THE ROYAL INSTITUTIONT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 221 



XIII. l)RAi\DE, THE SUCCESSOR OF DA.VY, AT THE ROYAL raSTITUTION. 



It has been seen that Davy gave his hist lecture at the Royal Institution April 

 9, 1812, but did not resign the chair till a year afterwards. In the interval, Mr. 

 W. T. Brande (born at London January 11, 178S) was invited by the directors 

 to prepare a course of trial lectures, which was delivered in 181.3, and was 

 immediately followed bs^ his nomination to the vacant chair. The same year 

 Copley's medal was awarded to him by the Eoyal Society for his communica- 

 tions on the alcohol contained in fermented liquors, and other memoirs published 

 in the Philosopliical Transactions. In 1816 he replaced Walloston as one of the 

 secretaries of tlie Royal Society, and occupied that post, for which he had been 

 designated by Wollaston himself, till 1826. 



Mr. Brande has been successively superintendent of the chemical operations 

 at the College <)f Pharmacists, in London, professor at the Royal Institution, and 

 warden at the English Mint. Lie resigned his chair at the Institution ]\Iarch 

 16, 1852, and gave his last lecture April 3. The following are the terms in 

 ■\vhich he took leave of his auditors : 



'^ I have aimed in this course to show tlie intimate relation which exists 

 between abstract science and the useful arts, between the refinements of modern 

 chemistry and the improved and extended condition of some of our principal 

 manufactures ; and having terminated that course, it remains for me to take 

 leave of you. I can say conscientiously that it is with reluctance that I quit 

 my chair, but the hoarseness to which I am subject has, for some time, so interfered 

 with my lectures, and is so evidently aggravated by the exertion of speaking, 

 that the measure has become, if not a necessity, at least an act of prudence. 



^' I have been officially attached to the Institution for a period of 40 years. 

 During the greater part of that time, from 1815 to 1848, I gave also a series of 

 lectures and demonstrations on theoretical and practical chemistry in the labor- 

 atory beneath us. They were designed for students of every kind, and took 

 place three times a week, from October to May. They were the first lectures 

 given in London in which the attempt was made to embrace so extensive a vicvv^ 

 of chemistry and its applications, comprising technical, mineralogical, geological 

 and medical chemistry ; and I recur to them with much satisfaciiou, because I 

 can legitimately claim for them tlie merit of having sustained the plan of this 

 Institution and added to its usefulness ; of having aided in diffusing the knowl- 

 edge and h^ve of science, to-day so general ; of having done this for students of 

 every grade and of all classes; and of having thus fulfilled one of our principal 

 objects. 



''As regards the lectures which are given in this amphitheatre, I will not dis- 

 semble that I relinquish them with regret. The instruction here given in chem- 

 istry has to me been always a pleasure ; and it has not been nor can it l)e 

 granted to more than a very few to teach it ^ith success, and to such an audi- 

 tory, for so long a period. * * * Other thoughts still press upon me, when 

 I look back upon the long years which I have passed witliin these walls. I 

 rejoice that I leave the Institution more prosperous, in all respects, than at any 

 former epoch; its scientific reputation better established, its foundation more 

 solid, its halls more frequented, its usefulness better recognized ; and I cannot 

 but see in it a fruitful source of the popularity of science, and tlie extension of 

 schools destined for scientific instruction, features which so eminently distinguish 

 the present age, and which are especially manifest in this powerful metropolis. 

 # * * When I regard the Royal Institution under a. personal point of view, 

 I reverence it as my alma mater, where, while yet a scholar, I listened to the 

 pregnant eloquence of Davy, before I enjoyed his acquaintance and sluired his 

 friendship ; where I was distinguished by the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks ; 

 where I was chosen by Wollaston to succeed himself as secretary of the Royal 



