66 Notwithstanding the epithet here applied by the guest,—a man of plain habits and simple tastes,-to the style of living practised at Cavendish's house, the hospitalities of that abode are usually admitted to have been neither numerous nor profuse. The "good English dinner" was probably the eternal leg of mutton, which, on days of unwonted festivity, made the cheer at that table of hungry science; but which, on one extraordinary occasion, when the company amounted to six, was known to have been multiplied by two, and thus to have formed a repast of legs of mutton,-like rainbows,-primary and secondary. The contrast must have been a striking one, between the nervous and shy chemist, "uttering a shrill cry "as he shuffled quickly from room to room;"* and the thoughtful but active and animated engineer, with "voice deep and low, in harmony with the weight and beauty of "his discourse; mirthful, temperately jocular,"† and with a manner marked, beyond that of all others, by "a fine expres"sion of reposing strength and uninterrupted self-possession."+ We had formerly regretted, that neither Mr. Watt, nor, so far as we then knew, any one else, had left any record of Mr. Cavendish's "flow of soul" on the evening in question; but we have since discovered, in a pocket-book for 1785, under date of 21st October, in Mr. Watt's hand-writing, this entry; -"Dined at Mr. Cavendish's, topic Hugenian telescope." It may, however, be conjectured that at that interesting party the subject of the composition of water was not broached; and that the "best of elements" was discussed only in its undecompounded form, befitting the sobriety of a board over which Bacchus is understood not to have presided as the tutelary deity. In point of convivial enjoyment, the other dinner mentioned in Mr. Watt's letter would appear, from his expressions, considerably to have excelled the entertainment supplied at Cavendish's eremitical abode. And we are not without other means of estimating the amount of good fellowship *Lord Brougham, Life of Caven 'dish,' p. 446. † Lord Brougham, 'Life of Watt,' p. 389. Lord Jeffrey, Character of 'Watt,' infrà. which habitually prevailed at the club of the Royal Society. M. Faujas de St. Fond has devoted some pages of his 'Travels ' in Great Britain' to recording the scene he witnessed, and the impression it made upon him, when a few years later he partook of a like hospitality; and as, on the occasion of which he speaks, Sir Joseph Banks was President, Blagden Secretary, and Cavendish one of the party, and all of those three are among the persons of what we may term the drama of the discovery of the composition of water, we perhaps need not apologise for introducing some notice of that feast of scientific reason, which M. de St. Fond has minutely, and with evident relish, thus described. At this "dinner of an academic club," which commenced at five o'clock, he says, "the dishes were of the solid kind, "such as roast beef, boiled beef, and mutton prepared in "various manners,—with abundance of potatoes and other 66 66 66 vegetables, which each person seasoned as he pleased with "the different sauces which were placed upon the table. "The beef-steaks and the roast beef were at first sufficiently "drenched by large quantities of strong beer, called porter: it "was drank out of cylindrical pewter pots, which are, by some, "thought preferable to glasses, perhaps because they enable one "to swallow a whole pint at a draught. This prelude being finished," there appeared, “as if by magic, a number of fine crystal decanters filled with the best port, madeira, and "claret." "Several glasses were distributed to each person, " and the libations commenced on a grand scale, in the midst of "different kinds of cheeses, which, rolling in mahogany cases "from one end of the table to the other, provoked the thirst of "the drinkers." "The members of the club afterwards saluted "each other, one by one, with a glass of wine. According to "this custom, one must drink as many times as there are guests, "for it would be thought a want of politeness in England to "drink to the health of more persons than one at a time." M. de St. Fond had mentioned, in an earlier part of his account, that the club consisted of about forty members, each of whom had a right to introduce two, and the president a greater number of friends. He does not mention by how 66 66 66 many the guests, and consequently the glasses of wine drank by each at this stage of the entertainment, fell short of the hundred and twenty to which that compotatory computation might amount. But, qualis ab incepto, the convivial narrative proceeds: A few bottles of champagne soon put all the com'pany in good humour. The tea came next, with butter, marmalade, and all its usual accompaniments: coffee followed, humbly yielding precedence to the tea, though it be "the better of the two. In France, we commonly drink only "one cup of good coffee after dinner; in England, they drink "five or six times that