STEPHEN HALES 12I 



So that what was said of Hales' chemical position 

 is again true of him considered in relation to 

 nutrition ; he did not live to see the great dis- 

 coveries made at the close of the 1 8th century. 



There is in his writing a limpid truthfulness and 

 simplicity, unconsciously decorated with pretty 

 1 8th century words and half-rusticities which give 

 it a perennial charm. And inasmuch as I desire to 

 represent Hales, not only as a man to be respected 

 but also to be loved, it will be as well to give what 

 is known of the personal side of his character before 

 going on to a detailed account of his work. 



He was, as we have seen, entered at Corpus 

 Christi College, Cambridge, in June 1696. In 

 February 1702 — 3 he was admitted a fellow of 

 the College. It was during his life as a fellow that 

 he began to work at chemistry in what he calls 

 "the elaboratory in Trinity College." The room 

 is now occupied by the Senior Bursar, and forms 

 part of the beautiful range of buildings in the bowl- 

 ing green, which, freed from stucco and other 

 desecration, are made visible in their ancient guise 

 by the piety of a son of Trinity and the wisdom of 

 the College authorities. It was here, according 

 to Dr. Bentley, that "the thieving Bursars of the 

 old set embezzled the College timber,"^ and it 

 was this room that was fitted up as "an elegant 

 laboratory" in 1706 for John Francis Vigani, an 

 Italian chemist, who had taught unofficially in the 



' Quoted by Caroe, in his paper read before the Cambridge 

 Archaeological Society on King's Hostel, etc., and "Printed for the 

 Master and Fellows of Trinity College," in 1909. 



