PHYSICS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 307 



park was formed by Rumford himself from a dreary and neglected 

 spot on the north-east of the city. The inscription on one side of the 

 monument commemorates this circumstance by inviting the passer-by 

 to heighten his enjoyment by gratitude. "A suggestive hint/' it con- 

 tinues, " of Charles Theodore's, seized on with genius, taste, and love 

 by Rumford, the friend of mankind, has transformed this once waste 

 spot into what thou now seest around thee." On the opposite side 

 may be read the following : " To him who rooted out the most dis- 

 graceful public evils Idleness and Mendicity ; who gave to the poor 

 relief, occupation, and good morals, and to the youth of the Fatherland 

 so many schools. Go, passer-by (ltistwandler\ and strive to imitate 

 him in mind and action, and us in gratitude. n 



In 1795, after an absence of eleven years, Rumford returned to 

 London to publish his essays. He endeavoured during his visit to 

 interest the people of England in plans of public and domestic 

 economy like those he had put into operation in Germany. Some of 

 the best known of his schemes related to economy in the domestic 

 consumption of coal, improvements in the construction of fireplaces, 

 heating buildings by steam. He personally superintended the fitting- 

 up of the kitchen at the Foundling Hospital in accordance with the 

 plans he had advocated. No detail of household economy appeared 

 to be too small for Rumford's advocacy, if it could be referred to some 

 scientific principle. This circumstance imparts to his schemes of 

 domestic reform, as it does to the great state and social reforms he 

 effected, a peculiar interest. We have here not only an instance of 

 science bearing Baconian fruit, but we see that the relations of men 

 in societies had been admitted to form a science, and we witness the 

 application in practice of its deductions. 



In 1799 Rumford issued in London a prospectus entitled "Proposals 

 for forming, by subscription in the metropolis of the British empire, 

 a public institution for diffusing the knowledge and facilitating the 

 general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improve- 

 ments, and for teaching, by courses of philosophical lectures and ex- 

 periments, the applications of science to the common purposes of 

 life." In the course of the pamphlet he remarks, " It will not escape 

 observation that I have placed the management of fire among the very 

 first subjects of useful improvement, and it is possible that I may be 

 accused of partiality in placing the object of my own favourite pursuits 

 in that conspicuous situation. But how could I have done otherwise? 

 I have always considered it as being a subject very interesting to 

 mankind, and it was on that account principally that at a very early 

 period of my life I engaged in its investigation." He then shows that 

 all arts and manufactures depend upon operations in which fire is em- 

 ployed; that fuel costs the country ten millions annually;* and that 



* This has now increased to more than four times that amount. 



202 



