The Lunar Society OR THE FESTIVE PHILOSOPHERS OF BIRMINGHAM ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. BY HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON, Ph.D. Read before the New York Academy of Sciences, May 7th, 1888. author's reprint. Read at the Founding of the Lunar Society in New York, April 27th, 1888; the Society was organized by the following persons: H. Carring- ton Bolton, Charles S. Bull, John H. Caswell, Charles F. Chandler, Charles F. Cox, Henry Dudley, Oliver P. Hubbard, Alexis A. Julien, Albert R. Leeds, Henry Morton, John S. New- berry, Rossiter W. Raymond, and JoSn K. Rees. [Reprinted from the Transactions of the New7 York Academy of Sciences, Vol. VII., No. 8, May, 1888.] THE LUNAR SOCIETY. The Lunar Society was an informal club or association of scientific men which flourished in Birmingham for nearly forty years. It was founded about the year 1766, by Matthew Boul- ton, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Dr. William Small and their friends; they do not seem to have numbered more than eight or ten at any one time, and they met at each other's houses for dinner every month near the full moon, ''inorder," says Dr. Priestley, "to have the benefit of its light in returning home." Hence the name Lunar Society. The members were accustomed to sit down to dinner at two o'clock, and did not part until eight, exchanging views with each other on topics relating to literature, science, and arts, each contributing his quota of entertainment and in- struction. Each member was allowed to bring with him a friend, and thus many distinguished guests were present at these philoso- phical banquets. The society occasionally held "meetings ex- traordinary," in honor of scientific magnates from abroad. Among the members of the Lunar Society were the following eminent men of science. Matthew Boulton, F.R.S. (1728-1809), mechanical engineer and inventor of improvements in the steam-engine. A partner o^James Watt. Dr. Erasmus Darwin, F.R.S. (1731-1802), physician, poet, and naturalist. Author of " The Botanic Garden." Dr. William Small (1734-1775), an intimate friend of Dar- win, Boulton, and Watt. He was an accomplished physician, chemist, and mechanist. He held the professorship of mathe- matics and natural philosophy in William and Mary College, Virginia, for some years, but returned to England and settled in Birmingham. Thomas Day (1748-1789), a wealthy, eccentric philanthropist, best known as the author of "Sandford and Merton." A friend of Capt. Keir. Richard Lovell Edgworth, F.R.S. (1744-1817), author and 4 philosopher ; he contributed papers to the Royal Society. A friend of Day and Darwin. Dr. William Withering, F.R.S. (1741-1799), physician, bota- nist, and chemist. He analyzed the mineral witherite named in his honor. James Watt, F.R.S. (1736-1819), inventor of improvements in the steam-engine, chemist, and engineer. Partner of Boul- ton. Captain James Keir (17..-1814), chemist and author ; pro- prietor of several chemical establishments at West Bromwich near Birmingham. A friend of Darwin and Small. John Baskerville (1706-1775), inventor of superior type, and publisher of standard works. Rev. Dr. Joseph Priestley, F.R.S. (1733-1804), the father of pneumatic chemistry, theologian, and philosopher. William Murdock (1754-1839), mechanical engineer, superin- tendent of the works of Boulton and Watt. Inventor of the system of lighting by gas, and of many improvements in steam machinery. Rev. R. A. Johnson, F.R.S., of Kenilworth. Mr. Samuel Galton, F.R.S., a wealthy man of letters, well skilled in chemistry and natural history. Mr. Samuel Galton, junior, his son. Dr. Stoke, a physician of Birmingham. Among the guests known to have been entertained were the following distinguished men of science and letters : Josiah Wedgwood, F.R.S. (1730-1795), the well-known potter and inventor of the ware called by his name. Sir Joseph Banks, F.R.S. (1743-1820), botanist, President of the Royal Society. Sir William Herschel, F.R.S. (1738-1822), the most distin- guished astronomer of the century. John Smeaton (1724-1792), civil engineer, builder of Eddy- stone Lighthouse. Dr. Samuel Parr (1747-1825), eminent English scholar and critic. The Rev. Hugh Blair, D.D. (1718-1800), author of " Lectures on Rhetoric." Professor in the University of Edinburgh. Adam Afzelius (1750-1836), Swedish botanist. He visited England in 1789. Dr. Daniel C. Solander, F.R.S. (1736-1782), Swedish Natu- ralist and physician, Librarian British Museum. Jean Andre de Luc (1727-1817), Swiss natural philosopher and geologist. Dr. Pieter Camper, F.R.S. (1722-1789), Dutch naturalist and anatomist. 5 Mr. John Wilkinson, iron-master, brother-in-law to Dr. Priestley. Mr. William Bewly, a surgeon and apothecary of Norfolk, author of letters on the chemistry of gases. A friend of Dr. Priestley. Mr. Collins, an American (t rebel." Dr. Henry Moyes, of Edinburgh, lecturer on chemistry, though blind. He emigrated to America in 1785. Mr. M. Robinson Boulton, son of Matthew. The Rev. Joseph Barrington, Roman Catholic priest of Oscott, a small hamlet, seven or eight miles from Birmingham. Author of several historical works. Of the original members, two, Small and Baskerville, died in 1775. Dr. Priestley did not become a member until 1780, and, Murdock being so much younger, must have joined still later. Apparently, the society kept no records of its meetings, and but scanty notices of its proceedings can be gathered from the corre- spondence of its members. We have given 1766 as the date of the commencement of these social gatherings, but it is probable that they occurred still