and sweet ;
she affords none of those blighted ones so common in
the life of man and so like the fabled apples of the
Dead Sea, fresh and beautiful to the sight, but when
tasted full of bitterness and ashes.'

On May 22 he writes, ' To my old haunt, Wurzen,
which is subline in the majesty of Alpine grandeur.
The snowy peaks of the Noric Alps rising above thunder-
clouds, whilst spring in all its bloom and beauty blooms
below, its buds and blossoms adorning the face of
nature under a frowning canopy of dark clouds, like
some Judith beauty of Italy — a Transteverene brow
and eye and a mouth of Venus and the Graces.'

On June 3 he wrote to his brother, Dr. Davy:

Aussee, in Styria.

Notwithstanding the long, severe, and depressing
malady under which I still labour I am not entirely without
hope of ultimate recovery, and the few pleasures which
retain in this my state of earthly purgatory have principally
reference to the enjoyments and prospects of my friends ;

396 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

and I indulge in the idea that you are well and happy and
enjoying a life which I can say I only support, supposing
that it pleases Omniscience to preserve me for some ends
which I cannot understand, but which I trust belong to
the great plan of goodness and mercy belonging to the
Divine mind.

It suits me better to write away my days in this solitary
state of existence in the contemplation of nature than to
attempt to enter into London society, where recollections
call up the idea of what I was, and the want of bodily
power teaches me what a shadow I am. I make notes in
natural history, fish, and prepare for another edition of my
' Salmonia; ' ride amongst the lakes and mountains ; and
attach the loose fringe of hope as much as possible to my
tattered garments. I am now going to Ischel, where there
are warm salt baths, to try if they will renovate the muscu-
lar power of my leg and arm.

I wish to go to Trieste in October, to make the experi-
ments I have long projected on the torpedo. God bless
you, my dear John !

Your affectionate Friend and Brother,

H. DAVT.

On June 24 he says :

I have used the baths. I have nearly recovered the
flexibility of the affected limbs, but not their former strength,
and this I can hardly hope to do as long as I am obliged
to live so low and to use so much medicine ; but I shall go
on. Speranza !

In November he sent his last paper to the Royal
Society. It was on the Torpedo.

On December 21 he wrote to his brother :

Rome.

Perhaps in the spring you could see me in Illyria. I
would then show you my kind little nurse, to whom I owe
most of the little happiness I have enjoyed since my illness.

1829. JET. 51.] SIB HUMPHRY DAVY. 397

He had stopped his treatment for four months and
had lived rather more freely, but in ' every respect I
have continued extremely temperate.'

On January 30, 1829, he was still at Eome. He said,
'The palpitation, of the heart has increased almost
alarmingly, and I do not think I have gained any
strength in the weak limbs.'

On February 1 he wrote in his journal, 'Finished
the dialogues fifth and sixth ' (these ended the ' Con-
solations in Travel '). c Si moro, spero che ho fatto il
mio dovere, e che la mia vita non e stata vana ed inutile.'

On February 6 he wrote to his friend Poole from
Kome :

Would I were better, I would then write to you an
agreeable letter from this curious city ; but I am here
wearing away the winter, a ruin amongst ruins.

I write and philosophise a good deal, and have nearly
finished a work with a higher aim than the little ' Salmonia/
which I shall dedicate to you. It contains the essence of
my philosophical opinions and some of my poetical reveries.
I sometimes think of the lines of Waller :

The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,

Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.

I have, notwithstanding my infirmities, attended to
scientific objects whenever it was in my power, and I have
sent to the Royal Society a paper, which they will publish,
on the ' Peculiar Electricity of the Torpedo,' which I think
bears remotely on the functions of life. I attend a good
deal to natural history.

I fight against sickness and fate, believing I have still
duties to perform, and that even my illness is connected
in some way with my being made useful to my fellow-
creatures. I have this conviction full on my mind, that

308 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

intellectual beings spring from the same breath, of Infinite
Intelligence, and return to it again, but by different courses,
like rivers born amidst the clouds of heaven and lost in
the deep and eternal ocean ; some in youth rapid and short-
lived torrents, some in manhood powerful and copious
rivers, and some in age by a winding and slow course, half
lost in their career and making their exit by many sandy and
shallow mouths. [And then he asks him if he will come
and travel with him.] But I write as if I were a strong man,
when I am like a pendulum, as it were, swinging between
death and life. God bless you, my dear Poole !
Your grateful and affectionate Friend,

H. DAVY.

A fortnight afterwards he had another severe attack
of paralysis of the right side.

On February 23, three days after the attack, he
dictated a letter to his brother.

MY DEAR JOHN, — Notwithstanding all my care and dis-
cipline and ascetic living I am dying from a severe attack
of palsy, which has seized the whole of the body with the
exception of the intellectual organ. I am under the usual
severe discipline of bleeding and blistering, but the weak-
ness increases, and a few hours or days will finish my
mortal existence. I shall leave my bones in the Eternal
City. I bless God that I have been able to finish all my
philosophical labours. . . .

God bless you, my dear brother ! may you be happy and
prosperous !

Your affectionate Friend and Brother,

H. DAVY.

The 25th he dictated another letter, chiefly on the
torpedo ; it ends :

1829. JEr. 51.] SIE HUMPHRY DAVY. 399

Pray do not neglect this subject, which I leave to yon as
another legacy.. God bless yon, my dear brother !
Yonr affectionate Friend,

H. DAVY.

He tried to write a postcript, and lie did write ' My
dear John ; ' then he dictated, * I am dying ; come as
quickly as you can. You will not see me alive, I am
afraid, (rod bless you ! '

On March 1 6 Dr. Davy reached him. ' Never shall I
forget,' he says, ' the manner in which he received me,
the joy which lighted up his pale and emaciated
countenance, his cheerful words and extreme kindness,
and his endeavours to soothe a grief which I had not the
power of controlling on finding him so ill, or rather at
hearing him speak as if he were a dying man, who had
only a few hours to live, and who wished to use every
moment of such precious time. With a most cheerful
voice, a smile on his countenance, and most warm
pressure of the hand, he bade me not be grieved, but
consider the event as a philosopher. He expressed his
pleasure at seeing me so soon and in having me with
him in his last hours, and firmly rejected all expectation
and hope of recovery. He had lost all the irritable feel-
ing to which he was very liable, and which generally
accompanies paralytic complaints. His own conviction
that he was a dying man almost persuaded me that the
brilliancy of his mind was a lightening before death.'

The next day he was not only amused but interested
deeply with the dissection of a torpedo made by Dr.
Davy in an adjoining room.

On the night of March 31, having gradually got

400 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

worse, he told Dr. Davy he was sure he should die. 4 He
took leave of me most tenderly, kissed my cheek, and
bade Grod bless me. I believed that now indeed I was
about to lose him and that I should never again hear
his voice of kindness. During the night when I went to
him he still breathed. The following morning, when I
drew back his curtains, he expressed great astonishment
at being alive. He said that he had gone through the
whole process of dying, and that when he awoke he had
difficulty in convincing himself by experiments that he
was in his earthly existence. He added that his being
alive was quite miraculous, and that he now began to
think his recovery not impossible, and that it might be
intended by Divine Providence that his life should be
prolonged for purposes of usefulness.

' From this day he pretty rapidly improved ; as he
mended the sentiment of gratitude to Divine Providence
was overflowing. On April 20 he wrote his last note
at the end of a letter of Dr. Davy's.

' My DEAR SISTER, — I am very ill, but, thanks to my
dearest John, still alive. Grod bless you all ! — H. DAVY.'
' He would have said more, but his feeble hand failed
him.'

On April 30 he was able to leave Eome for Switzer-
land. He stayed a week at Grenoa and on May 28 he
reached Greneva, and there first heard of the death of
Dr. Young, ' which affected him in a manner almost
unaccountable.' He dined early and was read to after-
wards ; at half-past nine he wished to be left alone, c and
I took leave of him,' says Dr. Davy, « for the night. At
half-past two his servant called me. He was insensible,
and in a few minutes he expired.'

1829. JET. 51.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 401

For the last half-century general opinion has been so
charmed by the simple greatness of Faraday, that even
the genius of Davy with his love of original research has
been partially eclipsed. But, as time lessens the effect
of the contrast, the reputation of Davy will recover its
former brightness, and the picture drawn of him by Mr.
Poole will not be looked on as due to the partiality of
his oldest and most attached friend.

'Although the most friendly intercourse existed
between us for thirty years, I fear I have little else to
communicate than to bear testimony to his general
intellectual elevation and to the warmth, sincerity,
and simplicity of his heart. I was first introduced to
him at the Medical Pneumatic Institution at Clifton in,
I think, 1799, where I inhaled his nitrous oxide with
the usual extraordinary and transitory sensations ; but
the interesting conversation, manners, and appearance
of the youthful operator were not transitory — nay,
riveted my attention — and we soon became friends.

