61 



The President's Address /or the year 1867-1868. 

 By James Glatsher, Esq., F.E,.S., Sec. 



Gentlemen, — It gives me pleasure again to address you 

 after you have heard the report of your treasurer, which 

 shows the finances of our Society to be in a prosperous and 

 good condition. 



At the present time, too, we have a larger number of 

 Fellows than at any time of the history of this Society, 



We have lost some Fellows by the hand of death, and this 

 is always a painful subject upon which Ave have to dwell 

 yearly. During the past year four FelloAvs have been thus 

 removed, namely, Henry Black, Henry Clark, Bobert 

 Warington, and Michael Faraday. 



Professor Faraday was born at Newington, Surrey, in 

 the year 1T91, and was apprenticed to a bookseller and book- 

 binder, with whom he continued till 1812. At this early 

 period of his life he showed his thirst for science, not only 

 reading such works on science as fell in his way, but applied 

 himself to the construction of electric and other machines. 

 In his letter to Dr. Paris, in reference to his first introduc- 

 tion to Sir H. Davy, he says, " I was very fond of experi- 

 ment, and averse to trade. It happened that a gentleman, a 

 member of the Boyal Institution, took me to hear some of 

 Sir H. Davy's last lectures in Albemarle Street. I took 

 notes, and afterwards wrote them out more fully in a quarto 

 volume. My desire to escape from trade (which I thovight 

 vicious and selfish) and to enter into the service of science, 

 which I imagined made its pursuers amiable and liberal, in- 

 duced me at last to take the bold and simple step of writing 

 to Sir H. Davy, expressing my wishes, and a hope that if an 

 opportunity came in his way he would favour my views. At 

 the same time I sent the notes I had taken at his lectures." 

 The result of this letter was that in 1813 Faraday was ad- 

 mitted into the Royal Institution as Chemical Assistant to 

 Professor Brande. 



He soon became the favourite pupil and the friend of his 

 patron, and in October, 1813, he accompanied Sir Humphrey 

 Davy on a tour through several countries of Europe, return- 

 ing to the Boyal Institution in 1815, and in which he con- 

 tinued up to the time of his death. 