earlier, for when James Watt visited Soho in 1768 on his way from London to Glasgow, Dr. Small, Dr. Darwin, and Capt. Keir were invited to meet him at " I'hotelde Vamitie sur Hands- worth Heath," as Matthew Boulton styled his hospitable man- sion. The Society had not perfected its method of conducting affairs as late as 1776, for in this year Boulton wrote to Watt, who had settled in Birmingham: " Pray remember that the celebration of the third full moon will be on Saturday, March 3d; Darwin and Keir will both be at Soho. I then propose to submit many motions to the members respecting new laws and regulations, such as will tend to prevent the decline of a Society which, I hope, will be lasting." Boulton was of a thoroughly social disposition, and the form- ation of the Lunar Society was a natural outgrowth of his genial character. He took pleasure in gathering about him in his home persons of kindred tastes and pursuits, in order both to enjoy their friendship and to cultivate his nature by intercourse with minds of the highest pattern. He was a favorite alike with children and philosophers, with noble guests and simple work- men of Cornwall. London had not at that period absorbed to so great a degree the active intelligence of England, especially in the higher departments of science, art, and literature. The men of that period, though busy with their professional duties and domestic cares, were not so wholly engrossed in the turmoil of business which makes life a burden .for so many in the present age, and found time for relaxation in convivial gatherings. In 6 Liverpool, Roscoe and Currie were the centres of a social intel- lectual circle; at Warrington, Aiken, Enfield, and, for a time, Priestley, were the leading spirits of another; at Bristol, Dr. Bed- does and Humphrey Davy of a third; and at Norwich, the Tay- lors and Martineaus of a fourth. In London, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, Sir Charles Blagden, Dr. George Fordyce, Drs. Milner and Maskelyne, Captain Cook, Sir G. Shuckburgh, Lord Mulgrave, John Smeaton, and Jesse Ramsden with Edgworth and others, met once a week at Jack's Coffee House, and after- wards at Young Slaughter's Coffee House for social converse. This assemblage had no distinctive name. Benjamin Franklin was a frequent attendant, and alludes to it in his correspond- ence. But the most distinguished gatherings of all were those of the Lunar Society at Birmingham. The Patriarch of the Society was Dr. Erasmus Darwin, at least until he removed to Derby in 1782. " His fame as a doc- tor, philosopher, and poet was great throughout the Midland Counties. He was extremely speculative in all directions, even in such matters as driving wheel carriages by steam." Being very busy with his medical practice at Lichfield, he was not very regular in his attendance at the dinners of the Society, and ex- cused himself for his absence by such a letter as the following: April 5th, 1778. Dear Boulton:-I am sorry the infernal divinities who visit mankind with diseases, and are therefore at perpetual war with doctors, should have prevented my seeing all your great men at Soho to-day. Lord ' what inventions, what wit, what rhetoric, metaphysical, mechanical, and pyrotechnical, will be on the wing, bandied like a shuttlecock from one to another of your troup of philosophers ! while poor I, I by myself I, imprison'd in a post-chaise, am joggl'd, and jostl'd, and bump'd, and bruised along the King's highroad to make war upon a stomach- ache or a fever." . . . [Signed] Erasmus Darwin. The society evidently served the purpose of a scientific ex- change, each member contributing at the monthly meeting re- sults of his own observations, and reporting news from without the circle. Before the establishment of weekly journals of sci- ence, this exchange was the natural means of intercommunica- tion, just as the Athenians gathered on Mars Hill " to tell or to hear some new thing" in the political world. The society seems further to have been chosen by persons from a distance as a channel for announcing their own discoveries or those of others to scientists who would appreciate and publish them.. James Watt wrote to the Irish chemist Kirwan as follows: 7 Birmingham, Nov. 14th, 1783. Dear Sir:-Your obliging communication of Mr. Scheele's process of making the Prussian acid gave me great pleasure, and, according to your desire, I communicated it to our Lunar Society last Monday, who desire me to return to you their thanks. . . . James Watt. When Dr. Priestley dissolved his connection with Lord Shelburne, and removed to Birmingham in 1780, he was warmly welcomed by the members of the Lunar Society as a valuable acquisition. He had corresponded with Boulton, and was al- ready celebrated for his publications and his discoveries in gas chemistry. His discovery of nitric oxide dates from 1772; that of ammonia, hydrochloric acid, and oxygen from 1774; sul- phurous acid gas and silicon-tetrafluoride, 1775; and nitrous oxide (laughing gas), 1776. He had published three volumes of his "Experiments and Observations on Air," and was en- gaged on a fourth. Priestley's love of polemics in metaphysics and theology was reflected in his work in science, and though unassuming and gentle in disposition, his advent infused new vigor into the society, and henceforth gave a chemical turn to the weighty discussions of the feasting philosophers. In his autobiography, Priestley refers to these meetings in the following language: " 1 consider my settlement at Birmingham as the happiest event in my life, being highly favorable to every object I had in view, philosophical or theological. In