Life of Count Rumford. 445 



intelligible as the nature of the subjects permitted ; but I must 

 confess that it was not my ambition to render them a substitute 

 for those of any superficial experimenter that was in the habit 

 of delivering courses of natural philosophy for the amusement 

 of boarding-schools. Whatever may have been the imperfec- 

 tions of my lectures, it cannot be asserted, except perhaps in 

 the Edinburgh Review, that they were fit for audiences of ladies 

 of fashion only. After fulfilling for two years the duties of 

 the Professorship, I found them so incompatible with the pur- 

 suits of a practical physician, that, in compliance with the 

 advice of my friends, I gave notice of my wish to resign the 

 office."* 



Rumford's original and noble design, frankly avowed, 

 certainly was to make a regard for the welfare of the 

 common people, their relief and thrift and comfort, 

 " fashionable." Nor would he probably have felt the 

 least objection to investing science with the same attrac- 

 tion. Of late years the lectures before the Royal In- 

 stitution have not been wanting in solidity of substance 

 as dealing with themes which engage the foremost 

 natural philosophers of our times. Sir John Lubbock's 

 lectures on the Origin of Civilization and the Primi- 

 tive Condition of Man, deliyered in 1868; those of 

 Professor Humphrey on the Architecture of the Hu- 

 man Body and those of Professor Odling on the 

 Chemistry of Vegetable Products, delivered in 1870, 

 are among the latest contributions made by profound 

 investigators to the broadest popular advancement in 

 science. Max M tiller's two courses were attractive and 

 instructive. 



I will here add the remainder of Pictet's letter, written 

 while he was still in close intercourse with his friend. 



"Towards the autumn of 1800, Count Rumford went to 



* Miscellaneous Works, Vol. I. pp. 214, 215. 



