THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 221 



XIII. — BkANDE, the successor of DAVT, at the KOYAL rxSTITUTTOiT. 



It has been seen tlaat Davy gave liis last lecture at tlio Royal Institution April 

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

 W. T. Brande (born at London January 11, 1788) was invited by the directors 

 to prepare a course of trial lectures, which was delivered in 1813, and was 

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

 Copley's medal was awarded to him by the Royal Society for his comraunicar- 

 tions on the alcohol contained in fermented liquors, and other memoirs i)ublished 

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

 secretaries of the Royal Society, and occupied that post, for which he had beea 

 designated by Wollaston himself, till 1826. 



Mr. Brando has been successively superintendent of the chemical operations 

 at the College of Pharmacists^ in London, professor at the Roj'al Institution, and 

 warden at the English Mint. He resigned his chair at the Institution March 

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

 which he took leave of his auditors : 



" I have aimed in this course to show the 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 

 Avith 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 view 

 of chemistry and its applications, comprising technical, mineral ogical, geological 

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

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

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

 edge and love 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 be 

 granted to more than a very few to teach it \\\i\\ 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 within 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 

 l)ut see in it a fruitful source of the popidarity of science, and the extension of 

 schools destined for scientific instruction, features which so eminently distinguish 

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

 * * * Wlien I regard the Royal Institution under a j^crsonal point of view, 

 I reverence it as my ahtm mafcr, where, while 3'et a scholar, I listened to the 

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