' From that time to his death no interruption of the
most cordial goodwill and affection occurred between
us. Neither the importance of his discoveries nor the
attentions of the exalted in rank or science, whether as
individuals or bodies, nor the honour conferred on him
by his sovereign, made the least alteration- in his
personal demeanour or in the tone of his correspondence.
No man was ever less spoiled by the world. The truth
is, though he conformed to the world and paid due
deference to those men and things which are deferred to
by the world, his delight was in his intellectual being.
He felt that he had the power of investigating the laws

D D

402 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI.

of nature beyond that entrusted to the generality of
men, and the success with which he acted on this
impulse increased his confidence. During his last visit
to me in November 1827, when in a very weak state of
health, he more than once said, " I do not wish to live as
far as I am personally concerned ; but I have views
which I could develope, if it please Grod to save my life,
which would be useful to science and to mankind."
Indeed, to be useful to science and to mankind was that
in which he gloried, to use a favourite word of his. He
was enthusiastically attached to science and to men of
science, and his heart yearned to be useful to mankind,
and particularly to the humblest of mankind. How
often have I heard him express the satisfaction which
the discovery of the safety lamp gave him. " I value it,"
he said, " more than anything I ever did."

c However his circumstances and situation in society
altered, his labours and zeal in the pursuit of science
were throughout his life undiminished.

' What from my earliest knowledge of my admirable
friend I considered his most striking characteristic was
the quickness and truth of his apprehension. It was a
power of reasoning so rapid when applied to any
subject, that he could hardly himself be conscious of
the process, and it must, I think, have been felt by
him as it appeared to me pure intuition. I used to say
to him, " You understand me before I half understand
myself."

6 If his mind had been given in that direction he
would probably have ranked high among our poets. I
recollect hearing perhaps the greatest living poetic

1829. JET. 51.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 403

genius (Coleridge) say, " Had not Davy been the first
chemist, he probably would have been the first poet of
his age."

' No man was less a sectarian, if I may use the
expression, in religion, in politics, or in science. He
regarded with benevolence the sincere convictions of
any class on the subject of religion, however they might
vary from his own. In politics he was the ardent
friend of rational liberty ; he gloried in the institutions
of his country and was anxious to see them maintained
in their purity by timely and temperate reform. Men
of science, wherever situated, he considered fellow-
subjects of one great republic spread over the world.
As to his amusements he would say, " It is not the sport
only, though there is a great pleasure in successful
dexterity, but it is the ardour of the pursuit, the pure
air, the contemplation of the fine country, the exercise,
all which invigorate the body and excite the mind to
its best efforts."

' When he made his last visit to me in 1827, on his
arrival he said, " Here I am, the ruin of what I was."
But nevertheless the same activity and ardour of mind
continued, though directed to different objects.

' He was not only one of the greatest but one of the
most benevolent and amiable of men.'

D D 2

405

APPENDIX I.

CONTAINING ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS IN THE LIBRARY OF THE ROYAL
INSTITUTION REGARDING THE SERVICE OF COUNT RUMFORD IX THK
AMERICAN WAR.

As early as 1782 Sir Guy Carlefcon had requested per-
mission to return home ' in consequence ot his repugnance
to a situation merely defensive.' The King's ministers had
just determined that active operations should be carried on
under his command in the West Indies against the French,
and the King had appointed him to the chief command of
the army destined to act there on the day he asked for his
dismissal. Late in the autumn the Bight Hon. T. Town-
send, then Secretary of State, directed that 1,500 British
troops should be sent to reinforce the islands, but Sir Guy
Carleton considered this would be attended with such
serious consequences that he determined ' to deviate from a
measure so explicitly directed to be carried into execution.'
The Secretary suggested that a number of provincials and
foreign troops should be sent, and he authorised that every
provincial corps embarking for the West Indies should
immediately be put upon the British establishment.

On March 14, 1783, Colonel Thompson sent a memorial
for himself, brother officers, and men to Sir Guy Carleton.
He said

' That the officers were chiefly young men of the first
families and connections, and that except the adjutant they
were all Americans, and had suffered very considerably by
the Rebellion, that in the event of peace and the indepen-
dency of the provinces all their hopes of returning to their
former situations will be at an end, and they will be re-

406 APPENDIX I.

duced to the greatest distress. That they are ready to go
anywhere. That the regiment is completely appointed to
the full establishment of six troops of sixty men each, to-
gether with four field-pieces, with their harness, &c.,
complete for a troop of flying artillery.'

The memorial then begs for employment in the West
Indies, or in any other part of his Majesty's dominions, and
states, that in case more troops should be wanted Colonel
Thompson undertakes to raise a very fine battalion of
light infantry from amongst the men then serving in his
Majesty's provincial forces.

On the 21st of March Sir Guy Carleton authorised and
empowered Colonel Thompson to raise four companies of
light infantry, consisting of one captain, one lieutenant, one
ensign, three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers,
and fifty-two privates each, to be attached to the King's
American Dragoons, the whole to be put on the British
establishment upon their embarking for the West Indies.

He said, ' All officers, civil and military, particularly the
officers commanding provincal corps, and all others his
Majesty's liege subjects are hereby required to be aiding
and assisting to you and all concerned in the execution
of the above services, for which this shall be to you and to
them a sufficient warrant and authority.'

The following paper is in Kumford's writing :

APPENDIX I.

407

^roposed Establishment of a Corps of Light Troops to be raised for his Majesty's
Service, to be commanded by Lieutenant- Colonel Thompson, Commandant of the
King's American Dragoons.

Commission Officers' Staff Officers

Non-Commissioned
Officers and Privates

I
1

388

252

6,
__

TOO

,

Captains

S

Lieutenants

1

,

Chaplain

Adjutant

go

£

=

X

J

s

i
?

j~

_

Trumpeters

Drummers

1

1

318

208
50

I

360

240
60

Dismounted Cavalry:
King's American
Dragoons, 6 troops of
60 men each . . ;
Light Infantry : 4
companies of 60 men
each

2

3

4

1

5

4

6

4

1

1

6

1

1

18

12
4

IS
12

6

4
2

4

Artillery : 1 company
of 60 men each . .

Total . .

2 7 1

9 6

4

1

1

6 1

1

3434

0

6

4 576660

' Distribution of the six quarter- masters, two to remain
with the six troops of dragoons, one to act as adjutant and
one as quarter-master to the four companies of light
infantry, two to serve with the company of artillery.

* The four pieces of cannon to be on the flank of the
battalion, two on the right and two on the left, and the
company of artillery to be formed in two divisions. Each
division to be under the command of a quarter-master.

* The privates of the company of artillery to be blacks. To
have no other arms but swords, and to be accoutred for
drawing the guns. The non-commissioned officers to be
whites, and to be armed with muskets and bayonets.
The whole to have infantry pay. Permission to be granted
to take one private from each troop of dragoons for a
drummer to receive pay as a private. As the trumpeters of
the King's American Dragoons are blacks, permission to be
granted for the drummers and the lifers to be blacks also.

408 APPENDIX I.

* The officers of the four companies of light infantry to be
Americans, and to be all taken from the Provincial Line, and
the men to be volunteers from the different provincial
regiments.'

Peace with France put an end to all these plans,
and also to another proposal to raise two regiments of
infantry complete to the present establishment *of the
British regiments of foot ; viz. ten companies, 595 officers
and men. On April 4 Colonel Thompson wrote to Sir
Guy Carleton to return his unfeigned thanks for all the
distinguished marks of his Excellency's goodness to him,
particularly for the last most flattering proof of his Excel-
lency's approbation in appointing him to the command of
light troops, which were to have served in the West Indies
had not peace taken place. He begs that the King's
American Dragoons may go to some part of Nova Scotia,
there to do duty or to be discharged if any wish it, and
that he may go to England, there to solicit, in behalf of
himself and the corps, that they may be employed in the
East Indies or in some other part of his Majesty's dominions
where their services may be wanted.

Extract of a letter from an officer of rank in the Provin-
cial Line to Lieutenant- Colonel Thompson, dated April 2,
1783:

'If our petition for half-pay, which I understand is
strongly recommended by Sir Guy Carleton, should be dis-
regarded, or, what would be still more grievous to us, if the
applications of the refugees in London should be brought
into Parliament, and ours and all our faithful services should
be neglected ! But I will not suppose a case so painful to
my feelings, and which I trust is so very unlikely to happen.
Sir Guy Carleton has repeatedly said that he has not a
doubt but we shall be taken care of; indeed, it would be the
height of cruelty as well as injustice in Great Britain to

APPENDIX I. 409

forsake ns in this hour of our distress. "We have shed our
blood in her cause. She surely does not mean to make
us the sacrifice of peace. She will not leave us to perish
for want, now that she has no longer any occasion for our
services ; nor will she insult our misfortunes by referring us
to the mercy of our enemies. Be assured we must expect
no mercy from them.

