■672 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[February 22, 1873. 
toiies as perfect as possible for tbe good of bis suc¬ 
cessor's. 
I add a few words on tbe reasons wbicb led tbe 
managers to recommend tbe rebuilding our laboratories, 
and the consequent demobtion of tbe place where tbe 
great discoveries that I have touched upon were made. 
In the opinion of those best qualified to judge, our 
chemical laboratory was badly ventilated, badly lighted, 
badly drained, and quite unfit to be occupied for many 
hours daily. It was probably the very worst, and cer¬ 
tainly all but the worst chemical laboratory in London; 
and compared with more modern ones both at home and 
abroad, it was nowhere. The physical laboratory had 
remained for nearly seventy years in its original state. 
At first it was said to be equal to any laboratory ; but 
then there were hardly any in existence in this country ; 
and during the last few years such splendid edifices 
have arisen in London, in Oxford, in Cambridge, in 
Manchester and in Glasgow, and elsewhere, that the 
laboratory of Davy, of Faraday, and of Tyndall was 
much interior to the private laboratories of the pro¬ 
fessors who carry on their course of instruction in 
public rooms of still greater size and extent of resource. 
The main purpose of our laboratories is research, and 
instead of offering by their excellence an inducement 
to professors to come and to stay, the one was a mere 
makeshift, the other a noble relic. Neither offered fa¬ 
cilities which were not offered in a larger measure else¬ 
where. And those only who know wdiat is going on 
both at home and abroad can form an adequate idea of 
the competition which, in this respect alone, will prevail 
for a generation to come. 
. B y construction of new laboratories this material 
disadvantage will be removed. Future professors w ill 
have buildings constructed to aid research. Your libe¬ 
rality has spared no judicious expense; and, so far as 
the site would admit, our laboratories will be as perfect 
as the skill of our architect and the advice of our pro¬ 
fessors can make them. 
In conclusion, let me lay before you what must still 
be done, in order that there may be earned for the new 
laboratories a reputation comparable with that which 
has hitherto proved both our glory and our support. 
Our first and foremost object, beyond bricks and mor¬ 
tar, and money and ajDparatus, must be to find a succes¬ 
sion of professors ot the old type; men who love re¬ 
search. But even Faraday would perhaps have been 
compelled to leave us, on account of the smallness of the 
sum which we could afford him, had not the endowment 
of the chemical chair, with £100 a year, by the late 
Mr. duller, happily intervened. This timely endow¬ 
ment was probably a critical turning-point in the history 
cf the institution. \Ye may not easily find successors 
worthy of the great names who have gone before them; 
but we may do much toward preventing mistakes in fu¬ 
ture appointments by keeping steadily in view, that the 
promotion of natural knowledge is our main object; 
and that instruction and amusement, and brilliant au¬ 
diences are all secondary to our principal purpose. Not 
that these subsidiary purposes are to be neglected or 
despised;—and I, as your treasurer, should be the last 
to undervalue them, but we feel confident that if the 
main purpose is effected, all the others will follow as a 
simple sequence. 
Secondly, when we have found professors of the type 
that I have described, our next need is that we may bo 
able, from independent resources at the disposal of the 
institution, to. offer them a remuneration which, all 
things taken into account, shall be an equivalent to 
what they would receive elsewhere. So that neither 
Government appointments, nor University professor¬ 
ships, nor the liberality of mercantile men, should be 
able to lure them from the path of discovery, to tui¬ 
tion, to arts, or to manufactures. 
The one act of wisdom, among the many aberrations 
■ of an eccentric member of Parliament, saved Faraday 
to us, and thereby, as seems probable, our institution to 
the country. The liberality of a Hebrew toy-dealer* 
in the East of London has made the rebuilding of our 
laboratories possible. 
It is said that Mr. Fuller, the feebleness of whose con¬ 
stitution denied him at all other times and places the 
rest necessary for health, could always find repose and 
even quiet slumber amid the murmuring lectures of the 
Eoyal Institution ; and that, in gratitude for the peace¬ 
ful hours thus snatched from an otherwise restless 
life, he bequeathed to U3 his magnificent legacy of 
£10,000. If this evening’s discourse shall have en¬ 
sured one such blissful hour to any of his audience, 
your lecturer’s efforts will not have been altogether in 
vain. But to each such happy individual he would ex¬ 
press the hope that, as you have resembled Mr. Fuller 
in your experience of life, so may you emulate him in 
your liberality at death. In short, I would conclude 
almost in the words of old Bishop Andrews: Unum 
operas meas pretium abs te peto, hoc autem vehementer 
expeto, ut mei peccatoris meorumque in precibus inter- 
dum memor sis. Which being interpreted is:— 
For these my efforts I beg but one thing in return, 
and this I beg most earnestly, viz. that you will now 
and then remember me a sinner against your patience 
and forbearance in your prayers, and that you will also 
be mindful of our professorships in your wills. 
The following table of the principal items of original 
work done by our professors, taken in connection with 
their long series of laboratory notes, forms a monument 
of the intellectual activity, the manual dexterity, and 
the persevering industry, developed in the laboratories of 
the Eoyal Institution:— 
Davy. 
1806 Chemical Agencies of Electricity. 
1807 Decomposition of Potash. 
1810 Chlorine 
1812 Discourse on Eadiant or Ethereal Matter, 
1813 Iodine. 
1815-6 Eesearches on Fire-damp and Flame. 
1817 The Safety Lamp. 
Faraday. 
1820 Alloys of Steel. 
1821 History of Electro-magnetism. 
,, Magnetic Eotations. 
1823 Liquefaction of Chlorine and other Gases. 
1825-6 New Comjrounds of Carbon and Hydrogen. 
1825-9 Manufacture of Optical Glass. 
1831 Vibrating Surfaces. 
„ Magneto-Electricity. 
1832 Terrestrial Magneto-Electric Induction. 
1833 Identity of Electricities. 
1831 Electro-Chemical Decomposition. 
,, Electricity of the Voltaic Pile. 
1835 The Extra Current. 
1837-8 I rictional Electricity. 
it ^ Specific Inductive Capacity. 
1845-8 Magnetization of Light. 
,, Lines of Magnetic Force. 
,, Magnetic Condition of all Matter. 
,, Diamagnetism. 
,, Magne-Crystallic Action. 
1849-50 Magnetism of Flame and Gases. 
,, Atmospheric Magnetism. 
1856 Eelations of Gold and other Metals to Light. 
1860 The Eegelation of Ice. 
* Mr. Alfred Davis, after paying liis composition of sixty 
guineas, as a Member ot the Institution, and three annual 
donations of twenty guineas for the promotion of research, at 
his death in 1870 bequeathed £2000 for the same purpose. 
His deafness prevented him from deriving any benefit from 
the lectures. 
