OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: JUNE 9, 1868. 33 



in the manufacture of glass for telescopes, and his valuable report 

 upon the methods of manufacturing glass ; in general and molecular 

 Physics, we remember his labors and discoveries on the limit to 

 evaporation, on the temperature of vapors, and their solidification, on 

 their passage through capillary tubes, on the pneumatic paradox of 

 Clement Desormes, on vegetation ; in Practical Science, we are indebted 

 to him for suggestions, experiments, inventions, or discoveries on ven- 

 tilation, illumination, fumigation, gunnery, on india-rubber and the al- 

 loys of steel, on the prevention of explosions in collieries, on the ex- 

 tinguishment of blazing houses, on sustaining a prolonged breath in a 

 dangerous atmosphere, and on the false pretensions of spirit-rappings 

 and table-turnings. 



This meagre enumeration, in which years of intellectual activity are 

 registered in as many lines, indicates the exceeding great versatility of 

 Faraday's genius. Nevertheless, Chemistry and Electricity were his 

 favorite if not his absorbing pursuits, from the beginning to the end of 

 the half-century which his discoveries have made so brilliant. And of 

 these two Chemistry served him, but Electricity commanded hi in. It 

 is impossible in this place to specify, much less to analyze, th.e varied 

 researches of Faraday in chemistry and electricity. 



In 1820 he described two new compounds of chlorine and carbon. 

 " The discovery of these two compounds," says our Foreign Associate, 

 De la Rive, " filled up an important gap in the history of chemistry." 

 In 1825, Faraday discovered benzole, to which, says Hoffman, " we 

 virtually owe our supply of aniline, with all its magnificent progeny of 

 colors." 



In 1820, Oersted set up one of those milestones which stand forever 

 in the history of science, by his inauguration of electro-magnetism. Many 

 pressed into the ranks to pursue the new discovery to its consequences, 

 and Faraday among the foremost. He adapted the reaction between 

 the current of electricity in the conductor and the magnet to the pro- 

 duction of a continuous revolution, — a stupendous novelty then, without 

 a parallel in mechanics nearer than the heavenly bodies. Even Am- 

 pere's sweeping generalization of the electro-dynamic action had not 

 anticipated such a result, although it was afterwards able to explain it. 

 In 1831 the scientific interest which had been monopolized by 

 electro-magnetism was transferred to a younger sister, magneto-elec- 

 tricity. Magneto-electricity was a corollary from Faraday's new dis- 

 covery of voltaic induction, when the latter was viewed in the light of 

 VOL. VIII. 5 



