Edward Cowper to Faraday   1 April 1850

6 Campden Hill Villas | Kensington | Apr. 1, 1850

My dear Sir

I well remember when Mr Crosse’s Acarus, & his letter were exhibited in the Library of the Royal Institution1, how careful you were to explain to the Audience in the Theatre that you placed them on the table, without giving the slightest opinion either one way or the other, respecting the production of the said Acarus, & you particularly desired that no person would consider any thing that might be said or published on this subject or on any other, as your opinion unless published by yourself.

Now in Miss Martineaus history of England during the 30 year Peace, she has given some account of Mr Crosse’s experiments & of their being repeated by Mr. Weekes2 & then she refers to you in the following words,

(Vol 2 page 451).

“At a Lecture at the Royal Institution in 1837 Mr Faraday avowed his full belief of the facts stated by Mr Crosse, similar appearances having presented themselves to him in the course of his electrical experiments: but he left it doubtful whether it was a case of production or revivification” Annual Register 1837 Chron. 213[.]

(The words Annual Register &c in the Margin)

I was about writing to Miss Martineau to set her right on this subject, by giving her my own remembrance of what you did say, but as she might think it possible that you had said “that similar appearances had presented themselves to you in the course of your electrical experiments,” on some occasion when I was not present, it appeared to me better to write to you, that I might be quite correct in correcting her - and again you might prefer that I should take no notice of the mistake, if so I hope you will excuse me troubling you about the matter.

Yours sincerely | Edw Cowper

M. Faraday Esq FRS &c &c

1
On 17 February 1837. See RI MS F4E, p.5.
2
William Henry Weekes (1790-1850, Twyman (1988)). Physician and electrical researcher in Sandwich.
3
Martineau (1849-50), 2: 451. Despite Faraday’s several rebuttals that he had not produced living creatures in his laboratory similar to Crosse’s acarii (Faraday to Jerdan, 2 March 1837, letter 977, volume 2; Faraday to the Editor of the Times,3 March 1837, letter 978, volume 2; Faraday to Schoenbein, 21 September 1837, letter 1030, volume 2), Ann.Reg., 1837, 79: 21 reported Faraday as having done so. On this episode see Stallybrass (1967) and Secord (1989).

Bibliography

MARTINEAU, Harriet (1849-50): The History of England during the Thirty Years’ Peace: 1816-1846, 2 volumes, London.

SECORD, James A. (1989): “Extraordinary experiment: Electricity and the creation of life in Victorian England” in Gooding et al. (1989), 337-83.

STALLYBRASS, Oliver (1967): “How Faraday “Produced Living Animalculae”: Andrew Crosse and the Story of a Myth”, Proc. Roy. Inst., 41: 597-619.

TWYMAN, Alan (1988): In Search of the Mysterious Doctor Weekes (A Fragment of Sandwich History), Sandwich.

Please cite as “Faraday2277,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2277