the former respect, I had the convenience of good workmen of every kind and the so- ciety of persons eminent for their knowledge of chemistry, par- ticularly Mr. Watt, Mr. Keir, and Dr. Withering. These, with Mr. Boulton and Dr. Darwin, Mr. Galton, and, afterwards, Mr. Johnson, of Kenilworth, and myself, dined together every month, calling ourselves the Lunar Society, because the time of our meeting was the full moon." The invitations sent out by the host were not formal, but in the nature of friendly letters, in which hints were given as to the intellectual feast in store. Thus, on January 3d, 1781, Watt wrote to Dr. Darwin: "I beg that you would impress on your memory the idea that you promised to dine with sundry men of learning at my house on Monday next, and that you will realize the idea. For your encouragement there is a new book to cut up, and it is to be determined whether or not heat is a compound of phlogiston and empyreal air, and whether a mirror can reflect the heat of the fire. I give you a friendly warning that you may be found wanting whichever opinion you adopt in the latter question; therefore be cautious. If you are 8 meek and humble, perhaps you may be told what light is made of, and also how to make it, and the theory proved both by syn- thesis and analysis." To this communication, Dr. Darwin sent the following curi- ous and characteristic answer: Beau Desert, January 6th, 1781. Dear Mr. Watt:-You know there is a perpetual war car- ried on between the devil and all holy men. Sometimes one prevails in an odd skirmish or so, and sometimes the other. Now, you must know that this said devil has played me a slip- pery trick, and, I fear, prevented me from coming to join the holy men at your house, by sending the measles with peripneu- mony amongst nine beautiful children of Lord Paget's. For I must suppose it is a work of the devilI Surely the Lord could never think of amusing himself by setting nine innocent little animals to cough their hearts up. Pray, ask your learned So- ciety if this partial evil contributes to any public good, if this pain is necessary to establish the subordination or different links in the chain of animation. If one was to be weaker and less perfect than another, must he therefore have pain as a part of his portion ? Pray, inquire of your philosophers, and rescue me from Manichaeism. As to material philosophy, I can tell you some secrets in re- turn for yours, viz., that atmospheric air is composed of light, and the earth of water (and aqueous earth). That water is composed of aqueous gas which is displaced from its earth by oil of vitriol. Pray, make my best devoirs to all the Phlos., and pray tell Dr. Priestley that I wish he would try whether a plant insulated in £ will spoil air. E. Darwin. When Darwin removed to Derby, he wrote to the Society: " I am here cut off from the milk of science, which flows in such redundant streams from your learned Lunatics, and which, I can assure you, is a very great regret to me." In another letter he said: "I hope philosophy and fire-engines continue to go on well. You heard we sent your Society an air balloon, which was calcu- lated to have fallen in your garden at Soho, but the wicked wind carried it to Sir Edward Littleton's. Pray, give my compli- ments to your learned Society." On another occasion, Darwin wrote to Boulton: "I hope Behemoth has strength in his loins. Belial and Ash- taroth are two other devils of consequence and good names for engines of fire." Judging by these letters, Darwin was certainly a lively asso- ciate. 9 The meetings of the philosophers at Mr. Galton's must have been among the most delightful. The host was a man of supe- rior intellectual endowments, well skilled in the exact sciences, and a member of the Royal Society and of the Linnaean Society. He was of the Quaker persuasion, and a man of family and opulence. He at first resided at The Five Ways about one mile from Birmingham, but in 1785 moved to Great Barr House, a beautiful estate of Sir Joseph Scott, about seven miles further from town. The house was large and rambling, it had four or five different staircases and halls, and was more like an assem- blage of several houses under one roof. It was situated in an amphitheatre of wooded hills, and was bordered by an old- fashioned Dutch garden full of fish ponds. In this comfortable mansion the Lunar Society was most hospitably entertained. Mr. Galton's daughter Mary Anne (afterwards Mrs. Schimmel Penninck) characterizes the members with a graceful pen. Mr. Boulton, whom she calls the Father of Birmingham, " was tall and of a noble appearance; his temperament was sanguine, with that slight mixture of phlegmatic which gives calmness and dignity; his manners were eminently open and cordial; he tock the lead in conversations, and with a social heart had a grandiose manner like that arising from position, wealth, and habitual command. He went among his people like a monarch bestow- ing largess. His forehead was magnificent; the organs of com- parison, constructiveness, and of individuality were immense. The characteristics of Mr. Watt, his partner, were altogether different. Mr. Boulton was a man to rule society with dignity; Mr. Watt to lead the comtemplative life of a deeply introverted and patiently observant philosopher. He was one of the most complete specimens of the melancholic temperament. His head was generally bent forward or leaning on his hand in meditation; his shoulders stooping, and his chest fallen in; his limbs lank and unmuscular, and his complexion sallow. His intellectual development was magnificent. . . . Whilst Mr. Boulton's eye