How far later discoveries have advanced _The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First Professors

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 altogether authorises,’ and he strongly objects to Davy’s

terminology; which never was adopted by chemists.

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 Richter.

He thus ended his review, ‘The character of Sir Humphry 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.

* * * * *

‘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.

‘The style and manner of this work are nearly the same with those

of the author’s lectures delivered in the theatre of the Royal

Institution. They have been much admired by some of the most competent

judges 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 embellishment, 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 Royal Society on ‘Some Combinations

of Phosphorus and Sulphur,’ and in July two other papers--‘Further

Observations on Chloride of Nitrogen; and on Fluorine and Hydrofluoric

Acid.’

Late in August he wrote to a friend, ‘I 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:

‘I have received a very interesting letter from Ampère. 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 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 compound, which had been formed by exposing

chlorine to a solution of nitrate of ammonia. During his investigation

the substance exploded in a tube, and he received a severe wound in the

eye.

On November 16 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, ‘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 Institution nor am I

going to France, and, wherever I am, I shall 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 copyright 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 intention, 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 permitted 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 Royal

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 Royal

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.’

Earl Spencer moved ‘that the thanks of this meeting be returned to

Sir H. Davy for the inestimable services rendered by him to the Royal

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

200_l._ per annum.

In October Sir H. Davy went abroad with Mr. Faraday.

In May 1815 he came back, and Faraday was re-engaged as the assistant

in the laboratory of the Royal Institution. Whilst abroad he had

sent as many as seven papers to the Royal Society--on ‘Fluoric Acid

Compounds and Hydrogen Acids.’ Two papers on ‘Iodine,’ on ‘Combustion

of the Diamond,’ on ‘Ancient Colours,’ on a ‘Solid Compound of Iodine

and Oxygen,’ on ‘Hyperoxy-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 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 Royal

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 Royal

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 communicated 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 phenomena produced by electricity, on electric phenomena

in vacuo, on water in the cavities of crystals, on new phenomena of

electro-magnetism. He became jealous of the discoveries of Faraday,

and he sent a paper to the Royal Society on the ‘Application of Liquids

Formed by the Condensation of Gases 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 Government 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 ‘Preservation 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 dangerously

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; 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

intellectual being so wills it for good.

One of the last thoughts in his note-book, written at Ravenna, shows

his mind:

‘Our _real knowledge_ is but to be sure that we know nothing, and I

can but doubt if this be a curse or blessing. Those who hope, trust,

and believe are surely happier far than those who doubt; and the

submissive 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 grateful and more

humble-minded every day!’

‘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 G. G. D. (Thanks and glory to God); O.

O. O.; or more fully thus, G. O. O. O. D.

On July 1 he wrote to his friend Mr. Davies Gilbert, who was on the

council of the Royal 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 attempt 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

contribute to their advancement and to the prosperity of the body.

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 O. O. O. with

tears of gratitude and feelings of intense adoration,

‘_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. G. O. O. O.’

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 Royal Society.

In his ‘Consolations in Travel’ he says, ‘I was desirous of again

passing some time in Southern Austria and Italy, in the hope of

re-establishing a broken constitution, and though this hope was a

feeble one, yet at least I expected to spend a few of the last days

of life more 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 sublime 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 I retain in this my state of

earthly purgatory have principally reference to the enjoyments and

prospects of my friends; 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 muscular power of my leg

and arm.

I wish to go to Trieste in October, to make the experiments I have

long projected on the torpedo. God bless you, my dear John!

Your affectionate Friend and Brother,

H. DAVY.

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.

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 Rome. 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 ‘Consolations in Travel’). ‘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 Rome:

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 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 discipline 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 weakness 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:

Pray do not neglect this subject, which I leave to you as another

legacy. God bless you, my dear brother!

Your affectionate Friend,

H. DAVY.

He tried to write a postscript, and he 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. God bless you!’

On March 16 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 feeling 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 worse, he told Dr. Davy

he was sure he should die. ‘He took leave of me most tenderly, kissed

my cheek, and bade God 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. God bless you all!--H. DAVY.’ ‘He would have said more, but his

feeble hand failed him.’

On April 30 he was able to leave Rome for Switzerland. He stayed a

week at Genoa and on May 28 he reached Geneva, 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 afterwards; at half-past

nine he wished to be left alone, ‘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.’

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 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 God 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.”

‘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.”

‘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 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.’

APPENDIX I.

CONTAINING ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS IN THE LIBRARY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION

REGARDING THE SERVICE OF COUNT RUMFORD IN THE AMERICAN WAR.

