Faraday to Christian Friedrich Schoenbein   12 April 1844

Royal Institution | 12, April 1844

My dear Friend

I received your letter¹ three or four days ago and was very greatly interested by it. I have given it to Mr Christie to read at the Royal Society². I do most earnestly hope that you will make out & establish this Ozone; it is a very fine thing to do and as you say though the means of proving it seem to be anomalous & strange when composed together yet most great discoveries in science have appeared equally strange & confused to us in the first instance. I have not yet repeated the experiments for certain private troubles have brought me low in health & spirits³ & my dear wife & I are now at Brighton (tho' I date by habit as above from the Royal Institution) but I hope we shall soon be better and thus what you say leads me to think we may have the pleasure of seeing you here i.e in London & also at York⁴ for I believe I must go there myself this year if I possibly can. I do not know that we have any scientific news here but I am a very bad indicator for my bad memory both loses recent things & sometimes suggests old things as new making all appear misty & doubtful to me. Our communications through the Royal Society are quite closed or else I should have sent you a short paper being a speculation about matter⁵ - perhaps you may have seen it in one shape or another at all events when you come you will put the few pages into your portmanteau[.]

Our kindest remembrances to Mrs Schoenbein & all the little (? big) ones[.] It would be pleasant to see your faces in Switzerland amongst the rock & hills &c but that is a fancy only[.] I doubt whether I shall ever leave England again. I hope that the next news of you will be news of still further advance in the ozone discovery but any will be pleasant to my thoughts[.]

Ever Very Affectionately Yours | M. Faraday

Dr. Schoenbein | &c &c &c

Address: Dr. Schoenbein | &c &c &c | Basle | on the Rhine

Postmark: Brighton