' I flatter myself before you reach England our petition will
have been taken into consideration and our request granted.
If this should not be the case, we must depend upon you to
solicit for us. You know the ways of office, and can get
access to ministers, while others less acquainted with
public business and less known, though equally zealous in
our cause, would have it much less in their power to assist
us. You know our services and our sufferings, and can
give every information that can be wanted relative to our
present situation.'

As soon as Colonel Thompson arrived in England he
sent the following letter to Lord North :

'Pall Mall Court, June 8, 1783.

' MY LORD, — Having assisted in drawing up the represent-
ation and petition of the commanding officers of his
Majesty's provincial regiments in North America, and
having been desired by them to solicit for them in this
country, that the prayer of their petition be granted, I take
the liberty of troubling your Lordship upon that subject.

' The situation of the provincial officers, particularly such
of them as are natives or were formerly inhabitants of the
American colonies, is truly distressing. Having sacrificed
their property and all their expectations from their rank
and connections in civil society, and being now cut off
from all hope of returning to their former homes by the
articles of the peace, they have no hope left but in the
justice and the humanity of the British nation.

' I will not trouble your Lordship with an account either

410 APPENDIX I.

of their services or their sufferings ; their merit, as well as
their misfortunes, are known to the whole world, and I
believe their claim upon the humanity and upon the justice
of this country will not be disputed.

* They have stated their situation in a strong but at the
same time in a most respectful manner in their representa-
tion, which I am informed has been transmitted to his
Majesty's Secretary of State by Sir Guy Carleton, and
strongly recommended. As they are extremely anxious to
know their fate, I am to request of your Lordship that I
may be informed whether any and what resolutions have
been taken relative to their petition, and whether their
claims of permanent rank in America and half-pay upon
the reduction of their regiments will meet with the coun-
tenance and support of his Majesty's ministers.

4 1 know your Lordship will excuse the liberty I take in
troubling you upon this occasion, particularly as you will
see by the enclosed extract of a letter I have just received
from New York how anxious the provincial officers are, and
how much they expect that I should exert myself in their
behalf.

' If your Lordship should wish for any further information
respecting the provincial troops, I will do myself the
honour of attending you at any time you may appoint.

' Enclosed I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship
two memorials, one from the Muster-Master General of his
Majesty's Provincial Forces in North America, the other
from his deputy. I know them both to be very deserving
of the favour and protection of Government. The former,
Colonel Winslow, signed the general representation in
behalf of the Provincial Line, and of course was included
in. Sir Guy Carleton's recommendation. As his is a
military appointment by commission from the Commander-
in-Chief in America, as well as that of the Inspector
General of the Provincial Forces, I should suppose they
would both be included with their deputies, should half-pay
be given to the provincial officers in general.

APPENDIX I. 411

* I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, my
Lord, your Lordship's most obedient and most humble
servant,

* B. THOMPSON.'

In three days Lord North wrote to Sir Guy Carleton to
approve of his recommendation (made nine months pre-
viously) of permanent rank and half-pay for the officers of
the King's American Dragoons, and in a week he wrote
another despatch, to say that his Majesty was extremely
disposed to show every possible attention to the remaining
provincial corps, although they may not have literally com-
plied with the engagements which entitled them to rank
and half-pay, and he made known his Majesty's gracious
intention that all the provincial regiments should be dis-
banded at Halifax. On the 27th of June Parliament voted
half- pay to the officers of the different corps which in the
course of the year had been raised in America. Colonel
Thompson then wrote to Sir Guy Carleton :

'Pall Mall Court, July 6, 1783.

* SIR, — I beg leave to congratulate with your Excellency
upon an event which I am confident will afford you great
satisfaction — the resolution of Parliament to give half-pay
to the provincial officers. We all feel ourselves under
infinite obligations to your Excellency upon this oc-
casion. As you have had the goodness to interest yourself
so much in our behalf, I think it my duty to acquaint your
Excellency with all the steps I have taken in this country
relative to the provincial business since my arrival from
New York.

' Soon after my arrival in London, finding the session of
Parliament drawing near to a conclusion, and that no
resolution had been taken by his Majesty's ministers
relative to the memorial of the provincial officers re-
commended by your Excellency, I took the liberty of

412 APPENDIX I.

writing a letter to Lord North upon the subject (copy of
which is enclosed) and made personal applications to
General Conway, Lord Sheffield, and other gentlemen of
the House of Commons, who assisted in bringing the busi-
ness forward.

1 1 then, at Lord North's desire, set about to prepare esti-
mates of the expense of half-pay for the provincial officers
with other information relative to that matter, copies of
which I put into the hands of General Conway and Lord
Sheffield, who both interested themselves very warmly in
our behalf.

' Enclosed I have the honour to transmit to your Excel-
lency for your information copies of all the papers I took
the liberty of laying before Lord North. I earnestly hope
they will meet with your approbation, but if I have made
any mistakes, your Excellency, being folly acquainted with
what I have done, will have it in your power to rectify
them.

' The paper No. 1 contains copies of all the letters between,
the Secretary of State and the Commander-in-Chief in
North America relative the provincial corps ; to which are
added a few observations and a copy of the memorial of
commanding officers of provincial regiments. No. 2 is a
list of the provincial corps in North America, which was
made out from your Excellency's return of the army under
your command, dated New York, April 11, 1783. The
establishment of the officers of the different corps were
taken principally from the printed list of the provincial
army published at New York this year. Your Excellency
will observe that in this list, as well as in the list No. 3,
there is a colonel and a lieutenant-colonel put down to
the King's American Dragoons. This was done with the
knowledge and consent of Lord North and General Conway,
and upon this ground : Being disappointed of getting my
regiment put upon the British establishment, I took the
liberty of soliciting the rank of Colonel of the King's
American Dragoons, and that Major Murray might be pro-

APPENDIX I. 413

moted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the same ; which
request I nattered myself would not be thought unreason-
able, as it was originally intended that there should be a
colonel and a lieutenant-colonel to the regiment, and as
your Excellency had given me reason to hope that you
would have honoured me with the provincial rank of
colonel had I embarked for the West Indies with the
corps to the command of which you had appointed me.

' I took the liberty of writing to your Excellency upon the
subject by the last packet, since which his Majesty has
been graciously pleased to approve of the King's American
J)ragoons having the full establishment of field officers, as
was originally intended, and that I should be promoted to
the rank of colonel. I cannot help nattering myself that
this arrangement will be agreeable to your Excellency, and
that I shall be returned in your list of the provincial officers
for half-pay as colonel.

* The rank to me is of infinite importance, as I am going
abroad in a short time with a view to foreign service ; but
the half-pay is also an object, as I have little else left to
depend on except my industry.

4 The paper No. 3 will explain itself. I wished much
that the House of Commons would have voted the full or
complete establishment of the different corps, but Lord
North seemed very desirous of bringing the sum wanted
for the provincial staff" pay as low as possible, that it might
pass the easier. With that view the calculation of the
savings of part of the chaplain's half-pay, the adjutants,
quart«r- masters, &c., were made. But all these regulations
will depend entirely upon your Excellency. Whatever you
think right I am confident will be done without any kind
of objection or difficulty.

* As it was impossible to lay correct estimates before the
House at the time, none of the corps have been voted
specifically, but their claim to half-pay in general is sub-
stantiated by the vote of a certain sum on account of Jialf-
pay, and so the matter must rest till your Excellency can

414 APPENDIX I.

furnish his Majesty's ministers with such returns of the
different provincial regiments and corps as may be proper
to lay before Parliament.

4 1 hope your Excellency will approve of my having made
no separate claim or interest between the three provincial
corps that are established with permanent rank (of which
the King's American Dragoons is one) and the rest. I
thought it would have a better appearance if we were all
unanimous, and would be more pleasing to the rest of the
corps that we should take our chance in common with
them and stand or fall together. At the end of the paper
No. 3 your Excellency will observe that Major Rooke is
returned for half-pay as Deputy Inspector General of
Provincial Forces. This was done at the desire of Colonel
Innes, who arrived in London after all the papers were
prepared. I know nothing of Major Rookes' pretensions,
and therefore cannot answer for the propriety of his being
included for half- pay, but, as it is a matter that must finally
be determined by your Excellency, I am sure nothing but
what is perfectly right will be done respecting it.