and countenance had something of radiance, Mr. Watt's were calm, as if patiently investigating or quietly contemplating his object. His utterance was slow and unimpassioned, deep and low in tone, with a broad Scotch accent; his manners gentle, modest, unassuming. In a company where he was not known, unless spoken to, he might have tranquilly passed the whole time in pursuing his own meditations. But this could not well happen; for, in point of fact, everybody practically knew the infinite variety of his talents and stores of knowledge. When Mr. Watt entered a room, men of letters, men of science, nay, military men, artists, ladies, even little children thronged around him. I remember a celebrated Swedish artist having been in- 10 structed by him that rats' whiskers make the most pliant and elastic painting-brush; ladies would appeal to him on the best means of devising grates, curing smoking chimneys, warming their houses, and obtaining fast colors. I can speak from ex- perience of his teaching me how to make a dulcimer and improve a Jew's harp." "Quite different was the aspect of Dr. Wither- ing; he was the personification of that which belongs to a physician and a naturalist; enormous were his organs of propor- tion and individuality, and great were his powers of active investigation and accurate detail. His features were sharpened by minute and sagacious observation. He was kind, but his great accuracy and caution rendered his manner less open, and it had neither the wide popularity of Mr. Boulton's, nor the attraction of Mr. Watt's true modesty." Of Dr. Priestley she says: he was "a man of admirable sim- plicity, gentleness, and kindness of heart, united with great acuteness of intellect. I can never forget the impression pro- duced on me by the serene expression of his countenance. He, indeed, seemed present with God by recollection and with man by cheerfulness." She differed from Dr. Priestley in his religious views, but pays a handsome tribute to his earnestness, candor, and sincerity. Captain Keir she characterizes as "the wit, the man of the world, the finished gentleman, who gave life and animation to the party." Dr. Stoke she calls " profoundly scientific and eminently ab- sent," and relates the following incident in which he was concerned. " On one occasion, when the Lunar Meeting, or "Lunatics," as our butler called them, were seated at dinner, a blazing fire being in the room, we were astonished by hearing a sudden hissing, noise, and seeing a large and beautiful, yellow and black snake rushing about the room. My dear mother, who saw it was not venomous, said to me: ' Mary Anne, go and catch that snake,' which, after some trouble, and thinking all the while of little Harry Sandford and Tommy Merton, I succeeded in ac- complishing. We were wondering where it could have come from, when Dr. Stoke said that, as he was riding along, he had seen the poor animal frozen on a bank, and put it in his pocket to dissect, but the snake had thawed and escaped from his pocket. The doctor praised me very much for my prowess, and as a reward he made me a present of my prisoner, which I long kept in a glass jar and carefully tended every day; at last, however, I gave him his freedom." Of the eccentric Dr. Darwin the lady had less agreeable reminiscences. The doctor had been called professionally to see her mother; he arrived in worn-out, muddy " sulky," fitted 11 up with receptacles for writing and eating, stocked with sweet confections, of which he was fond, and heaped up with books from the floor to the front window. "We all hastened/' she says, "to the window to see Dr. Darwin, of whom we had heard so much, and whom I was prepared to honor and venerate, in no common degree, as the restorer of my mother's health. What then was my astonishment at beholding him, as he slowly got out of the carriage I His figure was vast and massive, his head was almost buried on his shoulders, and he wore a scratch-wig, as it is called, tied up in a little bobtail behind." Meanwhile, amidst all this, the doctor's eye was deeply sagacious, his obser- vation most keen, and his intelligence well calculated to inspire confidence in his patients. When conversation began, his flow of wit and anecdote was most entertaining and astonishing, in spite of an inveterate stammering. Elsewhere she records the painful impression made on her by the doctor's irreligion.1 During the years 1780 to 1785, pneumatic chemistry was the principal topic under discussion, for Priestley and Watt were each contributing his share to the much-vexed question of the consti- tution of water. Cavendish in London, Lavoisier in Paris, and Watt in Birmingham were three rival claimants for the honor of the discovery of the composition of water. Priestley, as a friend of Watt, communicated speedily the results of his experiments, sometimes it is reasonable to believe, over the festive board of the Lunarians, and left the conclusions to be drawn by others. As to the relative merits of the claimants, that is foreign to the purpose of this essay. The Priestley-Wedgwood correspondence2 shows that in 1783 the philosophers were greatly exercised over Priestley's discovery of theconversion of water into air, the fallacy of which he himself afterwards admitted. The Phlogistic Theory, which had been the controlling spirit in chemical philosophy for nearly a century, received its death- blow at the hands of Priestley himself, when he isolated oxygen 1 We have ventured to quote, at great length, from Mrs. Schimmel Penninck's graphic reminiscences, because they certainly bear the im- press of truth and are lifelike in their portraiture. She had every ad- vantage of forming the acquaintance of the members of the Society, her father being active in it from the time she was eight years old until she was five and twenty, and a tenacious memory, added to a power of discrimination of unusual delicacy, enabled her, in after years, to record her souvenirs. Her mother was a most intimate friend of Mrs. Priestley, and William Priestley was a playmate in her youth. (" Life of Mary Ann Schimmel Penninck," edited bv C. C. Hankin. London, 1859.) - See authorities at the close of this paper. 