FARADAY'S ELECTROCHEMICAL RESEARCHES 331 



its pages should be fairly proof against the scientific immorality 

 characteristic of our time. Faraday's tj ansparent honesty of 

 pu^use, his marvellous gift of insight, his wonderfully philo- 

 sophical mind afford a striking contrast to the dogmatism and 

 narrowness of outlook which have prevailed of late years, 

 especially in the field which he was the first to cultivate : 

 unfortunately the details of his work have long been buried 

 in oblivion and the lessons to be learnt from him are in no 

 proper way brought home to the student. 



Those who propose to study the memoirs should prepare 

 themselves by reading a life of the author. The introduction by 

 which the volume is prefaced is not one specially written for 

 the occasion but is taken from Tyndall's Faraday as a Dis- 

 coverer and is scarcely suitable. It is essential to know 

 something of the man to understand his work, to appreciate 

 his wonderful performances. His origin, the manner of his 

 introduction to the Royal Institution, the extraordinary way 

 in which he trained himself both as chemist and physicist, 

 before all things his character must all be considered in 

 connexion with his achievements. 



The perfection of his literary style is altogether marvellous. 

 This is particularly noticeable in the first memoir in the 

 book — that dealing with the identity of electricities derived 

 from different sources. The simplicity and directness of the 

 questions put and at once tested experimentally, the swiftness 

 and sureness of the attack, the transparent honesty of purpose 

 maintained throughout the work are wonderful enough, taking 

 into account the state of knowledge at the time and Faraday's 

 previous experience ; but the purity of diction and the lucid 

 and logical manner in which the work is described and the 

 argument developed are even more noteworthy. Polite letter- 

 writers have served their purpose in the past : if those who 

 aim at accomplishing scientific work take these memoirs of 

 Faraday as their model, far fewer complaints will be made in 

 future of the style of authors of papers on scientific subjects. 



It is only necessary to call attention to a few of the plums 

 in the book. The memoir "On the power of metals and other 

 solids to induce the combination of gaseous bodies " is one that 

 should be studied by all who are interested in " catalytic " 

 phenomena. Little has been added to our knowledge of the sub- 

 ject which is not either contained or foreshadowed in this essay. 



