Ɛpsilon

Humphry Davy to Faraday   17 September 18191

Bologna Sepr 17, 1819.

Dear Mr Faraday

I wrote you a letter about ten days ago by Mr James Burton2; but as He may possibly be some time in returning I write these few lines by the post to beg you to address me your next letter at Rome.

Pray be so good as to ask Mr Moore3 if He has received the deed which I executed some time ago at the Bath of Lucca & if the money is paid into Drummond4 hands.

I shall be very glad of any scientific news & particularly glad to hear of any thing that you have yourself been doing[.]

I told you in my letter that I thought you were quite right in not sacrificing any permanent engagements for the uncertain one of Naples5 though few things would have given me more satisfaction than to have had your assistance there.

I have formed oxide of iron apparently dissolved by siliceous earth in the thermal waters of Lucca6.

If it will not give you too much trouble I will beg you to say at Mr Farquhar7 Portland Place that our address till the 10 of Novr is Rome & that Lady Davy8 & myself have been anxiously expecting letters during the last month.

Believe me to be | Dear Mr Faraday | very truly your friend & wellwisher | H. Davy

Pray remember me to Mr Fincher9

1
According to p.104 this letter was from the Collection of John Watkins.
2
James Burton (1788–1862, ODNB under Haliburton). Later an Egyptologist.
3
Daniel Moore (d.1828, age 68, Gent.Mag., 1828, 98: 377). Lawyer.
4
Davy’s bankers. See Bolitho and Peel (1985).
5
This was the invitation, hinted at in Davy to Faraday, 18 February 1819, letter 95, volume 1, for Faraday to come to Naples to help Davy unroll the papyri that had been excavated at Herculaneum.
6
On this see Davy, H. (1822).
7
Robert Farquhar (1755–1836, Records of St Johns Wood Chapel). A wealthy gentleman of Scottish origin, Johnson (1860), xxxii.
8
Jane Davy, olim Apreece, née Kerr (1780–1855, ODNB). Wife of Humphry Davy whom she married in 1812.
9
Joseph Bunning Fincher (d.1849, age 64, GRO). Assistant Secretary of the Royal Institution, 1810–1846.

Bibliography

DAVY, Humphry (1822): “On the Electrical phenomena exhibited in vacuo”, Phil. Trans., 112: 64-75.

Please cite as “Faraday0104a,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0104a