Christian Friedrich Schoenbein to Faraday   14 June 1838

My dear Sir

Dr. Brabant¹ whose agreeable and interesting ac‑quaintance I made at Bâle is the kind bearer of these lines. Enclosed you will find a paper containing some hypothetical views on the peculiar condition of iron, which was first intended for the Phil. Magazine, but which I think, after having read it over again altogether unfit for publication on account of its being too much conjectural². Nevertheless I take the liberty of sending the paper to you, hoping you will peruse it with kind indulgence.

You are, no doubt, now aware of the attacks recently made by M. Fechner upon your theory of the pile³. I have already tried to answer some of his objections in Poggendorff's Annalen⁴ and have also written a paper for the Phil. Magazine⁵ which is in the parcel addressed to Mr. Taylor. I am confident, however, that you yourself will, before long, appreciate the facts which have been brought forward by M. F. and declared by him to be irreconcilable to the very first principles of the chemical theory of galvanism and I must not conceal from you, that the scientific public in Switzerland and Germany are rather impatiently waiting for a refutation of Fechner['s] assertions on your part.

Believe me to be | Your's | very truly | C.F. Schoenbein

Bâle, June 14th 1838.

Address: Dr Faraday | &c &c &c | London