London Institution
Dec. 29. 1834
Sir,
I have to acknowledge your letter <1> of the 11th inst. which I should have answered ere this had not the circumstances stated below interfered.
The last [illegible deletion] number for the year and the last also of the half-yearly volume, (of the Philosophical Magazine) <2> is the number published on the 1st of December; but if you will have the goodness to transmit the errata in your paper printed in the number for November they shall be inserted. The most effectual way of calling attention to errata in a previous volume is by placing them among the Scientific Intelligence. The other paper “On some instances of Molecular action” <3> I had intended to have conferred with you upon, for which reason indeed I had [illegible deletion]postponed recommending it for insertion. There is a passage in it which I conceived you would think proper to alter on my suggesting some reasons for it. Circumstances attending the recent change of Librarians at this Institution prevented my attending to the subject, and when I was at liberty to resume it, you were absent from England. During my own absence from town the premises here were under repair, and [illegible deletion] a parcel of papers were removed for the workmen in which yours was contained. I have not hitherto succeeded in finding them, but having now gone through nearly all the matters removed, I have no doubt that a day or two will enable me to recover your paper, when I will immediately remit it to you with my remarks.<4> I greatly regret that this accident should have occurred. It may not be uninteresting to you to add that while travelling in Northumberland in October last I met the Rev. Edwd. Craig, an Episcopalian clergyman of Edinburgh, from whom I learned that he also had been engaged in the microscopical examination of chemical phśnomena; some of the results of which he had described in a paper which had then recently been read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh.<5> Whether the paper would appear in their Transactions he did not seem to be aware. Some of the experiments he related to me resembled, (in their general routine) some of those described by you. He had lent the paper to Dr Danberry, who (if I understood Mr Craig rightly) had mislaid it.
I am, Sir, Respectfully yours
E. W. Brayley Jnr
H. F. Talbot, Esqe
&c &c &c
[Address panel:]
H. F. Talbot, Esqe M.P.
&c &c &c
Lacock Abbey
near Chippenham
E.W.B
Notes:
1. Letter not located.
2. Philosophical Magazine.
3. See Doc. No: 04621.
4. In the event, the paper was not located for another six months. See Doc. No: 10029.
5. Edward Craig, 'On the Application of the Microscope to the minute phenomena of chamical action,' read 17 March 1834, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, v. 1 no. 4, p. 57.