' In the vote of the House of Commons no mention is
made of half-pay for the Muster- Master General or his
deputies ; but it is by no means intended to exclude them,
and, if your Excellency returns their names, the vote for
their half-pay will pass of course. I have spoken to Lord
North upon the subject, and he thinks it perfectly right
that they should be included, as also Mr. Bridgham, Colonel
Innes' deputy.

' With regard to the seconded provincial officers who are
mentioned in the memorandums contained in the papers
No. 4 both General Coaway and Lord Sheffield strongly
advised against bringing their claims before Parliament at
the same time with the application of the officers of the
provincial corps, as the largeness of the sum wanted for the
whole might prevent our success, whereas, if what we
then asked should be granted, it would strengthen the claim
of the seconded officers, and their application would after-

APPENDIX I. 415

wards be brought before Parliament with greater propriety
and with a much better prospect of success. I conceal no
part of the transaction from your Excellency, and I hope
what I have done will meet with your approbation. I am
certain that the motives which induced me to take the
steps I have followed in the prosecution of this business
are such as cannot fail to be approved by your Excellency.
I have been indefatigable in my endeavours to carry what
I thought your wishes respecting the provincials into execu-
tion, and if what I have done meets with your approbation
and with the approbation of my deserving countrymen, in
wnose behalf you have so generously and so nobly interested
yourself, I shall amply be repaid for all the trouble and
anxiety I have had in the course of my solicitations.

' I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, and
with unfeigned gratitude for all your goodness to me, Sir,
your Excellency's most obedient and most faithful Servant,

'B. THOMPSON.

' His Excellency Sir Guy Carleton, KB.'

On the 8th of August, 1783, Lord North wrote to Sir
Guy Carleton :

' Lieutenant- Colonel Thompson having been particularly
distinguished by you in the appointment to the command
of the corps of provincial troops intended to be sent upon
service in the West Indies (which corps, had it embarked,
would, agreeably to the King's commands signified by the
late Secretary of State in his letter of the 3rd of January
last, have been placed upon the British establishment),
and as it appears by your letter of the 15th of June that
his conduct has met with your full approbation, and that
you consider him to be an officer possessing an uncommon
share of merit in his profession, the King for these reasons
has consented to his being appointed by commission from
you Colonel of the King's American Dragoons upon the
American provincial establishment.'

416 APPENDIX I.

Sir Ghiy Carleton wrote to Colonel Thompson :

'New York, October 10, 1783.

1 SIR, — I have received your letter of July 6, with the
several enclosures therein mentioned, and you may be
assured that the resolution of Parliament to give the
British- American officers half-pay (with which also I find
they will all have permanent rank in America) affords me
a very sincere satisfaction. Your zeal and assiduity on this
occasion appear to have been such as your friends might
have expected, and I am sensible of your attention to me
in writing so fully on the subject.

1 The American officers have, in my opinion, so fair a claim
to half-pay that I hope the grant will finally be made for
the full establishment of their several regiments without the
least exception.'

APPENDIX II. 417

APPENDIX II.

CONTAINING A LETTER FROM DR. YOUNG TO COUNT RUMFORD, "WHEN
THE OFFER OF THE PROFESSORSHIP AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION WAS
MADE TO HIM ; AND TWO LETTERS TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS ON THE
INVENTION OF A MICROMETER TO BE USED FOR MEASURING WOOL.
THE ORIGINALS OF THESE LETTERS ARE AMONGST THB PAPERS OF SIR
JOSEPH BANKS.

DB. YOUNG TO COUNT BUMFOBD.

Welbeck Street, Thursday, July 9, 1801.

SIE, — I have received your obliging letter, and beg leave
to return you and the managers thanks for the honour you
do me.

I am willing to undertake the various charges which you
have the goodness to detail, and I natter myself that you
will have no reason to complain of any want of zeal on my
part in the service of the Royal Institution.

But I confess I think it would be in some measure
degrading both to me and to the Institution that the salary,
which appears to me to have been no more than moderate
before, should now be reduced one-fourth,1 at the same
time that the labour and responsibility of the employment
are rather increased than lessened. For, whatever might
have been expected of the late professor respecting the
Journals and the superintendence of the house, I do not
apprehend that any specific stipulation was made on the
subject ; and, as I am determined to devote a greater share
of attention to the Institution than he ever appears to have
done, I do not see that my education and opportunities

1 Count Rumford must have proposed a salary of 2251. (p. 238).
E E

APPENDIX II.

of literary acquirement have been such as to render me less
worthy than he was of a salary which, when compared
with the emoluments of other situations of a similar nature,
is by no means exorbitant.

It would not be my wish, and the duties of the professor-
ship would certainly render it impossible for me, to attempt
any extent of medical practice ; but I should be sorry to
bind myself to reject the little that might accidentally fall
in ray way. I do not mention this as a matter of any
consequence, but to avoid having it understood, from the
conversation I had with you, that I should be obliged to
refuse my advice to a friend who might consult me.

As to the Journals, I should not much object to engage
that a sheet or more should be ready for publication every
week ; but I conceive that it would give them additional
importance if it were left to the direction of the professor,
with the approbation of the committee, with proper notice,
to publish a number at the end of a fortnight, instead of a
week, whenever there might appear to be a real deficiency
of matter to fill it. And I think I should want little or no
assistance, either in translating or in transcribing, except
what Mr. Davy might have the goodness to give me.

I hope that, when you have reconsidered what I have
stated, you will not much differ from me in opinion, and
that you will favour me with a further communication of
your sentiments on the subject.
. J am, Sir, your obliged and obedient humble Servant,

THOMAS YOUNG.
Count Kumford, Eoyal Institution.

APPENDIX II. 419

DR. THOMAS YOUNG TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

Worthing, September 10, 1810.

DEAR SIR, — Observing from the papers that you have
been interesting yourself respecting the arrangement of a
micrometer for the purpose of measuring the diameter of
the fibres of different kinds of wool, I beg leave to trouble
you with the description of a very simple instrument which
I invented some time ago for a similar purpose, and which
I propose to call an agricultural micrometer. I should
imagine it to be sufficiently accurate for all practical
purposes, and the great facility and cheapness of its con-
struction may perhaps render it useful to a class of persons
who would object to the expense of providing themselves
with a more complicated apparatus. If it appear to you in
the same point of view, you will be pleased to make any
use that you may think proper of this communication.
When we look at a distant candle through a lock of wool
it appears surrounded by rings of colours, and these rings
are invariably so much the larger as the wool is the finer.
The cause of these appearances I have endeavoured to
explain in my lectures and elsewhere ; but for the present
purpose the principal object is to ascertain their com-
parative magnitude. In order to perform this I take a
card blackened on one side, describe on it two concentric
circles, the outer exactly one inch in diameter, the inner
li, make at the centre a hole about g1^ of an inch in
diameter, and pierce the card at the circumference of the
inner circle, in 10 or 12 points at equal distances, with a
small pin, and at that of the larger in 7 or 8 points, at
unequal distances, with a large one. I then take a small
rod of wood about a yard long and divide it into half-
inches, numbering them from one end, at which I fix two
or three pins side by side and wind round it a piece of

E E 2

420 APPENDIX II.

wire — for instance a common knitting needle — in such a form
as to hold the card upright between its ends and to slide on
the rod. This is the whole apparatus. It is to be used by
candle-light in this manner : Attach to the fixed pins a
small lock of the wool to be examined, containing 20 or 30
single fibres, and look through them and through the
central hole at a candle not very remote from the card,
the blackened side of the card being turned towards the
eye. The hole will appear to be surrounded by a bright
surface, reddish at the margin, by a dark circle or ring, and
again by a brighter ring, bluish-green within and red
without. If the colours are not seen distinctly, we may
conclude that the wool is mixed and not perfectly fit for
examination ; but in this case we may generally form an
estimate of its quality by means of the bright surface only,
moving the card along the rod until the holes of the inner
circle appear exactly at the extreme margin of that surface,
where it is of a reddish hue, the place of the card as
indicated by the scale showing the number which cha-
racterises the wool. It will also be most convenient to
begin by producing this coincidence of the inner circle in
other cases where the outer ring of colours is more
distinctly seen, and then to adjust the card more accurately ;
so that the holes in the circumference of the outer circle
may appear to coincide with the middle of the coloured
ring at the common limit of the red and greenish portions.
If the holes be seen in the red ring, the card must be
brought nearer to the edge; if in the blue, it must be
moved farther off, and the number of the scale must be
observed as before. It will require very attentive ob-
servation, and perhaps some practice, to obtain always pre-
cisely the same number for the same substance, but by
taking the mean of several trials we may be perfectly
certain of coming within a unit of the true place of the
slider, and perhaps even of avoiding any error at all.

I have not yet had an opportunity of examining any

APPENDIX II. 421

great variety of substances, but I send you the result of
such observations as I have made, which will be sufficient
to enable you to judge of the accuracy of the instrument.

