HENRY CAVENDISH. 431 



HENKY CAVENDISH. 



By C. K. EDMUNDS, 



JOHNS HOPKINS I'NIVERSITY. 



"pERHAPS the most remarkable character in the history of science 

 -*- is Henry Cavendish. One of the few men of science who have 

 possessed great fortunes, he yet ignored the power of his wealth, allow- 

 ing himself but few and simple wants. Highest bom of the distin- 

 guished chemists of Great Britain, he cared nothing for the external 

 advantages of birth, preferring to house himself till forty years of 

 age in his father's stables, where unmolested he might devote his days 

 to the pursuit of truth. Outside the monk's cell and the prisoner's 

 dungeon, few men have lived and held so little communication with 

 their fellows or made so few friendships as he. Yet his fame could not 

 be kept from proclaiming itself even during his lifetime, while to-day 

 he is called the 'Newton of Chemistry' and the 'Father of Quantitative 

 Physics,' being declared by Biot to be 'the richest of scientists, and the 

 most scientific of the rich.' 



Of a family, tracing its pedigree to the Lord Chief Justice under 

 Edward III., he was the son of Lord Charles Cavendish, the third son 

 of the Duke of Devonshire, and of Lady Anne Grey, daughter of Henry, 

 Duke of Kent, and was born October 10, 1731, at Nice, Italy, whither 

 his mother had gone on account of ill-health. His mother died two 

 years later, after giving birth to a second son, Frederick; and Caven- 

 dish, residing with his father in London till eleven j^ears of age and 

 spending the next eleven years away at school, was deprived at the 

 most critical period of his life of the salutary influences of a happy 

 liome, that might have tempered the peculiarities of his character, 

 which in the last analysis, however, are to be referred chiefly to original 

 conformation. 



Having entered Peterhouse College, Cambridge, in 17-19, he left in 

 1753 without taking his degree, a step scarcely due to fear of the ex- 

 aminations themselves, but rather in keeping with his very pronounced 

 sh3Tiess, which he was said to possess to a degree bordering on disease. 

 His personal history is a blank for the next ten years, but his subse- 

 quent writings show that they were spent in mathematical, chemical 

 and physical research. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society 

 in 1760. 



In 1783, the death of his father left him free to follow his own 

 tastes. During his father's lifetime he was kept on an annuity of 