As early as 1782 Sir Guy Carleton had requested permission to

return home ‘in consequence of 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 Right Hon. T. Townsend, 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 independency of the provinces all their hopes

of returning to their former situations will be at an end, and they

will be reduced to the greatest distress. That they are ready to

go anywhere. That the regiment is completely appointed to the fall

establishment of six troops of sixty men each, together 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 provincial 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 Rumford’s writing:

_Proposed 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._

Key to table columns:

A Majors

B Captains

C Capt.-Lieutenant

D Lieutenants

E Cornets

F Ensigns

G Chaplain

H Adjutant

I Qr.-Masters

J Surgeon

K Mate

L Sergeants

M Corporals

N Trumpeters

O Drummers

P Fifers

Q Privates

R Total

S Total Officers and Men

Key to table rows:

X Dismounted Cavalry: King’s American Dragoons, 6 troops of 60

men each

Y Light Infantry: 4 companies of 60 men each

Z Artillery: 1 company of 60 men each

+-----+-----------------++--------------++----------------------++---+

| | Commission || Staff || Non-Commissioned || |

| | Officers || Officers || Officers and Privates|| S |

| +--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++ |

| |A |B |C |D |E |F ||G |H |I |J |K ||L |M |N |O |P | Q | R || |

+-----+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+

| X | 2| 3| 1| 5| 6| || 1| 1| 6| 1| 1||18|18| 6| | |318|360||388|

| Y | | 4| | 4| | 4|| | | | | ||12|12| | 4| 4|208|240||252|

| Z | | | | | | || | | | | || 4| 4| | 2| | 50| 60|| 60|

| +--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+

|Total| 2| 7| 1| 9| 6| 4|| 1| 1| 6| 1| 1||34|34| 6| 6| 4|576|660||700|

+-----+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+

‘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 fifers to be _blacks_ also.

‘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 Excellency’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 Provincial 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 disregarded, 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

forsake us 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 representation 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 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 representation, 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 countenance and support of

his Majesty’s ministers.

‘I 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.

‘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 previously) 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 complied 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 disbanded 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 occasion. 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 recommended by your Excellency, I took the

liberty of 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 business forward.

‘I then, at Lord North’s desire, set about to prepare estimates

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 Excellency 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 fully 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 promoted to the rank of

lieutenant-colonel of the same; which request I flattered myself

would not be thought unreasonable, 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 Dragoons 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 flattering 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.

‘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, quarter-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 substantiated by the vote of

a certain sum _on account of half-pay_, and so the matter must rest

till your Excellency can furnish his Majesty’s ministers with such

returns of the different provincial regiments and corps as may be

proper to lay before Parliament.

‘I 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 Conway 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 afterwards 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 execution, and if what I have done meets with your

approbation and with the approbation of my deserving countrymen,

in whose 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, K.B.’

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.’

Sir Guy Carleton wrote to Colonel Thompson:

‘New York, October 10, 1783.

‘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.

‘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.

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 THE

PAPERS OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

DR. YOUNG TO COUNT RUMFORD.

Welbeck Street, Thursday, July 9, 1801.

SIR,--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 flatter 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,[40] 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 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 professorship 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 my 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.

I am, Sir, your obliged and obedient humble Servant,

THOMAS YOUNG.

Count Rumford, Royal Institution.

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 construction 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 comparative 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

11/20, make at the centre a hole about 1/20 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 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

characterises 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

observation, and perhaps some practice, to obtain always precisely 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 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 14½. Beaver from a hat, 11. Blood diluted with saliva and

rubbed on glass, beautifully distinct 5. Milk diluted with water, very

indistinct 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 express, 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 27/45000 or 1/1667 of an inch

in diameter, and the globules of the blood reduced to spheres about

1/9000. 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 instrument 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.

In 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 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 14½ 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 DEAR 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 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

examinations 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. 11½ to 12

Angola about 14

Prime Vigonia 14½

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) 18½-20

Goats 19

Saxon 20

Peruvian black 21, 22

Mr. Western’s Southdown, ‘reckoned

the finest in the kingdom’ 23½

Lioneza 24-29

Peruvian light brown 29

Peruvian dark brown 31

Dust of the puff-ball (_Lycoperdon

borista_) rubbed on glass,

very distinct, giving about

1/12000 inch diameter 3½

APPENDIX III.

TABLE OF THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION TO 1814,

_OMITTING SHILLINGS AND PENCE_.