Fibres of coarse wool from green baize, 52. Southdown,
35. Anglo-merino from a flock of Mr. Henty Tarring, 27.
A lock taken from a Paular ewe by Mr. Sheppard, 25
(varying from 24 to 30). Another specimen from the
same flock brought by another gentleman as a test of the
instrument, 25. Cotton, mixed but about, 19. Vigonia
from the Rev. P. Wood, very distinct 14J. Beaver from a
hat, 11. Blood diluted with saliva and rubbed on glass,
beautifully distinct 5. Milk diluted with water, very in-
distinct 3. I have sometimes thought of employing the
instrument as a nosological test of the state of the blood,
of pus, and of other animal fluids.

It is of little consequence to the farmer to know the
actual dimensions indicated by these numbers, nor can I at
present ascertain them with perfect accuracy. They ex-
press, however, very nearly the diameters of the fibres in
the 45,000th of an inch. Thus Mr. Henty's wool, standing
at No. 27, must measure about ?^oir or Wsr °f an incn *n
diameter, and the globules of the blood reduced to spheres
about -^oW' Probably these results are a little too small,
and especially the latter, but by a comparison of a few
measurements, made by means of other micrometers with
these numbers, it would be easy to form a correct table of
their true value, and it may safely be asserted that this in-
strument will enable us in some cases to be secure of
avoiding any error amounting to the hundred-thousandth
of an inch, and almost in all of being far within one ten-
thousandth of the truth, without the use of any microscope,
simple or compound.

En order to render the instrument still more portable we
may employ a piece of tape as a measure, fixing to one end
of it a double piece of card with an aperture, and with some
pins projecting from its edge for holding the wool either

422 APPENDIX II.

between its folds or on the pins, and to the other end a
small weight, serving to draw the tape tight through a
hole in the blackened card. I enclose you the whole
apparatus arranged in this manner, together with a few
fibres of the Vigonia wool, which exhibit the colours in
great perfection, constantly giving 14^ as the characteristic
number. The directions for the use of the instrument
might be engraved and printed on the card if it were
thought desirable.

I also take the liberty of forwarding to you a letter
which I have just received from a French gentleman, who
claims the protection of the Royal Society. You will best
judge whether the case requires or admits any exertion of
your well-known liberality and kindness.

Believe me, dear Sir, with the highest respect and
esteem, your faithful and obedient Servant.

DR. THOMAS YOUNG TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

Worthing, October 6, 1810.

MY PEAK SIR, — I shall be most happy in assisting you to
form a judgment from your own observation of the utility
of my little instrument ; but I cannot forbear to trouble
you with a few specimens of wool, which I imagine will
exhibit the appearances so obviously as at least to convince
you of the perfect practicability of the method. You will
observe, by merely looking through them at a candle, that
there is a manifest difference in the size of the rings, and if
the colours are not sufficiently conspicuous when the card
is used, the central hole may be made a little larger with a
bodkin ; and a common pair of spectacles, such as you
would use in mending a pen, will be amply sufficient for
remedying the flatness of the eye.

I do not apprehend that the different magnitude of the
different fibres of the same fleeces is any objection to the

APPENDIX II. 423

use of the instrument ; on the contrary, it possesses the
singular advantage of detecting at once the inequality
where it exists, and of giving the mean dimensions of the
whole at the same time where the difference is not too
great. I have mixed together, for example, two small
specimens, which measured separately 21 and 31. The
mixture, though evidently irregular, gave the dimensions of
about 24, varying from 23 to 27, according to the part of
the lock which was to be examined, and this is surely a
much greater inequality than can ever exist in any
contiguous part of the same fleece. But, however this may
be, the fact is that the circumstance does not actually
destroy the validity of the indications of my micrometer, as
I shall further exemplify to you by an account of my ex-
aminations of some specimens of the finest wool, with which
I have been favoured by Mr. H. Sheppard, an ingenious
manufacturer at Frome, Somersetshire. You are, perhaps,
better acquainted than I am with the history of Mr.
Western's flock, which stands in so elevated a situation
between the Saxon and the Spanish productions.

Specimens of Wool from Mr. Sheppard, as measured by the
Agricultural Thermometer.

Grey beaver wool . . . No. 11J to 12
Angola ...... about 14

Prime Vigonia 14J

Foreign coney . . . . . .15

American rabbits . . . . . ,15

Yellow rabbits 15

Scotch hares ...... 15

Siberian hares 15, 16

British coney . . . . . .16

Finest seal ...... about 18

Alpaca (a single long hair) .... 18^-20

Goats . 19

424 APPENDIX II.

Saxon 20

Peruvian black 21, 22

Mr. Western's Southdown, ' reckoned the

finest in the kingdom ' . -v^ . 23^

Lioneza . . . . '.>•'• 24?~29

Peruvian light brown . I > -v* -. : . * . f 29

Peruvian dark brown . s 'm- ' »_. ._• t , « \ . 31
Dust of the puff-ball (JLycoperdon borista)
rubbed on glass, very distinct, giving about

inch diameter -t . . , s,. • . 3J

APPENDIX in.

425

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INDEX.

ACA

ACADEMY, American, of Arts and

Sciences, 53 ; Bavarian, of Arts

and Sciences, 89
Accounts of the Royal Institution,

180, 203, 304, 425
Agriculture, Board of, 201, 202,

215

Alkalies, decomposition of, 279
Alloys, experiments on, proposed,

192
Astle, T., his library bought, 259

N, Loammi, 6, 8, 41, 59,
62, 65, 67, 68

Banks, Sir Joseph, 13, 29, 73, 75,
77, 78, 80, 134, 153, 215, 261,
263, 275, 369

Bavaria. Elector of, his introduc-
tion to Rumford, 28 ; made Fel-
low of Royal Society, 29

Beggars at Munich, 31, 32

Bernard, Thomas (afterwards Sir
Thomas), 46, 115, 138; report
on the Institution, 203, 301;
death, 302

Blagden, Sir C., 42, 69, 71, 77, 81,
84, 93

Boekman, Mr., 181

Brande, Mr., 308, 309, 389

CAHLETON, Sir Guy, 24, 25, 260,

405

Chemical operator, 172
Clinton, Sir Henry, 15, 19
Coleridge, Mr., his lectures, 277,

284, 342

DAV

Committee of Science, 215, 302,
309 ; committees for investiga-
tion, 154, 186, 138, 192, 280

Concord, formerly Rumford, 3,
113

Cooper, Astley, 259

Crotch, Dr., 260

Curwen, Judge, his sketch of
Thompson, 18

Cuvier, Baron, his eloge on Rum-
ford, 13, 29, 36, 109

DALTON, Mr., 216, 290

Dartmouth, Lord, 12

Davy, Sir H., 70, 83, 113, 176,
180, 281, 300, 304, 307, 310;
his birth, 312 ; at Bristol with
Dr. Beddoes, 313 ; his first work,
314 ; opinion of by Southey,
315; his first galvanic experi-
ments, 316 ; first interview with
Rumford, 317; his engagement
at the Institution, 318, 320;
his first lectures, 321,323; his
second year's lectures, 326 ;
his success as a lecturer, 328 ;
his lectures on Agriculture, 329 ;
edited the Journal, 331 ; made
F.R.S., 331 ; opinion of him by
Coleridge, 332 ; his own opinion,
333; Dr. Dalton's account of
him, 334; his letter to Cole-
ridge, who was leaving England,
335 ; his letter on the death of
G. Watt, 337; received the
Copley medal, 338 ; his picture
of Ireland, 338 ; his electrical

428

INDEX.

DIB

discoveries, 339 ; his first Baker-
ian lecture, 340 ; secretary of the
Royal Society, 341 ; his account
of Coleridge's lectures, 342 ; his
laboratory notes of the decom-
position of the alkalies, 343,
344, 345, 346 ; his first sketch
of the Bakerian lecture on the
New Metals, 347, 348, 349 ; his
illness, 350 ; Mr. Dibden's ac-
count of his discoveries, 351,
352 ; his lectures after his ill-
ness, 354 ; his work, 355 ; his
new electric battery, 356 ; tries
to decompose nitrogen, 358;
his picture of the laboratory,
360 ; his work on Chlorine,
363, 364 ; his lectures at Dub-
lin, 366; his marriage, 367,
368, 369, 381; his last lectures
at the Royal Institution, 370 ;
on Radiant Matter, 371; on
Chlorine, 374 ; on Simple In-
flammable Bodies, 376 ; on the
Metals, 378 ; his ' Elements of
Chemical Philosophy,' 381 ; re-
viewed by Dr. Youug, 382, 384,
386 ; his agricultural lectures,
387 ; his work on Fluorine,
388 ; elected honorary professor,
389 ; his researches on flame,
390 ; President of Royal So-
ciety, '390 ; on the protection of
ships, 391 ; his first attack of
paralysis, 391 ; resignation of
the presidentship, 393 ; his last
paper on the Torpedo, 396 ; his
last illness, 398 ; his death, 400 ;
his picture by his friend Mr.
Poole, 401, 403

Dibden,Mr., 213, 273, 283, 351/352
Dragoons, King's American, regi-
ment, 16, 25, 26, 407

ELECTOR OF BAVARIA, Theodore, 28,
29, 40, 41, 59, 60, 62 ; Maxi-
milian, 72, 77, 82, 97

Essays, Count Rumford's, 43, 49, 76

FARADAY, Michael, 307, 308, 310,
311, 389, 391

INS

Fluoric principle, Davy on, 307,
308

GAGE, Governor, 6, 11
Garden, English, at Munich, 37
Garnett, Dr., 141, 148, 157 ; his

life, 163 et seq.
Germain, Lord George, 12, 17, 18;

introduces Thompson to Sir. H.

