XII 



lectures in the laboratory, his salary at the Institution was increased to 

 <£100 per annum. 



This year Faraday began a common-place book, in which he continued 

 to make entries on all subjects for fifteen years. Some of the earliest are on 

 the production of oxygen, on the combustion of zinc and iron in condensed 

 air, on a course of lectures on geology delivered at the Royal Institution 

 by Mr. Brande, and an account of Zerah Colburn, thirteen years old, the 

 American calculating boy. Sir H. Davy sent him with a note, saying ''his 

 father will explain to you the method the son uses, in confidence ; I wish 

 to ascertain if it can be practically used." 



He wrote in this year : — " When Mr. Brande left London in August, he 

 gave the Quarterly Journal in charge to me ; it has very much of my time 

 and care, and writing through it has been more abundant with me. It 

 has, however, also been the means of giving me earlier information on some 

 new objects of science." 



m. 25 (1817). 



In 1817 he gave five lectures at the City Philosophical Society on the 

 atmosphere, on sulphur and phosphorus, on carbon, on combustion, and 

 on the metals generally. He had a paper in the Quarterly Journal on the 

 escape of gases through capillary tubes. The entries in his common- 

 place book consist of geological notes of South Moulton Slate, Tiverton, 

 Hulverston, Taunton, Somerton, and Castle Cary ; a multitude of che- 

 mical queries or questions to be worked at, among which are the exciting 

 effects of different vapours and gaseous mixtures ; compounds of chlorine 

 and carbon made out in the autumn of 1820; electricity, magnetism ; a 

 pyrometer; extracts from Shakspeare, Lalla Rookh, Rambler, &c. 



At the end of the year he tells his friend Abbott that he can see less of 

 him, " in consequence of an arrangement I have made with a gentleman 

 recommended to me by Sir H. Davy ; I am engaged to give him lessons in 

 mineralogy and chemistry, three times a week, in the evenings, for a few 

 months." 



Mt. 26 (1818). 



In 1818 five lectures were given by Faraday at the City Philosophical 

 Society, on gold, silver, fee, on copper and iron, on tin, lead, and zinc, 

 and on alkalies and earths. He had six papers in the Quarterly Journal, 

 of which the most important was on sounds produced by flame in tubes. 



In his common- place book there is a long course of lectures on oratory, 

 by Mr. B. H. Smart ; questions for Dorset Street ; an experimental agitation 

 of the question of electrical induction, " Bodies do not act where they are 

 not — query, is not the reverse of this true ? Do not all bodies act where 

 they are not ; and do any of them act where they are ? Query, the nature 

 of courage ; is it a quality or a habit ? " Chemical questions. 



On July 1st he gave a lecture to the City Philosophical Society. It is en- 

 titled " Observations on the Inertia of the Mind.' 5 As this lecture is wholly 



