Science at Home: A Series of Popular Scientific Essays Upon Subjects Connected with Every-day Life |
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Popular passages
Page 35 - ... a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.
Page 85 - SIR, — I am far from displeased with the proof you have given me of your confidence, and which displays great zeal, power of memory, and attention. I am obliged to go out of town, and shall not be settled in town till the end of January. I will then see you at any time you wish. It would gratify me to be of any service to you. I wish it may be in my power. I am, sir, your obedient humble servant, H. DAVY.
Page 84 - You asked me to give you an account of my first introduction to Sir H. Davy, which I am very happy to do, as I think the circumstances will bear testimony to his goodness of heart. When I was a bookseller's apprentice, I was very fond of experiment, and very averse to trade.
Page 85 - At the same time that he thus gratified my desires as to scientific employment, he still advised me not to give up the prospects I had before me, telling me that Science was a harsh mistress, and in a pecuniary point of view but poorly' rewarding those who devoted themselves 1812. to her service. He smiled at my notion of the superior -fir.
Page 84 - My desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and to enter into the service of Science, which I imagined made its pursuers amiable and liberal, induced me at last to take the bold and simple step of writing to Sir H. Davy, expressing my wishes, and a hope that, if an opportunity came in his way, he would favour my views ; at the same time, I sent the notes I had taken at his lectures.
Page 84 - You will observe that this took place at the end of the year 1812, and early in 1813 he requested to see me, and told me of the situation of assistant in the Laboratory of the Royal Institution, then just vacant. At the same time that he thus gratified my desires as to scientific employment, he still advised me not to give up the prospects I had before me, telling me that Science...
Page 85 - ... that matter. Finally, through his good efforts I went to the Royal Institution early in March of 1813, as assistant in the Laboratory; and in October of the same year, went with him abroad as his assistant in experiments and in writing. I returned with him in April 1815, resumed my station in the Royal Institution, and have, as you know, ever since remained there.
Page 113 - ... fertilizing agents employed has been a little over forty-four dollars ; the cost of labor cannot be exactly stated, but it is certain the field has afforded a clean profit of one hundred per cent, each year. I fear to weary you with the details of other experiments undertaken on the farm, as perhaps enough has been said to convey a general idea of the nature and design of the work. It is worth something to know that a run-down farm can be in a fair measure rejuvenated and made productive by a...
Page 31 - ... into new combinations by which bodies are formed of a poisonous nature, or which act the part of a ferment in the blood. We do not know precisely how rebreathed air produces its deleterious influence, nor is it worth while to stop to inquire, in this discussion. It is certain that its effects are fatal to health. It would be absurd to assert that the frightful prevalence of consumption is due entirely to this agency ; as all intelligent observers understand that there are many causes operating...
Page 84 - I took notes, and afterwards wrote them out more fairly in a quarto volume. My desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and to enter into the service of science, which I imagined made its pursuers amiable and liberal, induced me at last to take the bold and simple step of writing to Sir H.