1883.] on Count Bumford, Originator of the Boyal Institution. 443 



and speech without any distrust or disquiet as to what authority 

 might judge or say- — a privilege then more precious than any one 

 to-day imagines, just as one who has breathed under an air-pump can 

 best ajDpreciate the delight of free respiration." One cannot, however, 

 forget the pouring of boiling water over the roses. 



The ' Gentleman's Magazine ' for 1814 describes the seclusion in 

 which Eumford's later days were spent. After the death of the illus- 

 trious Lagrange, he saw but two or three friends, nor did he attend 

 the meetings of the National Institute, of which he was a member. 

 Cuvier was then its perpetual secretary, and for him Eumford always 

 entertained the highest esteem. He differed from Laplace on the 

 question of surface-tension, and dissent from a man then standing so 

 high in the mathematical world was probably not without its penal con- 

 sequences. Kumford always congratulated himself on having brought 

 forward two such celebrated men as the Bavarian general Wieden, 

 who was originally a lawyer or land steward, and Sir Humphry 

 Davy. The German, French, Spanish, and Italian languages were as 

 familiar to the count as English. He played billiards against him- 

 self; he was fond of chess, which however made his feet like ice and 

 his head like fire. The designs of his own inventions were drawn by 

 him with great skill ; but he had no knowledge of painting and sculp- 

 ture, and but little feeling for them. He had no taste for poetry, but 

 great taste for landscajDe gardening. In later life his habits were 

 most abstemious, and it is said that his strength was in this way so 

 reduced, as to render him unable to resist his last illness. After 

 three days' suffering from nervous fever he succumbed on the 21st of 

 August, when he was on the eve of returning to England. He was 

 buried in the small cemetery of Auteuil, which has since been disused 

 as a place of burial. The grave, says Dr. Ellis, is marked by a hori- 

 zontal stone— une pierre tumulaire — and by a perpendicular monu- 

 ment 6 feet high, 6 feet in breadth, and 3J feet in thickness. Both 

 are of marble and bear inscriptions as follows. That on the monument 



is: — 



A la IMemoire 



de 



Benjamin Thompson, 



Comte de Rumford, 



ne en 1753, a Concord * pres Boston, 



en Amerique, 



mort le 21 Aout, 1814, a Auteuil. 



Physicien ce'lebre, ^ 



Philanthrope eclaire', ^^ 



ses de'couvertes sur la lumiere 



et la chaleur 



ont illustre son nom. 



Ses travaux pour ameliorer 

 le sort des pauvres _ 

 le feront toujours cberi 

 des amis de I'humanite. 



* Woburn. 



