the royal institution responds to the table-turners.
ROYAL INSTITUTION -- WHEWELL, William, Michael FARADAY, Robert Gordon LATHAM, Charles G.B. DAUBENY, John TYNDALL, James PAGET, and W.B. HODGSON (contributors). Lectures on Education delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. London: Savill and Edwards for John W. Parker and Son, 1855.
8vo (185 x 123mm). Original green cloth, boards blocked in blind with central cartouche and border, spine ruled in blind and lettered in gilt, maroon endpapers, entirely unopened; pp. [1]-8, [1]-316, [1]-8 (advertisements); slightly faded on spine and outer parts of boards, extremities slightly bumped, otherwise a very good, unopened copy.
First edition. This volume comprises the text of seven lectures delivered in the Royal Institution by William Whewell, Michael Faraday, Robert Latham, Charles Daubeny, John Tyndall, James Paget and W.B. Hodgson in the spring of 1854. As the ODNB relates, 'An unexpected consequence of Faraday's discovery of diamagnetism was that many of those who had taken an interest in mesmerism, which was then sweeping the country, thought that Faraday had found the mechanism for the phenomena and wrote to tell him so in 1846. Although Faraday had taken some interest in mesmerism, he concluded that there was nothing in it. In this case he made no public statement about his deep scepticism (perhaps he recollected the difficulties he had experienced since 1837 when it was stated widely, but incorrectly, that he believed that Andrew Crosse had made living insects using electricity). In 1853 spiritualism and table-turning became fashionable. As with mesmerism, Faraday examined the phenomenon and came to the conclusion that table-turning was caused by a quasi-involuntary muscular action, and had nothing to do with supernatural agency. However, the fact that he had carried out this investigation led some to interpret Faraday as giving credence to table-turning. In a letter to The Times stating his results, Faraday concluded by saying that the educational system must be deficient since otherwise well-educated people would not believe in the phenomenon in the way they did. Faraday was inundated with letters (some quite abusive) from table-turners, giving accounts of their experiences. This episode led Henry Bence Jones (a manager of the Royal Institution) and Faraday to organize a set of lectures on education. These lectures, two of which were attended by Prince Albert, were delivered in 1854 by eminent men of science [...] and developed the point Faraday had made in The Times about education'.
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