282 Mr. Faraday on Magneto-electric Induction', 



It was also inserted in the Annates for December, 1831 (p. 402.). 

 My second series of Researches, bearing date of 21st of De- 

 cember, 1831, was read before the^Royal Society on the 12th 

 of January, 1832, and may be found in the Annates for June, 

 1832 (p. 113 — 162.). These are my only publications upon 

 this subject, up to the present time, excepting a few notes ap- 

 pended to memoirs by other authors ; and the whole were 

 written, and publicly read, anterior to any publication on 

 the same subject, by any individual whatever. 



During this time, my letter to M. Hachette, which was in- 

 serted in the Annates, attracted the attention of Messrs. Nobili 

 and Antmori, and those laborious philosophers published a 

 memoir, of the date of 31st of January, 1832, and which was 

 thus posterior to all my publications. This memoir is con- 

 tained in the Annates for December, 1831 (p. 412 — 430.). A 

 second memoir, entitled " New Electro-magnetic Experiments " 

 by those gentlemen, dated 24th of March, 1832, appeared in 

 the Annates for July (p. 280 — 304.). 



My letter to M. Hachette, which in his kindness to me he 

 read before the Academy of Sciences, has^ I fear, become a 

 source of error and misunderstanding, and has been product- 

 ive of injury, rather than benefit, to the cause of philosophic 

 truth. At the same time I know not how to explain my 

 meaning, and place the facts in their proper light, without 

 having the air of complaining in a manner of Messrs. Nobili 

 and Antinori, which to me is particularly disagreeable. I 

 respect those gentlemen, on account of all they have done, not 

 in relation to electricity alone, but for the cause of science in 

 general ; and were it not that the contents of their memoirs 

 oblige me to speak, and leave me only the alternative of ad- 

 mitting or denying the exactitude of their assertions, I should 

 have passed unnoticed the scientific errors discoverable in 

 them, leaving to others the task of animadversion. These 

 gentlemen had, unfortunately, no further knowledge of my 

 researches than they gathered from my short letter to M. 

 Hachette, and without taking the trouble to refer to my me- 

 moirs, which in these circumstances I cannot but think they 

 ought to have done, they at once misinterpret the sense of an 

 expression relating to M. Arago's beautiful observations, as- 

 sume that I had not previously done that for which they take 

 credit to themselves ; and finally, they advance what to me 

 appear to be fallacious ideas upon the magneto-electric cur- 

 rents, and present these ideas as corrections of mine, though 

 with mine they were as yet unacquainted. 



First, allow me to rectify what I regard as the most im- 

 portant mistake of all, the false interpretation given of my 



