NATURE 



397 



THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1873 



THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL 

 IMSTITUTION* 



NO other Institution has been so closely associated 

 with the greatest discoveries of Chemical and Phy- 

 sical Science during the present century as that which 

 has its abode in the well-known building in Albemarle 

 Street. The names of Rumford, Banks, Young, Davy, 

 Faraday, Tyndall, will always add lustre to its annals ; 

 nor will it be forgotten that in its laboratory were made 

 the most famous discoveries of Davy and Faraday. Dr. 

 Bence Jones gives us in this very interesting volume a 

 sketch of the history of the Institution, derived from its 

 own record of proceedings, interspersed with biographical 

 notices of its founder. Count Rumford,and its most eminent 

 professors, Garnett, Young, and Davy. Of Faraday we 

 hear comparatively little. Dr. Bence Jones having sketched 

 his life in a separate biography ; and with regard to the 

 eminent men whose present connection with the Institu- 

 tion is adding fresh popularity to its courses of lectures, 

 he is altogether silent. 



Probably few of the visitors who now attend the lectures 

 at the Royal Institution, or who crowd to its fashionable 

 Friday evening reunions, are aware of the object with 

 which it was originally founded, as shown in the prospec- 

 tus drawn up by Count Rumford in 1799, from which the 

 following are extracts : — 



"Proposals for forming by subscription, in the me- 

 tropolis of the British Empire, a public Institution for 

 diffusing the knowledge and facilitating the general in- 

 troduction of useful mechanical inventions and improve- 

 ments, and for teaching by courses of philosophical 

 lectures and experiments the application of science to the 

 common purposes of life : — 



" The two great objects of the Institution being the 

 speedy and general diffusion of the knowledge of all new 

 and useful improvements, in whatever quarter of the 

 world they may originate, and teaching the application of 

 scientific discoveries to the improvement of arts and 

 manufactures in this country, and to the increase of 

 domestic comfort and convenience, these objects will be 

 constantly had in view, not only in the arrangement and 

 execution of the plan, but also in the future management 

 of the Institution. 



" As much care will be taken to confine the establish- 

 ment within its proper limits as to place it on a solid 

 foundation, and to render it an ornament to the capital 

 and an honour to the British nation. 



" In order to carry into effect the second object of the 

 Institution, namely, ' Teaching the application of science 

 to the useful purposes of life,' a lecture-room will be fitted 

 up for philosophical lectures and experiments, and a com- 

 plete laboratory and philosophical apparatus, with the 

 necessary instruments, will be provided for making 

 chemical and other philosophical experiments." 



This basis was adhered to, and these eminently prac- 

 tical objects were steadily kept in view, as long as the 

 management remained with the original founders of the In- 

 stitution ; but it soon passed into the second stage of its 

 existence. Count Rumford had fixed his residence abroad 



* " The Royal Institution : Its Founders and its First Professors." By 

 Dr. Bence Jones, Honorary Secretary. (London : Longmans and Co. 1871.) 



during the latter years of his life, the eminent men 

 whom he had collected around him, headed by his inti- 

 mate friend and ally, Sir Joseph Banks, withdrew from its 

 active management, and its control passed into the hands 

 of others, whose chief aim was to recruit its exhausted 

 funds by making the Royal Institution one of the most 

 fashionable places of resort in London. In this they suc- 

 ceeded ; but their success was mainly due to the extraor- 

 dinary interest which centred round the remarkable dis- 

 coveries of young Davy which signalised the early years 

 of the century. When we read the history of these dis- 

 coveries, following one another in quick succession — the 

 determination of the true constitution of the alkalies and 

 alkahne earths, potassa, soda, lime, magnesia, the decom- 

 position of ammonia — each a link in the chain of investi- 

 gation which produced a complete revolution in chemical 

 philosophy, we are disposed to query whether future dili- 

 gent workers in the fields of science will ever again be 

 rewarded by discoveries of similar gigantic importance. 



The sketch of the life of Sir Benjamin Thompson, 

 Count Rumford of the Holy Roman Empire, as presented 

 by Dr. Bence Jones, shows a character full of strange 

 contradictions. A native of North America, during 

 the War of Independence an ardent Royalist, and 

 throughout his life imbued with aristocratic principles of 

 the strongest tinge, he yet spent all his energies in phy- 

 sical discoveries and mechanical inventions calculated to 

 ameliorate the condition of the masses, and to promote 

 the health and comfort of their lives. It was indeed for 

 the purpose of forwarding this object mainly, as we have 

 seen, that he projected the establishment of the Royal 

 Institution. A man of the warmest affections, he yet 

 compelled his second wife (Lavoisier's widow), to seek 

 rehef from domestic unhappiness in a judicial separation. 

 With a remarkable power of attracting around him, and 

 moulding to his views, the most eminent men in various 

 branches of science, there were yet few whom he did not 

 estrange from him by his morbid jealousy, and by the 

 eccentricity of his conduct. The littlenesses of his cha- 

 racter will, however, be forgotten in the noble aims and 

 great results of his life. 



We are glad to have recalled to us in this volume the 

 career of so disinterested a student of Science as Dr. 

 Thomas Young, and to find a full recognition of his 

 eminent position as the avant-couri'er of Davy and Fara- 

 day. Born in Somersetshire in 1773, he showed in his 

 school-boy days that precocity of intellect and power of 

 acquiring knowledge in almost any subject presented to 

 him, which does not always mark the future genius. After 

 spending the years from fourteen to nineteen as a private 

 tutor, he became in 1793 a student at St. Bartholomew's 

 Hospital, presented during the same year a paper to the 

 Royal Society on the " Structure of the Crystalline Lens," 

 and in 1794, at the age of twenty-one, was elected a Fellow 

 of that body. From 1799 to 180 1 Dr. Young was carrying 

 on his remarkable series of experiments on Sound and 

 Light, and in the latter year was appointed Professor of 

 Natural Philosophy to the Royal Institution. His lectures 

 however were not considered sufficiently popular for the 

 audiences that then frequented it, and his connection with 

 it terminated in 1S03. During the next twenty years of his 

 life he practised as a physician in London, being connected 

 with St. George's Hospital. In 1818 he was appointed 



