Faraday to Thomas Hawkins   15 December 1836

R Institution | 15 Dec. 1836

Dear Sir

I know nothing of Mr Cross[e] expts¹ except by indirect evidence i.e from Buckland Whewell Wheatstone & others who were at Bristol² but all these accounts leave the proofs insufficient. I have been promised directions how to obtain the same results but have not received them. I do not know any body who has repeated the experiments nor have I heard that they have been obtained by other experimenters. The results as to rock crystal & arragonite are therefore as yet uncertain as far as I am acquainted with them[.]

With respect to your own experiments I am glad you are pursuing them & can only say go on[.] An experiment is worth far more to the person who makes or repeats it than any opinion or verbal evidence from others[.]

I have looked at my seventh series as to the possibility of a misprint & it is very likely one may be there but at the three different paragraphs 377³, 783, 821⁴ it is always said that the decomposing action of any current of electricity is constant for a constant quantity of electricity[.]

I am Sir | Your Obliged Servant | M. Faraday