Faraday to Eilhard Mitscherlich   8 July 1834

Royal Institution | 8 July 1834

My dear Sir

I received your kind letter¹ and accompanying specimens for which I most sincerely thank you; and receiving the account also I was exceedingly anxious to remit you the money but have in that respect been most unfortunate². I was anxious to profit by the opportunity afforded me by Mr. Lettsom³ but when I wrote to him at his Hotel he was gone away into the country and when he returned to London I was away in Ireland⁴. I sent therefore two papers the sixth and seventh series of my Exp. Researches⁵ to you through the Royal Society and I only wish I knew what house in London I could pay the money to that it might reach you in Berlin[.] I shall consult Mr. Lubbock on the matter[.]

I am glad my assistant gave Mr Lettsom, in my absence a bottle of liquid for you but now I must tell you what it is[.] When caoutchouc is distilled it yields nearly eight tenths of its weight of a condensible substance which appears as a brown liquid resembling generally a volatile oil at the same time there escapes certain hydro carbons containing a large proportion of the more volatile ones which I described in my paper on the oil gas products⁶[.] When the condensed portion is carefully redistilled it is resolved into portions more or less volatile & that which you will receive is a specimen of the most volatile. The Spec Gravity of the liquid is sometimes as low as 680. It is as you will soon find very volatile the vapour being heavy and if it be exposed in a capsule & evaporated quickly by being blown upon the temperature falls very low and a portion of solid crystalline matter is left which although I have not examined it closely is I believe the same as my bi-carburet of hydrogen and if I understand you rightly your benzine[.]

There is scarcely any one thing which I regret so much as my ignorance of the German language but I am too old, too much occupied, and have by far too bad a memory to allow me now to learn it but I trust soon to see your papers in a form that I can understand[.]

I shall make free by the advice of Mr. Lettsom to send this letter with another to Baron Humboldt⁷ under cover to the Earl of Minto⁸[.] I am not personally known to his Lordship but trust his love for knowledge is so great that he will do me this service[.]

With every kind remembrance I am My Dear Sir Your faithful & Obliged Servant | M. Faraday

Professor Mitscherlich | &c &c &c

Address: Professor Mitscherlich | &c &c &c | Berlin