12 on the 1st August, 1774. But he, as is well known, failed to per- ceive the important bearing of his own discovery, and it was across the channel that Lavoisier and other French chemists were skilfully burying the corpse out of sight. The French theory of combustion was but slowly accepted by conservative Englishmen, and slowest of all by the friends of Priestley. In the transition period, hydrogen was for a time believed to be the elusive phlogiston; to this phase of doctrine, Boulton alludes in a letter to Wedgwood dated March 30th, 1781. " We have long talked of phlogiston without knowing what we talked about; but now that Dr. Priestley hath brought the matter to light, we can pour that element out of one vessel into another, can tell how much of it by accurate measurement is necessary to reduce a calx to a metal, which is easily done, and without putting that calx into contact with any visible thing. In short, this goddess of levity can be measured and weighed like other matter. For the rest, I refer you to the doctor him- self." A few months later, Priestley himself wrote to his friend, Josiah Wedgwood: " Before my late experiments, phlogiston was indeed almost given up by the Lunar Society, but now it seems to be re-established " (March 21st, 1782). Again Boulton writes to his partner, Watt, July 3d, 1781. " I dined yesterday at the Lunar Society (Keir's house); there was Blair, Priestley, Withering, Galton, and an American "rebel," Mr. Collins. Nothing new, except that some of my white spathos iron ore was found to contain more air than any ore Priestley had ever tried, and what is singular, it contains no common air, but is part fixable and part inflammable." On September 20th, 1785, Watt wrote to Boulton : "The Lunar Society was held yesterday at Mr. Gallon's at Barr. It was rather dull, there having been no philosophical news lately, except Mr. Kirwan's discovery of an air from phos- phorus, which takes fire of itself on being mixed with common or dephlogisticated air." We imagine that the philosophers would have hardly regarded their feast as dull, could Mr. Kirwan have shown to them the beautiful yet nauseating experiment of spontaneously inflamma- ble phosphoretted hydrogen. And a modern Academy of Sciences would be enthusiastic over such a notable discovery.1 The discussions of the philosophic convives were not, however, confined exclusively to chemistry. The period was one of great 1 Gengembre, one of Lavoisier's pupils, had discovered inflammable phosphoretted hydrogen in 1783, but Kirwan's discovery was made in- dependently. 13 activity in the world of science; Laplace was applying his mathematical genius to the problems of astronomy ; Herschel was sweeping the heavens with his gigantic telescopes ; Galvani and Volta were laying the foundations of a revolution in elec- tricity; Count Rumford in Bavaria, was devoting his great energy to industrial and social economy ; Hutton and Werner were geologizing in their respective countries ; Hauy was syste- matizing the innumerable crystalline forms occurring in nature; the Mongolfier brothers were experimenting with air-balloons, and prophesying the yet unsolved problem of aerial navigation ; Capt. James Cook returned from his memorable voyages around the world full of adventure and novelties in nature ; the appli- cation of steam to the driving of land carriages and the propel- ling of boats was gradually being perfected by patience and genius. These together with the metaphysical and even the politi- cal questions of the day, must have engrossed the attention of the talented friends who dined together at the full moon. The pre- dilections of their guests sometimes determined the character of the subjects discussed. Thus, in the autumn of 1782, the venerable engineer Smeaton, having business in Birmingham connected with his canal, was invited to attend a meeting of the Lunarians at the house of Watt. Watt wrote of this evening's proceedings to his friend Boulton, then in London, as follows : " Smeaton grows old and is rather more talkative than he was, but retains in perfection his perspicuity of expression and good sense. He came to the philosophers' meeting at my house on Monday, and we were receiving an account of his experiments on rotatives and some new ones he has made, when unluckily his facts did not agree with Dr. Moyes, the blind philosopher's theories, which made Moyes contradict Smeaton, and brought on a dispute which lost us the information we hoped for, and took away all the pleasure of the meeting, as it lasted two hours without coming half an inch nearer to the point." (October 26th, 1782.) It has been surmised that the Lunar Society discussed the action of light upon nitrate of silver, and the application of this phenomenon to the production of pictures. This suggestion was made by Mr. W. P. Smith, at a meeting of the Photo- graphic Society of Birmingham in 1863, and was based on the discovery in Mr. Boulton's library at Soho of certain photo- graphic pictures on metallic plates. It was understood at the time that Boulton's rooms had been