quantity, of the most detestable kind. Brandy, rum, and some other strong liquors, closed this philo"sophic banquet." And for the solid repast with all its fluid. accompaniments,-" all this intolerable deal of sack,”—each of the guests paid "seven livres, four sols French money." With justice does the good M. Faujas remark, "This was not "dear;" and he sympathetically adds "The great Corneille, "Molière, Despreaux, La Fontaine, and Racine, used to take а bottle now and then in a tavern; and they were neither "the worse friends, nor the worse poets, for it." 66 66 So highly, indeed, was the honest Frenchman delighted with the lively but decorous gaiety which he had witnessed, as to have imagined that a similar system of "convivial " and modest banquets" among the learned men of his own country might have averted some of the worst crimes of its regicidal revolution ;-crimes, which the exalted but hapless names of Malesherbes, Bailly, Lavoisier, and Condorcet, recall to the horror and grief of humanity. "In France they now "order these things better;" and all who have enjoyed the privilege of sharing in the festive entertainments frequent among the men of letters and science in the metropolis of that great and polished nation, can bear testimony to the simple but elegant refinement, the warm-hearted hospitality, the love of the Muses and admiration of the Graces, by which they are distinguished. Let us indulge the hope, that the frequent recurrence of scenes so congenial to the wishes of M. Faujas, may ensure those happy results which he fancied he foresaw in their due observance. CHAPTER XXIII BLEACHING BY PROPOSED UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES THE LUNAR SO- 66 66 MR. WATT'S chemical studies in 1783 having led him, towards the end of that year, to make some calculations from experiments of Lavoisier and De La Place, and to compare them with others made by Mr. Kirwan, he wrote to the latter gentleman,* "I had a great deal of trouble in reducing the weights and measures to speak the same language; and many of the German experiments become still more diffi"cult from their using different weights and different divi"sions of them in different parts of that empire. It is "therefore a very desirable thing to have these difficulties removed, and to get all philosophers to use pounds divided "in the same manner, and I flatter myself that may be accomplished if you, Dr. Priestley, and a few of the French "experimenters will agree to it; for the utility is so evident, "that every thinking person must immediately be convinced "of it. My proposal is briefly this; let the 66 66 Philosophical pound consist of 10 ounces, or 10,000 grains. 10 drachms, or 1,000 100 grains, or 100 "Let all elastic fluids be measured by the ounce measure of "water, by which the valuation of different cubic inches will 14th November, 1783. "be avoided, and the common decimal tables of specific gra"vities will immediately give the weights of those elastic "fluids. 66 66 "If all philosophers cannot agree on one pound or one grain, let every one take his own pound or his own grain ; "it will affect nothing except doses of medicines, which must "be corrected as is now done; but as it would be much "better that the identical pound was used by all, I would propose that the Amsterdam or Paris pound be assumed as "the standard, being now the most universal in Europe: it "is to our avoirdupois pound as 109 is to 100. Our avoir"dupois pound contains 7000 of our grains, and the Paris "pound 7630 of our grains, but it contains 9376 Paris grains, "so that the division into 10,000 would very little affect the "Paris grain. I prefer dividing the pound afresh to beginning with the Paris grain, because I believe the pound is "very general, but the grain local. "Dr. Priestley has agreed to this proposal, and has referred "it to you to fix upon the pound if you otherwise approve of "it. I shall be happy to have your opinion of it as soon as "convenient, and to concert with you the means of making "it universal. * I have some hopes that the foot "may be fixed by the pendulum and a measure of water, "and a pound derived from that; but in the interim let us at "least assume a proper division, which from the nature of it "must be intelligible as long as decimal arithmetic is used." "As to the precise foot or pound," he afterwards adds, in writing to Mr. Magellan, "I do not look upon it to be very "material, in chemistry at least. Either the common English "foot may be adopted according to your proposal, which has "the advantage that a cubic foot is exactly 1000 ounces, "consequently the present foot and ounce would be retained; "or a pendulum which vibrates 100 times a minute may be adopted for the standard, which would make the foot 14.2 "of our present inches, and the cubic foot would be very "exactly a bushel, and would weigh 101 of the present pounds, so that the present pound would not be much "altered. But I think that by this scheme the foot would 66 66 |