27 
of Edinburgh, Session 1878 - 79 . 
Museum for a new form of anchor deposited there; and early in 
1839, a medal was conferred on him by “the Society of Arts of 
Scotland,” for his new method of reshipping a rudder at sea, an 
account of which was published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical 
Journal , No. 53. Some of his contributions on the subject of elec- 
tricity may be briefly noticed, but as his thoughts were sown broad- 
cast by extempore lectures and in newspapers, it is impossible to do 
more than allude to them generally. 
He always combated the notion of inherent repulsion, whether 
in gravity or electricity, and as, by independent research, the 
phenomena of electricity gradually opened out to him, he became 
convinced that gravity was dependent on an electric condition, and 
that there were not two electric fluids, essentially positive and 
negative, repellent and attractive, but only one fluid, either “ plus ” 
or “minus” in quantity or intensity, and always attractive. He 
maintained that apparent repulsion could be explained by one 
attractive fluid, always tending to equilibrium, and he wrote and 
lectured much to account for the phenomena generally supposed to 
be adverse to his theory. The papers published in the London and 
Dublin Philosophical Magazine , vol. xix., July 1841, and vol. xxi., 
1842, show that while studying anatomy at the Edinburgh University 
in 1838, he was collecting materials to prosecute his favourite re- 
searches in electricity. It was chiefly but not entirely with reference 
to these papers, that the late Dr Grant (professor of comparative 
anatomy at the London University) wrote as follows : — “In the whole 
range of my experience, no one surpassed Eoberts for deep and 
original views in practical chemistry and physiology.” 
He initiated several forms of galvanic battery. The first mentioned 
by him, he applied more especially to the assaying of copper ores in 
October 1837, also to the blasting of rocks; and in September 1838 
he sent papers on both subjects to the Eoyal Geological Society, 
Cornwall, describing his method of effecting those objects. It was 
on that occasion that he was unanimously elected Member of this 
Society. The following November a letter from him, explaining 
the process, was read by Mr J. P. Gassiot at the London Electrical 
Society, of which he was one of the earliest members. Another 
letter, dated March 1839, was read at the same Society, describing a 
new battery in which the metals were circular discs, and were 