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

| INCOME. |

+--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+

+--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+

| | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ |

|1799 | 5,827 | 514 | 37 | -- | 6,379|

|1800 | 8,047 | 2,280 | 719 | -- |11,047|

|1801 | 2,323 | 363 | 456 | 331 | 3,474|

|1802 | 1,417 | 503 | 1,003 | 75 | 2,999|

|1803 | 1,134 | 245 | 1,624 | 512 | 3,516|

|1804 | 808 | 437 | 2,271 | 248 | 3,765|

|1805 | 1,837 | 387 | 3,845 | 434 | 6,504|

|1806 | 1,134 | 126 | 2,691 | 190 | 4,141|

|1807 | -- | -- | 1,426 | 13 | 1,560|

|1808 | -- | 126 | 1,615 | 138 | 1,880|

|1809[41]| -- | 279 | 1,778 | 289 | 2,347|

|1810 | -- | 812 | 1,723 | 2,334 | 4,869|

|1811 | -- | 1,731 | 1,869 | 719 | 4,319|

|1812 | -- | 913 | 2,172 | 244 | 3,329|

|1813 | -- | 584 | 1,978 | 542 | 3,104|

|1814 | -- | 710 | 1,763 | 1,937 | 4,410|

+--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

| EXPENDITURE. |

+----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+

+----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+

| | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ |

|1799|5,147| -- | 15 | 184 | -- | -- | 5,777|

|1800|4,193| 802 | 174 | 216 | 1 | 4,471 |10,115|

|1801|4,868| 812 | 269 | 376 | 708 | -- | 7,078|

|1802|5,113| 844 | 255 | 344 | 502 | -- | 7,059|

|1803|1,667| 1,014 | 250 | 478 | 326 | 157 | 3,894|

|1804|1,777| 872 | 210 | 181 | 118 | 420 | 3,579|

|1805|1,999| 1,096 | 287 | 193 | 320 | 813 | 4,710|

|1806|1,739| 1,493 | 464 | 384 | 47[42]| 1,805 | 5,935|

|1807|1,816| 1,451 | 440 | 258 | -- | -- | 3,967|

|1808|1,834| 1,128 | 422 | 99 | -- | -- | 3,484|

|1809|1,905| 1,326 | 420 | 375 | -- | Debts, 2,068|

|1810| 562| 499 | 220 | 375 | -- | 2,524 | 4,180|

|1811|1,796| 886 | 322 | 157 | -- | 1,784 | 4,945|

|1812|1,080| 533 | 190 | 172 | -- | 1,165 | 3,140|

|1813| 872| 783 | 222 | 150 | -- | 1,175 | 3,202|

|1814|1,322| 727 | 352 | 180 | -- | 1,870 | 4,451|

+----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+

FOOTNOTES:

[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

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.’

[2] The pamphlet here referred to was Lord Sheffield’s ‘Observations on

the Commerce of the American States.’

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

[5] This was the prospectus of the Royal Institution.

[6] 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.

[7] 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.’

[8] Notwithstanding this his daughter said her father objected to her

marrying Sir C. Blagden.

[9] Probably the caricature by Gilray of the Royal Institution and Sir

John Hippesley, published on May 23. Count Rumford was caricatured on

June 12, 1800.

[10] Blagden himself had just been accused of being a spy.

[11] 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.

[12] The gentlemen chosen were the Earl of Winchelsea, Mr. Wilberforce,

the Rev. Dr. Glasse, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Richard Sulivan, Mr. Colquhoun,

Mr. Parry, and Mr. Bernard.

[13] If any other season should be thought more convenient for these

elections, it will of course be chosen instead of that here proposed.

[14] No notice of workshops exists in the first number of the Journal,

dated April 1800. 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).

[15] 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.

[16] Sir J. Hippesley, elected May 19.

[17] Now the anteroom.

[18] Now the lecturers’ room.

[19] This was part of the front area.

[20] Now the chemical laboratory, 1871.

[21] This and a line below are the only traces of praise of Count

Rumford that are to be found in the records of the Institution.

[22] _Edinburgh Review_, Nos. II. and IX., 1803, 1804.

[23] See Appendix II.

[24] See p. 205.

[25] See p. 210.

[26] Hippesleys and Bernards.

[27] Where Mr. Sharpe, Sydney Smith’s friend, lived.

[28] Mr. E. Davy, his cousin.

[29] See below, p. 350, _Life of Professor Davy_.

[30] 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 lectures there delivered.’

[31] Probably Mr. Boulton of Birmingham.

[32] Present, Sir Joseph Banks, Earl of Morton, Count Rumford, and

Richard Clark, Esq.

[33] The substance of these lectures was published in the fourth number

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.

[34] This was the first memoir on the _Theory of Light and Colours_,

read Nov. 12, 1801.

[35] Davy always thought he caught the fever during an experiment for

disinfecting Newgate Prison.

[36] 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.”’

[37] The voltaic subscriptions amounted to 520_l._

[38] The predecessor of Mr. Faraday.

