94 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II. 



Powers.' 5. 'Further Eesearches on the Passage of 

 Heat through Solids.' 6. ' Experiments on the Heat 

 of the Solar Bays.' 7. ' Eemarks on the Temperature 

 of Water at the Maximum Density.' He made it 41 

 F. or 5 C. This paper was published in the ' Philo- 

 sophical Transactions.' 8. On the 'Dispersion of the 

 Light of Lamps by Screens of Ground Glass, Silk, and 

 so forth, with a Description of a New Lamp.' He had an 

 illuminator constructed and presented to the Institute. 

 This paper was published in England as his sixteenth 

 essay on the ' Management of Light in Illuminations.' 

 9. On the ' Cooling of Liquids in Vases of Porcelain, Gilt 

 or not Gilt.' 



In October 1806 he gave this sad account to his 

 daughter : 



MY DEAR CHILD, This being the first year's anniversary 

 of my marriage, from what I wrote two months after it, 

 you will be curious to know how things stand at present. 

 I am sorry to say that experience only serves to confirm me 

 in the belief that in character and natural propensities 

 Madame de Rumford and myself are totally unlike, and 

 never ought to have thought of marrying. We are, besides, 

 both too independent, both in our sentiments and habits of 

 life, to live peaceably together she having been mistress 

 all her days of her actions, and I, with no less liberty, 

 leading for the most part the life of a bachelor. Very 

 likely she is as much disaffected towards me as I am towards 

 her. Little it matters with me, but I call her a female 

 dragon simply by that gentle name ! We have got to 

 the pitch of my insisting on one thing and she on another. 



It is possible that, had the war ceased raging, and had 

 we gone into Italy, where she is dying to go, and with me 

 too, she having heard me speak much of the delights of 



