Royal Institution | 25 Novr. 1858
Warmest thanks my dear friend for your last kind letter1:- it has given me courage - and yet when I look into the journals about ozone & see how many things there are which have been said by different men & how thoroughly I have forgotten most of them - it makes me very doubtful of myself for I cannot hold many points in hand at once as I used to do - but I shall trust in your strength & kindness. I have repeated as I said some of your results. The peroxide of barium which I have seems to do pretty well, but it is vessicular & gray & so unlike what Brodie made with great care2 & called the right peroxide that I doubt it but I shall know better when I receive your instructions. I have forgotten the preparation of HO<plus>O by the fluor salicic acid - where is it described in French or where is it? - what strength do you prepare HO<plus>O strong or dilute? - The peroxide of Manganese do you employ the natural or if the artificial what is your process of preparation for solution in AA & do you use it wet or dry?
I have had the paper on reciprocal catalysis (23 June 1858) translated3, so have with the letters &c obtained possession of part of your thoughts - but it is the experimental proofs & the method of making them perfectly about which I am anxious & none but the discovering philosopher himself knows how best to make their value evident - for that reason I desire to work with your tools & in your way and if the chemical you refer to are to be bought in Bale in what you know to be the right state send them to me but if not do not waste your time personally. I shall prepare them from your instructions[.]
I had your letters4 &c by Dr. Bernoulli5 on the 17th instant. I did not see him for he sent them by post & was to leave London the next day. He had been ill & detained in Berlin but I could not tell when you had written for your letter had no date & strange to say neither had his except the Postmark[.] Yours by him & mine to you6 must have passed on the road[.]
Kindest remembrances to the household from one always under obligation to you & ever yours | M. Faraday
MEYER-HOLDAMPF, Valerie (1997): Ein Basler unterwegs im Dschungel von Guatelmala: Carl Gustav Bernoulli (1834-1878), Artz, Botaniker und Entdecker der Tikal-Platten, Basle.
SCHOENBEIN, Christian Friedrich (1858d): “Uber die gegenseitige Katalyse einer Reihe von Oxiden, Superoxiden und Sauerstoffsäuren und die chemisch gegensätzlichen Zustände des in ihnen enthaltenen thätigen Sauerstoffes”, Verhandl. Naturforsch. Gesell. Basel, 2: 113-36.
Please cite as “Faraday3531,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on