[39] 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. Thénard were the first to advance the

hypothesis that chlorine was a simple body, and he quotes M. Ampère

as having 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. Ampère that shows he has no claims of

this kind to make.’

[40] Count Rumford must have proposed a salary of 225_l._ (p. 238).

[41] Expenditure to June 12.

[42] Abolished in August.

INDEX.

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

Baldwin, Loammi, 6, 8, 41, 59, 62, 65, 67, 68

Banks, Sir Joseph, 3, 29, 73, 75, 77, 78, 80, 134, 153, 215, 261, 263,

275, 369

Bavaria, Elector of, his introduction to Rumford, 28;

made Fellow 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

Böekman, Mr., 181

Brande, Mr., 308, 309, 389

Carleton, Sir Guy, 24, 25, 260, 405

Chemical operator, 172

Clinton, Sir Henry, 15, 19

Coleridge, Mr., his lectures, 277, 284, 342

Committee of Science, 215, 302, 309;

committees for investigation, 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 éloge on Rumford, 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 experiments, 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 Coleridge, 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 discoveries, 339;

his first Bakerian lecture, 340;

secretary of the Royal Society, 341;

his account of Coleridge’s lectures, 342;

his laboratory notes of the decomposition 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 account of his discoveries, 351, 352;

his lectures after his illness, 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 Dublin, 366;

his marriage, 367, 368, 369, 381;

his last lectures at the Royal Institution, 370;

on Radiant Matter, 371;

on Chlorine, 374;

on Simple Inflammable Bodies, 376;

on the Metals, 378;

his ‘Elements of Chemical Philosophy,’ 381;

reviewed by Dr. Young, 382, 384, 386;

his agricultural lectures, 387;

his work on Fluorine, 388;

elected honorary professor, 389;

his researches on flame, 390;

President of Royal Society, 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, regiment, 16, 25, 26, 407

Elector of Bavaria, Theodore, 28, 29, 40, 41, 59, 60, 62;

Maximilian, 72, 77, 82, 97

Essays, Count Rumford’s, 43, 49, 76

Faraday, Michael, 307, 308, 310, 311, 389, 391

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 éloge on Madame de Rumford, 101

Harris, Mr., first librarian, 213

Hatchett, Mr., 154, 159, 204, 213

Heat, on the source of, 49;

motion, 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, 66;

caricature of, 78;

foundation, 114;

objects, 121;

funds, 125;

privileges of proprietors, 126;

subscribers, 128;

government, 129;

managers, 130;

visitors, 132;

first meeting of proprietors, 134;

first meeting of managers, 136;

charter, 138;

new prospectus, 147;

new theatre, 148;

abstract of the accounts, 180;

report of, in 1801, 181;

Davy appointed assistant lecturer at, 181;

lecturer, 186;

Young appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at, 188;

report on in 1802, 195;

Rumford’s last report on, 197;

committee on the state of, 201;

the first report of the committee on, 203;

description of by Young, 206;

progress of, 258 _et seq._;

compared with the London Institution, 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 Rufus, 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, 219

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

Model room, 155

Motion heat, 51

Munich, 28, 31, 34, 39, 50, 59, 82, 99, 113

Napoleon, First Consul, description of, 73, 79

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 marriage, 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 Secretary of State, 17;

Deputy Inspector General of Provincial Forces, 17;

Lieut.-Colonel of King’s American Dragoons, 19;

embarks for New York, 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 Bavarian service, 28;

aide-de-camp and colonel in Bavaria, 29;

his reforms in Bavaria, 30-37;

experiments 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;

revisits Munich, 71;

first visits Paris, 73;

leaves England, 77;

returns to Munich, 81;

his engagement 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 Auteuil, 106;

his death, 109;

his will, 112;

his bequest to Harvard College, 112;

to Davy, 113;

founds the Royal Institution, 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 regarding 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

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 electricity, 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 president, 141

Woburn, Massachusetts, the birthplace 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 Göttingen, 229;

at Cambridge, 232;

his discoveries on light, 235;

reviewed 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 a life subscriber, 246;

published his lectures on Natural Philosophy, 247;

physician of St. George’s Hospital, 248;

began his hieroglyphical researches, 249;

his articles in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ 250;

his article on Egypt, 250;

superintendent of the ‘Nautical Almanac,’ 250;

comparison of Young and Fresnel, 251;

his interviews with Champollion, 253;

abuse for the ‘Nautical Almanac,’ 254;

his death, 255;

his character drawn by Sir H. Davy, 256;

by Davies Gilbert, 257;

his answer to Rumford when offered the professorship at Royal

Institution, 417;

his invention of a micrometer, 419 _et seq._

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How far later discoveries have advanced our knowledge can be seen in