Clinton, 19 ; praises Thompson

to General Leslie, 21
Gibbon, his account of Rumford,

27
Gilray, caricature of Rumford and

Royal Institution, 78
Guizot, M., his eloge on Madame

de Rumford, 101

HARRIS, Mr., first librarian, 213
Hatchett, Mr., 154, 159, 204, 213
Heat, on the source of, 49 ; mo-
tion, 51
Hippesley, Sir John, 146, 148,

152, 156, 180
Howe, General, 10, 11, 13
Huntingdon, barracks at Long
Island, 25

INDUSTRY, House of, at Munich, 33
Institution, London, the, 274, 275
Institution, Royal, the, germ of,
44 ; Proposals, 68 ; caricature
of, 78; foundation, 114 ; objects,
121 ; funds, 125; privileges of
proprietors, 126 ; subscribers,
128 ; government, 129 ; ma-
nagers, 130, visitors, 132 ; first
meeting of proprietors, 134 ;
first meeting of managers, 136 ;
charter, 138 ; new prospectus,
147; new theatre, 148; ab-
stract of the accounts, 180 ; re-
port of, in 1801, 181 ; Davy
appointed assistant lecturer at,
181; lecturer, 186; Young ap-
pointed Professor of Natural
Philosophy at, 188 ; report on
iu 1802, 195 ; Rumford's last
report on, 197; committee on
the state of, 201 ; the first re-

INDEX.

429

JEN

port of the committee on, 203 ;
description of by Young, 206 ;
progress of, 258 et seq. ; com-
pared with the London Institu-
tion, 275 ; difficulties of, 281 ;
value of the property, 282 ;
described by Davy, 280, 292 et
seq. ; income and expenditure
of, from the commencement to
1814, 425

JENNER, Dr., 303

Journal of the Royal Institution,

153, 155, 181, 187, 188, 197,

210

KING Rrrrs. 63, 66
Kitchens, 151

LABORATORY, 152, 155, 159, 160,

204, 269

Landseer, Mr., 272, 273
Lavoisier, Madame, 83, 88, 92, 97,

101, 113, 189
Lawrence, Mr., 277, 303
Lectures, first, at the Institution,

167, 170 ; of Davy and Young,

191 ; of Dalton, 2'l9
Leslie, General, 21, 23
Library, foundation of, 204, 212
Light, experiments on, 40
Long Island, 25

MAGNETO-ELECTRICITY, discovery

of, 279
Marion, General, defeated by

Thompson, 22

Master of the Workshops, 181
Mechanics' School, 142, 162
Mellish, his house bought, 138
Military Academy, Munich, 36
Mineralogical collection, 266, 267,

268, 270

Modfl room, 1 55
Motion heat, 51
Munich, 28, 31, 34, 39, 50, 59, 82,

99, 113

NAPOLEON, First Consul, descrip-
tion of, 73, 79

BUM

National Institute, 75
Nova Scotia, 25, 26

PARLIAMENT, Act of, 288, 291
Payne, William, 281, 305, 306
Pictet, Professor, his account of

Rumford, 27, 145
Printing press, 153, 189. 260
Proposals for founding the Royal

Institution. 114, 121
Proprietors, 271, 273, 285, 287,

296, 303
Pupils in the laboratory, 269

RESIGNATION of Dr. Garnett, 177

Report on the Institution, 181

Repository, 152

Rolfe, Mrs. Colonel, the first wife
of Rumford, 4

Rumford, Benjamin Thompson,
Count, 1 ; his education, 2 ; his
first note-book, 3 ; his first mar-
riage, 4 ; major of militia, 5 ;
persecuted as Royalist, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10 ; leaves his wife, child,
and country, 11 ; made Secretary
of Georgia, 13; volunteer in
British fleet, 14 ; Fellow of the
Royal Society, 15 ; Under Se-
cretary of State, 17; Deputy
Inspector General of Provincial
Forces, 17 ; Lieut.-Colonel of
King's American Dragoons, 19 ;
embarksforNewYork,20; arrives
in Carolina, 21 ; commands the
cavalry there, 21 ; his action on
the Santee river, 22 ; mentioned
in the general orders by General
Leslie, 23 ; arrives at New York,
24 ; consulted by Sir H. Clinton,
24 ; commands at Huntingdon,
Long Island, 25 ; volunteers to
serve in West Indies, 26 ; returns
to London, 26 ; leaves England
for the Austrian service, 27 •
meets the nephew of the Elector
of Bavaria, 28 ; goes to Munich,
28; knighted and enters Ba-
varian service, 28 ; aide-de-camp
and colonel in Bavaria, 29 ; his
reforms in Bavaria, 30-37 ; ex-

430

INDEX.

SAV

periments on conduction of heat,
38 ; experiments on light, 40 ;
his honours, 41 ; his essays, 43,
49 ; on Heat, 50 ; his medals in
America, 53 ; in England, 54 ;
awarded the first Rumford medal,
54 ; his work and honours in
Ireland, 55 ; his picture by his
daughter, 57 ; saves Munich,
59 ; Minister Plenipotentiary
and Envoy Extraordinary to
England, 61 ; not received, 62 ;
invited to America, 64 ; founds
the Royal Institution, 69 ; re-
visits Munich, 71 ; first visits
Paris, 73 ; leaves England, 77 ;
returns to Munich, 81 ; his en-
gagement to Madame Lavoisier,
87 ; his marriage, 90 ; further
scientific researches, 93 ; his
wretched married life, 94 ; goes
to Auteuil, 96 ; his separation,
97 ; returns to Munich, 99 ;
further researches, 104; visited
by Davy, 105 ; his life at Au-
teuil, 106; his death, 109; his
will, 112; his bequest to Har-
vard College, 112; to Davy,
113; founds the Royal Insti-
tution, 114 et seq.', his last
report on the Institution, 197;
causes of his departure from
England, 200 ; state of the funds
•when he left the Institution,
201 ; original documents regard-
ing his service in the American
war, 405 et seq.

SAVAGE, Mr., 155, 189

Simonds, Miss, Rumford's mother,

1

Smith, Sir James, 259
Smith, Sydney, 260, 264, 265, 272,

273, 277
Society for bettering the condition

of the poor, 46, 118, 138, 147
Subscribers to lectures only, 193 ;

ladies recommending subscribers,

209
Subscription for Dr. Garnett's

children, 179

YOU
TANNING, Davy to lecture on, 186,

190

Theatre of Institution, 149, 152
Thompson, Benjamin, Ebenezer

and James, ancestors of Count

Rumford, 1

UNDERWOOD, Mr., 105

VENTILATION, 273
Verona, hospitals at, 42
Volta, experiments on animal elec-
.tricity, 43, 73, 74, 84, 156, 278

WALKER, Rev. T., the father-in-
law of Rumford, 3, 7

Webster, Mr., 138, 141, 148, 172,
185, 193, 195

Wentworth, Governor, 4

Winchelsea, Earl {of, first presi-
dent, 141

Woburn, Massachusetts, the birth-
place of Rumford, 1,8

Wollaston, Dr., 300, 303

Workhouse at Munich, 31

Workshops at the Institution, 198

YOUNG, Dr. Thomas, 112; made
Professor, 188 ; his lectures,
191, 205, 240, 244 ; his preface
to the second volume of the
Journal of the Institution, 206,
246 ; his reply to the ' Edinburgh
Review,' 211 ; his early history,
223 et seq. ; made F.R.S., 225 ;
at Edinburgh, 226 ; ceased to
be a Quaker, 227 ; his Highland
tour, 228 ; at Gottingen, 229 ;
at Cambridge, 232 ; his dis-
coveries on light, 235 ; reviewpd
by Lord Brougham, 236 ; his
reply, 237 ; professor at the
Royal Institution, 238 ; his
editing of the Journals, 239 ;
his introductory lecture on
the objects of the Institution,
242 ; foreign secretary of the
Royal Society, 246 ; leaves the
Royal Institution, 246 ; elected

INDEX.

