Philip Bury Duncan to Edward Magrath and Faraday   12 April 18321

April 12 | 1832

Dear Sir,

You will receive a Newspaper from Bath (addressed to you at the Athenaeum) which contains the notice respecting the erroneous statements about Mr Farrady's important discovery2. You will perceive from this that I have not inserted any part of your letter that can in the least compromise you with any one. Pray give the following to Mr Farrady[.]

Yours truly PBD

Dear Mr Farrady,

Many thanks for your very interesting paper on your important demonstration of the identity of the Electric & Magnetic fluids3. I trust your spark will soon grow into a flame & throw still more light on this very attractive subject. I have taken the best step I could to teach the Bath World that Science is indebted to you for this discovery & not to Sigr Nobili. Your friend Mr Magrath will give you the paper containing the notice to this effect. I rejoice to find that Ablato Davio- nobis non deficit alter aureus4.-

Yours truly | P.B. Duncan

Pray desire our Porter to frank all my letters to you.


Address: E. Magrath Esq | Athenaeum | London

1
Philip Bury Duncan (1772-1863, DNB). Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1826-1855.
2
See Bath Chronicle, 19 April 1832, [p.4, col. c], for this notice.
3
Faraday (1832a), ERE1.
4
An adaptation of Virgil, Aeneid, 6: 143-4. Virgil's point that one golden bough is replaced by another has been transformed into Davy being replaced by Faraday.

Bibliography

FARADAY, Michael (1832a): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. On the Induction of Electric Currents. On the Evolution of Electricity from Magnetism. On a new Electrical Condition of Matter. On Arago's Magnetic Phenomena”, Phil. Trans., 122: 125-62.

Please cite as “Faraday0568,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0568