XXXIV 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



oughly searched. That they were not confined to natural 

 history is evident. He was an assiduous promoter of the 

 Association for the Exploration of Tropical Africa, and it 

 was under his auspices that Mungo Park, Clapperton, and 

 others were sent out. He was one of a committee to 

 investigate the subject of lightning conductors. His letters 

 to Josiah Wedgwood show his keen appreciation not only 

 of the work of the great potter, but of his other ingenious 

 contrivances ; among the mass of papers left by him on his 

 death was an illustrated dissertation on the history and 

 art of the manufacture of porcelain by the Chinese. He 

 took a deep interest in the coinage, and was in close com- 

 munication with Matthew Boulton on questions of minting. 

 On applying for information on this latter point to Dr. 

 Eoberts- Austen, that gentleman informed the editor that, 

 though not officially an officer of the Mint, Banks had 

 probably served on some departmental or Parliamentary 

 commissions charged with mint questions ; and further, 

 that he had presented the mint with a really fine library, 

 embracing all the books it possessed relating to numismatics 

 and coinage questions generally, together with a valuable 

 collection of coins. In reference to this, the editor has also 

 found, on looking over some Banksian MS. in the British 

 Museum, that these included a draft code of regulations for 

 the conduct of the officers of the Mint. 



His interest in manufactures was also constant ; could 

 his letters be brought together, a flood of light would thereby 

 be thrown upon the progress of arts and sciences in Europe 

 during his long tenure of the presidency of the Royal Society. 



As an instance of his zeal for science may be mentioned 

 the interest he took in Sir Charles Blagden's experiments to 

 determine the power of human beings to exist in rooms 

 heated to an excessive temperature. Sir Joseph Banks was 

 one of the first who plunged into a chamber heated to the 

 temperature of 260 Fahr., and was taken out nearly ex- 

 hausted. It may be mentioned that Sir Francis Chantrey 

 once remained two minutes in a furnace at a temperature of 

 320. 



