276 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



means of existence but the very precarious one arising 

 from occasional courses of lectures. After struggling with 

 difficulties which would have weighed many men down, he 

 was at length, by the intercession of his friend«i, placed by 

 Lord John Russell on the civil list for a pension of 50/. 

 per annum, but which he has lived a very short time only 

 to enjoy, having but received one year and one quarter's 

 allowance. Some time ago, he resolved on collecting his 

 numerous papers together, and publishing them in one 

 handsome quarto volume, which has been a short time 

 before the public, and as a specimen of provincial typo- 

 graphy has seldom been equalled. 



* After tracing his career, and contemplating the many 

 valuable discoveries he gave to his country, it is painful to 

 think that his last years were embittered by privations 

 and pecuniary anxieties, that must have preyed upon his 

 mind, and destroyed his comforts, and that, at last, he has 

 left a wife and her daughter totally unprovided for. There 

 is little inducement held out in this country to the cultivation 

 of science, whilst the scientific mei:i of other countries are 

 ennobled, honoured, and placed in comparative affluence, 

 as witness Professor CErsted, a labourer in the same field 

 with poor Sturgeon. Here they are neglected, unrewarded, 

 and left to pine in poverty and want. The world uses 

 their discoveries, heedless that the head that gave them 

 moulders in the grave, the victim of its own mighty efforts, 

 and of their ingratitude. 



* In the ••Athenaeum" of November 23, 1850, is the 

 following paragraph : — " At Copenhagen, Dr. CErsted, the 

 well-known discoverer of electro-magnetism, has been 

 celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his appointment at 

 the Royal University of that city. We English are not 



