Faraday to Percy Drummond   10 November 1836

Royal Institution | 10th Nov 1836.

My Dr Sir,

The stone floor of the laboratory is in direct contact with the earth and below the level of the ground on the outside of the Building, these circumstances with absence of firing in the place during six days in the week render it very damp and cold and I frequently felt and suffered from it in consequence[.] I cannot positively refer my lameness to it for I only began to be sensible to it about the same time that you allowed me to order the flooring. But I certainly was anxious that it should be done at once not only for what I felt before and found again but also because the scanty piece of old matting which was the only protection from the wet stones was so fragmented and broken by that time that it would remain down no longer. My lameness came on about this time and if you had not allowed me to Board the place I must have done it at my own expense for my own safety otherwise I would much rather have the money to lay out in apparatus¹[.]

Signed | M. Faraday

Colonel Drummond | &c &c &c