closed for fifty years, but this proved to be an error, and the pictures were probably made by a Miss Wilkinson who had access to the rooms, and who had experimented in photography soon after its invention by Niepce. It is well known that Thomas Wedgwood, son of Josiah, is said 14 to have made " silver pictures" under Sir Humphrey Davy's eyes as early as 1791-'93, hence during the existence of the Lunar Society. A fac-simile of one of these early photographs is prefixed to Miss Meteyard's "Life of the Younger Wedgwoods," but she herself throws some doubt on its authenticity. The philosophical converse of the learned men was sometimes enlivened by humorous interludes, such as the following: Dr. Dar- win, whose levity in religious matters was notorious, had invented a speaking machine which pronounced " papa," " mamma," and other words quite accurately. Mr. Boulton, who perhaps had suffered from the caustic wit of the doctor, drew up the follow- ing satirical contract. " I promise to pay to Dr. Darwin, of Lichfield, one thousand pounds upon his delivering to me (within two years from date hereof) an instrument called an organ that is capable of pro- nouncing the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and Ten Commandments in the vulgar tongue, and his ceding to me, and me only, the property of the said invention with all the advantages there- unto appertaining." [Signed] M. Boulton-. Soho, September 3d, 1787. Witness, James Keir. Witness, W. Small. A wide range of topics was admitted in the discussions at the informal meetings. Mrs. Schimmel Penninck, already quoted, gives a vivid picture of an exciting scene in her father's house. It was in the summer of 1788, and Matthew Boulton presented to the company his son M. Robinson Boulton, who had just returned from a long sojourn in Paris. " I well remember," writes Mrs. Schimmel Penninck, "my astonishment at his full dress in the highest adornment of Parisian fashion ; but I noticed as a remarkable thing that the company (which consisted of some of the first men in Europe), all with one accord gathered around him and asked innumerable questions, the drift of which I did not fully understand. It was wonderful to me to see Dr. Priestley, Dr. Withering, Mr. Watt, Mr. Boulton himself, and Mr. Keir manifest the most intense interest, each according to his prevailing characteristics, as they almost hung upon his words ; and it was impossible to mistake the indications of deep anxiety, hope, fear, curiosity, ardent zeal, or thoughtful gravity which alternately marked their countenances, as well as those of my own parents. My ears caught the words ' Marie Antoinette,' ' Cardinal de Rohan,' ' diamond necklace,' 'famine,' 'discontent among the people,' 'sullen silence instead of shouts of Vive le Roil' All present seemed to give a fearful attention. Why, I 15 did not then well know, and in a day or two, these things were almost forgotten by me, but the rest of the party heard, no doubt, in the young man's narrative, the distant though as yet faint rising of the storm which a year later was to burst upon France, and in its course to desolate Europe." It is proper to note that Mary Anne Galton was but eleven years of age at the time which she describes from memory in her later years. In 1791 a popular outbreak occurred in Birmingham, which threatened the very existence of the Lunar Society. A riotous mob, led by designing men of the baser sort, took possession, as it were, of the town, and for four days (July 14th to 17th) pil- laged and destroyed private property to the value of over one hundred thousand pounds. These July riots have often been described and details of the fanatical and violent proceedings do not belong to this place. We can but briefly say that the animosity was caused by political bias and religious intolerance, and was especially directed against Dr. Priestley and his friends who had openly expressed their sympathy with the French Re- volution, and as Dissenters were known to be opposed to the Es- tablished Church. The enraged mob, at first small in number, but increasing to more than a thousand, attacked first a com- pany of eighty gentlemen who were dining together ata public house to commemorate the anniversary of the French Revolution. The mob broke the hotel windows, and shouting " Church and King," sought out Dr. Priestley, who had not dined with the company. Not finding him, the mob rushed to the " New Meeting House," of which the Rev. Doctor was pastor, and destroyed it by fire. They then sought another Dissenting Chapel, and, having levelled it to the ground, marched over a mile to the residence of Dr. Priestley, which was plundered without mercy. His philosophical apparatus was ruthlessly de- stroyed and his library and manuscripts scattered to the winds. Dr. Priestley and his family barely escaped with their lives and never entered the town again. His cheerful temperament and philosophic habit of mind supported him wonderfully, but he never ceased to lament the loss of valuable manuscripts, in which were recorded the results of twenty years of labor and study. During three succeeding days the mob continued its work of destruction, almost unchecked by the municipal government. They directed their attacks against the property and persons of Dissenters, and of those holding liberal political views; the houses of the estimable William Hutton, bookseller, of a poor Presbyterian parson Mr. Hobson, and the more costly mansions of Mr. Humphreys and Mr. William Russel, a particular friend 16 of Dr. Priestley, were pillaged and burned to the ground. The members of the Lunar Society, popularly known