TOIT

a life subscriber, 246 ; published
his lectures on Natural Phi-
losophy, 247 ; physician of St.
George's Hospital, 248 ; began
his hieroglyphical researches,
249 ; his articles in the ' Ency-
clopaedia Britannica,' 250; his
article on Egypt, 250 ; superin-
tendent of the ' Nautical Alma-
nac,' 250 ; comparison of Young

431

YOU

andFresnel, 251; his interviews
with Champollion, 253 ; abuse
for the 'Nautical Almanac,' 254 ;
his death. His character drawn
by Sir H. Davy, 256 ; by Davies
Gilbert, 257; his answer to
Kumford when offered the pro-
fessorship at Eoyal Institution,
417 ; his invention of a micro-
meter, 419 et sey.

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INDEX.

ACTOS's Modern Cookery *

ALCOCK's Residence in Japan

ALLEN'S Four Discourse! of Chrysostom . .
ALLIES on Formation of Christendom ....

Alpine Guide (The)

ALTHAUS on Medical Electricity

ARNOLD'S Manual of English Literature . .

ARNOTT'S Elements of Physics

Arundines Cami

Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson ....
AYBE'S Treasury of Bible Knowledge

BACON'S Essays, by WHATBLY

_____ Life and Letters, by SPEDDING

Works, edited by SPEDDING ...

BAIN'S Logic, Deductive and Inductive .
Mental and Moral Science

on the Senses and Intellect 10

BALL'S Alpine Guide 23

BAYLDON'S Rents and Tillages 19

Beaten Tracks 23

BECKEB'S Charicles and Gallus 25

BENFEY'S Sanskrit Dictionary 8

BERNARD on British Neutrality 1

BLACK'S Treatise on Brewing 28

BLACKLEY'S German-English Dictionary' . . 8

ELAINE'S Rural Sports 26

__ Veterinary Art 27

BOOTH'S Saint-Simon 3

BOULTBEE on 39 Articles 19

BOURSE on Screw Propeller 18

BOURSE'S Catechism of the Steam Engine . 18

Handbook of Steam Engine .... 18

______Improvements in the Steam

Engine

______ Treatise on the Steam Engine . . 18

, Examples of Modern Engines .. 18

Bo WDLER'S Family SHAKSPEARE 26

BOY D'S Reminiscences 4

BRAJILEY-MOORE'S Six Sisters of the

Valleys 24

BRAXDE'S Dictionary of Science, Litera-
ture, and Art 13

BRAT'S (,C.) Education of the Feelings .... 10

Philosophy of Necessity 10

___ on Force 10

BRO WKE'S Exposition of the 39 Article*. ... 19

BRUNHL'S Life of BRUNEL 4

BUCKLE'S History of Civilization 3

BULL'S Hints to Mothers 28

_ _— Maternal Management of Children 28

BUNSBX'S God in History 3

Prayers 19

BURKE's ViciMitudw of Families 5

BURTON'S Christian Church 4

Cabinet Lawyer 28

CAMPBELL'S Norwa> 22

CARNOTA'S Memoirs of Pomlal 4

CATES'8 Biographical Dictionary 5

CATS' and FARLIE'S Moral Emb. ms 16

Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths .... 9

CHISNBT'B Indian Polity 8

Waterloo Campaign a

and REEVE'S Military Essays

ChoraleBook for England 16

CLOUGH'S Lives from Plutarch X

COLBKSO (Bishop) on Pentateuch 21

Commonplace Philosopher 8

COJf INGTON'S Translation of the &ucid. ... »

CONTANSEAU'sFrench-EngliauDietionaries 8

CONYBEARE and HOWSON '8 St. Paul 29

COTTON'S (Bishop) Life 5

COOPHR'8 Surgical Dictionary 15

COPLAND'S Dictionary of Practical Medicine 15

Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit. ... 9

Cox'8 Aryan Mythology a

Manual of Mythology 25

Tale of the Great Persia^ War 2

Tales of Ancient Greece 25

CRESY'S Encyclopaedia of Civil Engineering »

Critical Essays of a Country Parson ft

CHOOKES on Beet-Root Sugar 15

'8 Chemical Analysis 14

CULLEY'S Handbook of Telegraphy 18

CCBACK'S History of Ireland a

D'AUBIGNE'8 History of the Reformation

in the time of CALVIN 2

DAVIDSON'S Introduction to New Testament 2»

Dead Shot (The), by MARKSMAN 27

DE LA RIVE'S Treatise on Electricity 12

DENISON'S Vice-Regal Life i

DE TOCQUEVILLE'S Democracy in America 2

DISRAELI'S Lothair 34

Novels and Tales 24

DOBELL'S Medical Reports 15

DOBSON on the Ox 27

DOVBonStorms n

DOYLE'S Fairyland ig

DYBH'S City of Borne 2

EASTLAXI'S Hints on Household Taste .... 17
History of Oil Painting is

Life of Gibson '. 1 . . . '. '. '. '. '. '. '. ! '. '. '. 16

Elements of Botany 13

ELLICOTT on the Revision ot the English

NewTestament 19

Commentary on Ephesiuns .... 20

Commentary on Galatians 20

Pastoral Epist. 20

Philii>pians,&c. .20

Thest-alonians 20

Lectures on the Life of Christ. . 20

28 NTEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO.

A DICTIONARY, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical, of Com-
merce and Commercial Navigation. By J. R. M'CULLOCH. New and
thoroughly revised Edition. 8vo. price 63*. cloth, or 70s. half-bd. in russia.

The LAW of NATIONS Considered as Independent Political Commu-
nities. By Sir TRAVEES Twiss, D.C .L. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. ; or separately,
PABT I. Peace, 12s. PART II. War, 18s.

The CABINET LAWYER ; a Popular Digest of the Laws of England,
Civil, Criminal, and Constitutional: intended for Practical Use and
General Information. Twenty-third Edition. Fcp. 8vo. price 7s. 6d.

PEWTNER'S COMPREHENSIVE SPECIFIER ; A Guide to the
Practical Specification of every kind of Building-Artificers' Work ; with
Forms of Building Conditions and Agreements, an Appendix, Foot-Notes,
and a copious Index. Edited by W. YOUNG, Architect. Crown 8vo. price 6s.

The LAW RELATING to BENEFIT BUILDING SOCIETIES; with
Practical Observations on the Act and all the Cases decided thereon ; also a
Form of Rules and Forms of Mortgages. By W. TIDD PRATT, Barrister.
Second Edition. Fcp. 3s. 6d.

COLLIERIES and COLLIERS : a Handbook of the Law and Leading
rases relating thereto. By J. C. FOWLER, of the Inner Temple, Barrister.
Second Edition. Fcp. 8vo. 7s. 6d.

Th- MATERNAL MANAGEMENT of CHILDREN in HEALTH and

Disease. By THOMAS BULL, M.D. Fcp. 5s.

HINTS to MOTHERS on the MANAGEMENT of their HEALTH
'i' i ring the Period of Pregnancy and in the Lying-in Room. By the late
THOHAB BULL, M.D. Fcp. 5s.

HOW to NURSE SICK CHILDREN; containing Directions which
'nay be found of service to all who have charge of the Young. By CTTARLES
WEST, M.D. Second Edition. Fcp. 8vo. Is. &d.

NO FES on LYING-IN INSTITUTIONS ; with a Proposal for Orga-
nising an Institution for Training Midwivps and Midwifery Nnrsps. By
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. With several Illustrations. 8vo. price 7s. 6d.

NOTES on HOSPITALS. By FLOBKNCB NIGHTINGALE. Third Edi-
tion, enlarged ; with 13 Plans. Post 4to. 18s.

CHESS OPENINGS. By F. W. LONGMAN, Balliol College, Oxford.
Fcp. 8vo. 2s. Qd.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE on BREWING ; with Formulae for Public
Brewers, and Instructions for Private Families. By W. BLACK. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

MODERN COOKERY for PRIVATE FAMILIES, reduced to a System
of Easy Practice in a Series of carefully-tested Receipts. By ELIZA ACTON.
Newly revised and enlarged Edition ; with 8 Plates of Figures and 150
Woodcuts. Fcp. Qft.

WILLICH'S POPULAR TABLES, for ascertaining, according to the
Carlisle Table of Mortality, the value of Lifehold, Leasehold, and Church
Property, Renewal Fines, Reversions, &c. Seventh Edition, edited by
MONTAGUE MABKIOTT, Barrister-at-Law. Post 8vo. price 10s.

