126 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



In these tours he was not only gathering strength and 

 health for further mental work, bufc rapidly as he passed 

 along he was making geological and other observations 

 with a rapidity of eye for which he was unsurpassed. 



After visiting London in the dead month of August, 

 and finding Oxford still more deserted, he passed on to 

 Bristol to attend the meeting of the British Association 

 there. 



On his return to Edinburgh he thus writes at the end 

 of September : 



To M. AUGUSTE DE LA ElVE. 



'EDINBUKGH, September 26th, 183G. 



'. . . Ever since 1832 I have been either travelling 

 or in a state of the most active mental occupation the 

 former happily providing the health and spirits necessary 

 for the latter. . . . The subject of Mr. Cross 1 is, I con- 

 fess, rather a disagreeable one to me. You will readily 

 enough conceive how much people more conversant with 

 geology than electricity must have been struck by hear- 

 ing mosfc eloquently expounded a series of experimental 

 discoveries, for they were perfectly original to Mr. Cross, 

 silently prosecuted for many years by a retired country 

 gentleman in Somersetshire, and only elicited by chance 

 in the course of discussion. From the first moment that 

 the matter was mentioned to me, and on every succeed- 

 ing occasion, I really believe not less than fifty times, I 

 have patiently vindicated the claims of Becquerel, which 

 only require to be mentioned to be acknowledged. I 

 own T felt somewhat indignant on the subject, because, 

 having seen Becquerel's magnificent preparations and 

 conversed at great length with him on the subject, I had 

 been led at various times, publicly and privately, for 

 several years, to draw the ^attention of geologists to one 

 of the very best things ever done for their science. . . . 

 I have, however, great pleasure in assuring you that 

 everything that could be done was eventually done to 

 put matters straight. The Bristol meeting went off" ex- 

 Relating to the production of artificial crystals by electricity. 