as "Lunatics," were the especial object of their hatred and zeal. Shouting: " 2Vo philosophers-church and king forever!" they attacked Edg- baston Hall, the residence of Dr. Withering, but the timely arrival of the light-horse terminated their wretched work of plunder. Some persons, to escape their fury, wrote: "No philosophers" on the fronts of their houses. Boulton and Watt were not without apprehension of an attack, and placing arms in the hands of their workmen, addressed them on the criminality of the riotous proceedings, and obtained their promise to defend the establishment. But Soho was spared the dreaded attack, owing to the fact, says Watt, that most of the Dissenters lived in another direction. As a sequel, some of the ringleaders were executed, and the sufferers were awarded partial compensation for their pecuniary losses. Priestley shook the dust of Birmingham off his feet, fled to London, and some three years later emigrated to the wild regions of the Susquehanna in search of peace. It requires little play of the imagination to conjure up the ex- citing conditions of the first meeting of the Lunar Society after these frightful disasters. We have found no record or even allusion to this occasion, which called for all the philosophy the learned victims could muster. Dr. Priestley, while suffering an enforced separation from the society of his fellow-philosophers, was not forgetful of them, and in 1793 he dedicated his treatise, " Experiments on the Generation of Air from Water," to his "valued friends, the members of the Lunar Society at Birmingham." In this dedi- cation, he says: "There are few things I more regret, in con- sequence of my removal from Birmingham, than the loss of your society. It both encouraged and enlightened me, so that what I did there of a philosophical kind ought in justice to be at- tributed almost as much to you as to myself. From our cheerful meetings I never absented myself voluntarily, and from my pleas- ing recollection they will never be absent. Should the cause of our separation make it necessary for me to remove to a still greater distance from you, I shall only think the more, and with the more regret, of our past interviews." " Philosophy," he adds, "engrossed us wholly. Politicians may think there are no ob- jects of any consequence besides those which immediately in- terest them. But objects far superior to any of which they have any idea engaged our attention, and the discussion of them was accompanied with a satisfaction to which they are strangers. Happy would it be for the world if their pursuits were as tran- quil, and their projects as innocent and as friendly to the 17 best interests of mankind as ours." Finally, he concludes by earnestly committing them all, though in religious persuasion differing from himself, "to the protection and blessing of that Great Being whose we are, and whom I trust we all serve, and who established that course of nature which is the object of our common investigation." And then the Rev. Doctor prays " with the greatest esteem and affection " for a happy reunion with them all in another state of being. On another occasion, Priestley, writing to Watt, again ex pressed his affection for the members of the society in graceful language. After thanking Watt and Boulton for the gift of a copying machine (invented by the former), the doctor adds: "This and many other things will ever remind me of the obli- gations I am under to you. and the pleasing intercourse I have had with you and all my friends of the Lunar Society. Such another I can never expect to see. Indeed, London cannot fur- nish it. I shall always think of you at the usual times of your meeting." (Letter of November 2d, 1791.) Even after his settlement in Northumberland, the doctor continued to communicate his scientific observations to his friends in the Lunar Society. On December 6th, 1795, writing to his friend the Rev. Theophilus Lindsay, Priestley explains that he forwards through Dr. Young a copy of a paper prepared for the Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, and says: " Please to forward it to Mr. Galton the first convenient opportunity. It contains several new experiments, which must be thought of importance, especially with respect to the new French system with which, though universally adopted, I see more and more reason to be dissatisfied." This paper was entitled: "Experi- ments and Observations Relating to the Analysis of Atmo- spherical Air; also Further Experiments Relating to the Gen- eration of Air from Water," and was read to the Society February 5th, 1796. Still later, we find evidence that the cordial friendship of Priestley with Boulton and Watt seems to have been unbroken, except as distance prevented personal contact. In 1801, the firm sent Priestley a present of a " noble furnace and other ap- paratus for making large quantities of air," and the doctor, in acknowledging the gift, wrote thus: " I send every good wish to yourselves and all the other members of the Lunar Society, the advantages of which I most feelingly find the want of." (Letter of October 17th, 1801.) The latest reference to the Lunar Society in Priestley's writ- ings is probably that in the introduction to his essay, entitled: "The Doctrine of Phlogiston Established and that of the Com- position of Water Refuted," published at Northumberland in 18 1803. In this he comments on the almost universal acceptance of the new theory of combustion, and says: " And now that Dr. Crawford is dead, I hardly know of any person, except my friends of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, who adhere to the doctrine of