MAUNDER' S TREASURY of KNOWLEDGE and LIBRARY of

Reference: comprising an English Dictionary and Grammar, Universal
Gazetteer, Classical Dictionary, Chronology, Law Dictionary, a Synopsis
of the Peerage, useful Tables, &c. Revised Edition. Fcp. 8vo. price 6s.

INDEX.

ACTON'S Modem Cockery *

AlCOCK's Residence in Japan 23

ALLEN 's Four Discourse! of Chrysostom . . 93

ALLIES on Formation of Christendom .... 21

Alpine Guide (The) 23

ALTHAUS on Medical Electricity 14

ARNOLD'S Manual of English Literature .. '

ABNOTT's Elements of Physic* 11

Arundines Cami 26

Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson .... 8

AYBE'S Treasury of Bible Knowledge 20

BACON'S Essays, by WHATELY

Life and Letters, by SPSDDING ..

Works, edited by SPED DING

BAIN'S Logic, Deductive and Inductive —

Mental and Moral Science

on the Senses and Intellect

BALL'S Alpine Guide

BAYLDON'S Rents and Tillagee

Beaten Tracks

BECKER'S Charicles and Gallus

BENFEY'S Sanskrit Dictionary

BERNARD on British Neutrality

BLACK'S Treatise on Brewing

BLACKLEY'S German-English Dictionary'..

ELAINE'S Rural Sports

_ Veterinary Art

BOOTH'S Saint-Simon

BOULTBEE on 39 Articles

BOURNE on Screw Propeller

BOURNE'S Catechism of the Steam Engine .

Handbook of Steam Engine ....

^__^_— Improvements in the Steam
Engine

_«____— Treatise on the Steam Engine . .

Examples of Modern Engines . .

BOWDLER'S Family SHAKSPBARE

BOYD'S Reminiscences :

BBAMLEY-MOORE'S Six Sisters of the
Valleys

BRANDE'S Dictionary of Science, Litera-
ture, and Art

BRAY'S (C.) Education of the Feelings ....

Philosophy of Necessity

on Force

BBOWKB'S Exposition of the 39 Article*. . . .

BBUNKL'S Life of BRUNZL

BUCKLE'S History of Civilization

BULL'S Hints to Mothers

Maternal Management of Children

BUNSEN'8 God in History

Prayers

BUBKE'S Vicissitude of Families

BUBTON'S Christian Church

Cabinet Lawyer

CAMPBELL'S Norwa>

CARXOTA'S Memoirs of PomLal 4

CATES'S Biographical Dictionary &

CATS' and FARLIE'S Moral Emb.. ins 16

Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths .... 9

CHIBNBT'S Indian Polity 3

Waterloo Campaign 2

and REEVE'S Military Essays ..

ChoraleBook for England 16

CLOUGH'S Lives from Plutarch 2

COLBNSO (Bishop) on Pentateuch 21

Commonplace Philosopher 8

Cox INGTOS'8 Translation of the ^iieid.... 2&

CONTANSBAU'sFrench-EnglisliDictionariea 8

CONYBEABE and HOWSON'S St. Paul 20

COTTON'S (Bishop) Life 5

COOPER'S Surgical Dictionary 15

COPLAND'S Dictionary of Practical Medicine 14

Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit. ... 9

COX'S Aryan Mythology »

Manual of Mythology 35

Tale of the Great Persiau War 2

Tales of Ancient Greece 26

CRESY'S Encyclopaedia of Civil Engineering »

Critical Essays of a Country Parson 8

CROOKES on Beet-Root Sugar 15

's Chemical Analysis u

CULLEY'S Handbook of Telegraphy 18

CCSACK'S History of Ireland a

D'AUBiGNE's History of the Reformation

in the time of CALVIN 2

DAVIDSON'S Introduction to New Testament 2»

Dead Shot (The), by MARKSMAN 27

DE LA RIVE'S Treatise on Electricity 12

DKNISON'S Vice-Regal Life i

DE TOCQUEVILLE'S Democracy in America 2

DISRAELI'S Lothair 34

Novels and Tales 24

DORELL'S Medical Reports 15

DOBSON on the Ox 27

DovEonStorms n

DOYLE'S Fairyland ]g

DYER'S City of Rome s

EASTLAJOt'S Hints on Household Taste .... 17

History of Oil Paintinc 1C

Gothic Revival 17

LifeofGibson 16

Elements of Botany 13

ELLICOTT on the Revision of the English

NewTestament 19

Commentary on Ephesiuns .... 20

Commentary on Galutians .... 20

Pastoral Epist. 20

Philil'pians, £e. .20

Thesi-alonians 20

Lectures on the Life of Christ. . 20

30

NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO.

Essays and Contributions of A. K. II. B

EWALD' 8 History of Israel 2

FAIBBAIBN on Iron Shipbuilding li

»8 Applications of Iron If

Information for Engineers .. 18

Mills and MiUwork

FARADAY'S Life and Letters

FABRAB'S Families of Speech

-Chapters on Language

FBLKnr on Hosiery and Lace Manufactures 18

FranrELL's Book of theRoach 27

FFOtTLKES's Christendom's Divisions 21

FrrzwTGRAM on Horses and Stables 27

FOWLER'S Collieries and Colliers »

FRANCIS'S Fishing Book 27

FRESHFIBLD'S Travels in the Caucasus. ... 2S

FROUDB'S History of England 1

Short Studies on Great Subjects 9

OAKOT'S Elementary Physics 11

GILBERT'S Cadore, or Titian's Country .... 22
GILBHRT and CHTTROHnjj's Dolomites ....

GlRDLBSTONE'S Bible Synonymes 19

GLEDSTONE'S Life of WHITEFIELD 5

GODDARD'S Wonderful Stories 25

GOLDSMITH'S Poems, Illustrated 28

GRAHAM' $ View of Literature and Art .... S

GRANT'S Home Politics 3

Ethics of Aristotle 6

Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson 8

GRAY'S Anatomy 15

GRBEHHOW on Bronchitis 15

GBIFPITH'S Fundamentals 19

GBOVB on Correlation of Physical Forces . . 12

GURNBY'S Chapters of French History .... 2

G WILT 's Encyclopedia of Architecture .... 17

HAICPDEN'S (Bishop) Memorials .......... 4

HARE on Election of Representative- ...... 7

HARTWIG'S Harmonies of Nature .......... 13

-- Polar World .................... 13

_ Sea and its Living Wonders . . 13

-- Subterranean World .......... 13

- Tropical World ................ 13

HATTGHTON'S Manual of Geology .......... 12

HKRSCHHI/S Outlines of Astronomy ........ 10

HEWITT on Diseases of Women
HODGSON'S Theory of Practice

Time and Space

HOLMBS'S System of Surgery ..............

- Surgical Diseases of Infancy....

Home (The) at Heatherbrae ................ 24

HORNH'S Introduction to the Scriptures. ... 20

- Compendium of ditto ............ 20

How we Spent the Summer ................ 23

Hownrr's Australian Discovery ............ 28

-- Mad War Planet ................ 28

- Northern Heights of London. ... 23

I Life of England .......... 24

- Ylsits to Remarkable Places .... 24

HiJBNER's Memoir of Sixtus V 2

HUGHES'S (W.) Manual of Geography .... li

HUMB'sEssayg IQ

Treatise on Human Nature 10

IHWB'S Roman History 2

INGELOW'S Poems _g

-StoryofDoom .'.'.. 26

Mopsa 26

JAMESON'S Saints and Martyrs 17

Legends of the Madonna 17

Monastic Orders 17

JAMESON and EASTLAKE'S Saviour 17

John Jerningham's Journal 26

JOHNSTON'S Geographical Dictionary 1 1

KALISCH'S Commentary on the Bible 7

Hebrew Grammar 7

KEITH on Fulfilment of Prophecy 20

Destiny of the World 20

KKRL'S Metallurgy is

ROHRIG i8

KIBBY aud SPHHGH'B Entomology 13

LATHAM'S English Dictionary

LAWLOR'S Pilgrimages in the Pyrenees .... 24

LECKY'S History of European Morals 3

Rationalism 3

Leisure Hours in Town 9

Lessons of Middle Age 9

LEWES' History of Philosophy 3

LIDDBLL and SCOTT'S Two Lexicons 8

Life of Man Symbolised 16

LHTDLEY and MOORE'S Treasury of Botany l*

LONGMAN'S Edward the Third 2

Lectures on the History of Eng-
land 2

Chess Openings 28

LOUDOH'S Agriculture i»

— — Gardening 19

Plants is

LOWNDBS'S Engineer's Handbook 17

ITDBBOCK on Origin of Civilisation 1«

Lyra Eucharistica 22

— Germanica 16,21

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