The life of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, including abstracts of his more important scientific papers, and a critical inquiry into the claims of all the alleged discoverers of the composition of water.

  • George Wilson
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, including abstracts of his more important scientific papers, and a critical inquiry into the claims of all the alleged discoverers of the composition of water. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    all sides with the aristocracy of Great Britain. He was further, immensely wealthy ; so wealthy indeed, that, as M. Biot epigram- matically puts it, he was “le plus riche de toils les savans, et probablement aussi, le plus savant de tous les riches.”* * * § Nevertheless, his biographers cannot so much as agree upon the country of his birth, although his death occurred so late as 1810. Cuvier,f Thomson,! and Kopp,§ tell us that he was born in England, whilst the contemporary notices of his death represent him as born in Italy. The latter is the true account. He was born on the 10th October, 1731, || at Nice, whither his mother, Lady Anne Cavendish, had gone for the sake of her health. His mother died when he was some two years old, and I have been able to learn nothing concerning his earliest years. The first notice I find concerning him goes back to 1/42, when he became a pupil at Dr. Newcomers school at Hackney, an institution celebrated in its day for its excellent management, and largely attended by the children of the upper classes. He remained at Hackney school till 1749, but no means now exist of ascertaining the precise nature of his studies, or what progress he made in them.** * Biographie Universelle, 1813, tomevii., p. 456. + Eloges Historiques, tome ii., p. 79. X History of Chemistry, vol. i., p. 338. § Geschichte der Chemie, vol. i., p. 230. || I state this on the authority of Lord Burlington. A similar account is given in the sketch of his brother Frederick, published immediately after the latter’s death. “ Lady Anne Cavendisli was in had health on her marriage, and went shortly after to Nice, for the benefit of the waters there, attended by her husband. Henry was horn at Nice, but his mother returning to England, Frederick drew his first breath in the country of his ancestors.”—Gent. Mag. 1812, p. 291. H Lord Campbell refers to it in his Lives of the Chancellors, as “ a most ex- cellent school at Ilackney, kept by the Rev. Dr. Newcombe [Newcome], a sound classical scholar, and a strict disciplinarian.”—Vol. v., p. 367. ** I state this on the authority of the Rev. C. J. Heathcote, of Upper Clapton, who possesses the only papers of the Hackney seminary that remain, and was good enough, at my request, to examine them for any records of Henry Cavendish. They consist, however, only of a list of plays acted by the boys of the school, in which Henry’s name does not appear, and of a catalogue of the dates of admission to the school, and of departure from it, of its different members. Four other Caven- dishes appear on this list, besides Henry and his brother, but no further particulars are supplied.