Faraday to Thomas Joseph Pettigrew   23 May 1833

Royal Institution | May 23rd 1833

Dear Sir

I have stolen time this morning from other occupations which I ought to have been pursuing that I might examine the substances you sent me¹ feeling well assured that if my Lectures were once began (& they commence on Saturday next²)) there would be no chance of my touching them before the end of July or middle of August[.]

The small needle like crystals are very curious but too minute in quantity and too vague as to their origin to allow of much being made out relative to them[.] The crystallisation is very perfect and acicular and from the appearance one might suppose them the result of sublimation, but when the substance is heated it does not prove to be volatile. It fuzes and upon cooling concretes again crystallising the whole like spermaceti[.] It burns with a bright flame & evidently abounds in carbon & hydrogen[.] It is not soluble in water & has the odour when heated of a fatty matter but then alkali acts very feebly upon it & dissolves only a very small portion[.] On the contrary it is very soluble in alcohol, the solution being precipitated by water[.]

The substance may probably be a result of slow action upon organic (per chance animal) matter and has perhaps been assisted in its formation by heat³[.]

With regard to the bundle I can make nothing of it[.] It is evidently a roll or bundle of something but it looks like some of the viscera or other parts as much as a Manuscript[.] I tried upon a small piece to loosen the binding matter by alcohol Essential oil &c &c or did by heat but obtained too little success for me to venture upon the roll[.] The misfortune is that any process adopted is as likely to spoil it as open it and as in that case the injury would be irreparable; any attempts that are made had better be made by yourself & carefully watched at every step so that if only transient development were obtained you might be ready to see what could be seen⁴[.]

I am | My dear Sir | Very Truly Yours | M. Faraday

T.J. Pettigrew Esq | &c &c &c