Royal Institution | 8 April 1839.
My dear Friend
I should think that I might be teasing you with a letter unnecessarily by the post were it not that your last1 contains an enquiry that I think you would wish me to answer. I had not the pleasure to meet your friend Mr. Iselin2 and now I am writing from the country to which I have gone for the sake of general health. At the time however that it does me good in that respect it cuts me off from access to the Journals so that I hope when I return to see something of what you have been doing.
The points you write about in your Letters are of the greatest consequence or at least they appear so to me and the general tenor of my thoughts & conclusions is such as to make me expect that you are in the right. I shall long to know particularly the conclusions which you establish and the phenomena caused by the peroxide of hydrogen and especially‑ too the full true & particular history of the Iron actions[.] That has been a very provoking & stimulating subject but I was quite sure your perseverance would have at last its full reward and I can say most honestly that I have been as it were merely waiting until you should tell us what it was.
About the proposed work I do not know what to say or advise as to its publication here[.] What I could wish is one thing and what I ought to urge you to is another[.] I think you are aware that books are very expensive here I mean in the getting up & that therefore few if any booksellers will speculate except upon such as may be sure to have a sale[.] Now science has no such security in England & more is the shame for the Country. Do you remember the pamphlet by Moll on the Alleged decline of science in England 3[.] That MS. he sent to me4 and I tried to get it published at last I printed it hoping the sale would defray a part at least of the Printers bill which I settled but strange to say I never received one shilling back towards the expences. I tell you this merely to account for my small hopes in your case for I confess I was much damped by the results of my confidence & experience. I have however made some enquiries but have not got farther than this that some booksellers would print & publish the work for you at your risk but I intend to go a little further before I close this letter[.]
I have been working on electrical induction for some time past & hope by this that you will have received Nos. XI. XII. XIII & XIV5 of the experimental researches & that the argument will obtain your consideration & approval[.] You may think that I am anxious for the Judgment which able men may pronounce on my view of the action of the particles of matter in this important electrical function - I am also reprinting the whole series of researches in one volume so as to place them within the reach of some who have inquired after them6[.] That indeed has been the sole object for I expect no retu<<rn.>>
These things being nearly done I am now thinking of looking at the contact question again in reference to the paper with which Marianini has honored the VIII series of my researches7[.] I feel in no hurry to do this for I think the point is already determined & that the progress of other parts of Electrical knowledge will soon come in as tests & decide the true origin of the electricity in the pile. Nevertheless I mean to experiment & if any thing good arises publish[.] Adieu for the present my dear Sir
Yours faithfully | M. Faraday
29th. April. - Ever since the former date of this letter have I been waiting for answers from booksellers and have only now received one which is of the nature I expected unfavourable. I will delay this letter no longer.
Yours most truly | M. Faraday
Address: Dr. C.F. Schoenbein | &c &c &c | Bâle | Sur le Rhein
FARADAY, Michael (1834c): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Eighth Series. On the Electricity of the Voltaic Pile; its source, quantity, intensity, and general characters”, Phil. Trans., 124: 425-70.
FARADAY, Michael (1839b): Experimental Researches in Electricity, London.
FARADAY, Michael (1840a): “Experimental Researches in Electricity - Sixteenth Series. On the source of power in the voltaic pile”, Phil. Trans., 130: 61-91.
MARIANINI, Stefano Giovanni (1837): “Sulla teoria degli elettromotori Memoria IV. Esame di alcune sperienze addotte dal Signor Faraday per provare che l'elettricità Voltaica nasce dall'azione chimica dei liquidi sui metalli. Con un appendice sopra un'anomalia che presentano alcuni metalli nella decomposine del l'ioduro di potassio operata dall'elettricità”, Mem. Soc. Ital. Sci. Modena, 21: 205-45.
Please cite as “Faraday1156,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on