phlogiston." Dr. Priestley is not the only one who records his attachment to this social organization and to its members individually. In his " Memoirs," Richard Lovell Edgworth writes: Our Society combined "men of very different characters, but all devoted to literature and science. This mutual intimacy has never been broken but by death, nor have any of the number failed to dis- tinguish themselves in science or literature. Some may think that I ought, with due modesty, to except myself. Mr. Keir, with his knowledge of the world and good sense; Dr. Small, with his benevolence and profound sagacity; Wedgwood,1 with his increasing industry, experimental variety, and calm investi- gation; Boulton, with his mobility, quick perception, and bold adventure; Watt, with his strong inventive faculty, undeviating steadiness, and bold resources; Darwin, with his imagination, science, and poetical excellence; and Day, with his unwearied research after truth, his integrity and eloquence-proved alto- gether such a society as few men have had the good fortune to live with; such an assemblage of friends as fewer still have had the happiness to possess and keep through life." As the century drew towards its end, the Lunar Society gradually dissolved, its members dropping off one by one. Priestley had emigrated; Thomas Day was killed by a fall from his horse, in 1789; Dr. Withering died of a lingering consump- tion, in 1799;2 Dr. Darwin was carried off by an attack of an- gina pectoris, in 1802; and the ever-welcome guest Josiah Wedgwood passed away in 1795; Capt. Keir, Janies Watt, and Boulton, the founder, were almost the only members surviving. The vacant seats remained unfilled and the meetings passed into history. The few lingering survivors found its associations too painful to be continued. But the influence exerted by the so- ciety did not die; it had stimulated inquiry and quickened the zeal for knowledge of all who had come within its influence, and this spirit diffused and propagated itself in all directions. Leonard Horner, who visited Soho in 1809, thus refers to the continued moral influence of the association: "The remnant of the Lunar Society," he says, "and the fresh remembrance in others of the remarkable men who composed it, are very interest- 1 Mias Meteyard, the biographer of Wedgwood, says he was not a member of the Lunar Society, but a guest. 2 During his long illness, his friends said: " The flower of physic is withering." 19 ing. The impression which they made is not yet worn out, but shows itself to the second and third generation, in a spirit of scientific curiosity and free inquiry which even yet makes some stand against Toryism and the love of gain." (Smiles.) Social gatherings of men having kindred intellectual interests and pursuits have many advantages which are lacking in other organizations of a more formal character. Our migratory American Association has marked social aspects, but it brings together workers in science only once a year, and its chief social advantages result from the acquaintances formed between the entertaining citizens and their scientific guests. Our New York Academy of Sciences, with its noble history, occupies a field of its own, and is the proper place for announcing discoveries in every department of learning, but the parliamentary forms necessary to dignified proceedings forbid or hamper the freest interchange of opinions and the foimation of those personal friendships which a social organization like the Lunar Society so admirably fosters. One of the members of the Lunar Society, Richard Lovell Edgworth, perceived this difference between the two classes of associations, and states the case in well chosen words. Alluding to the Lunar Society in his "Memoirs," he writes: "A society of literary men and a literary society may be very different. In the one, men give the results of their serious researches and detail their deliberate thoughts; in the other, the first hints of discoveries, the current observations, and the mutual collision of ideas are of important utility. The knowl- edge of each member of such a society becomes in time dissemi- nated among the whole body, and a certain esprit chi corps, uncontaminated with jealousy, in some degree combines the talents of members to forward the views of a single person." 1 1 In preparing this sketch we have made free use of the following works: Muirhead's " Life of Janies Watt," London, 1858. Muirhead's " Mechanical Inventions of Watt," London, 1854. Smiles' " Lives of Boulton and Watt," London, 1864. Krause's "Erasmus Darwin," London, 1879. Edgworth's "Memoirs," London, 1820, 2 vols. Brougham's " Philosophers of the Time of George III.," London, 1855. Rutt's " Life and Correspondence of Priestley," London, 1832. 2 vols. Jewett's " Life of William Hutton," London, n. d. "Life of Mary Ann Schimmel Penninck," by herself, London, 1859. Meteyard's "Life of Wedgwood," London, 1865. 2 vols. Meteyard's "Group of Englishmen," London, 1871. As well as of:- Forty-one unpublished letters from Priestley to Wedgwood, loaned to the writer by Mrs, Robert A. Wainewright, granddaughter of the great ■chemist. 20 .It is with such thoughts as these that I have ventured to call together this distinguished company, and to propose the per- petuation of the memory of the historic society of Birmingham by founding in the metropolis of the New World another Lunar Society having similar aims and methods. The original organi- zation has long passed into history; but will not the meetings on this side of the Atlantic be enlightened by the same moon that shone on the festive philosophers of Birmingham ?>