The “Social Chemists”: English chemical societies in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century

Ambix

Volumn 33, Issue 2-3, 1986, Pages 99-128

  Averley, Gwen ^a  

^a Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue ^*  (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION; HISTORY; HISTORY OF MEDICINE; NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION; ORGANIZATION; UNITED KINGDOM;

ACADEMIES AND INSTITUTES; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; FOUNDATIONS; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY OF MEDICINE, MODERN; SOCIETIES;

EID: 0022804468     PISSN: 00026980     EISSN: 17458234     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/amb.1986.33.2-3.99     Document Type: Article

References (128)

1. P. J. McLaughlin, “The Kirwanian Society (1812-1818?)”, Studies, 43, (1954) 441-450. This society concentrated on mineralogy and chemistry.
2. J. Kendall, “The first chemical society, the first chemical journal, and the chemical revolution”, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., 63A (1952), 346-58 & 385-400.
3. J. Kendall, “Some eighteenth-century chemical societies”, Endeavour, 1 (July 1942), 106-9.
4. J. Kendall, “The first chemical society, the first chemical journal, and the chemical revolution”, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., 63A (1952), 346-58 & 385-400.
5. A. & N. L. Clow, The Chemical Revolution, London (1952), 594-7.
6. F. J. Wilson, “The Chemical Society of Glasgow: minute book of 1800-1801”, Annals of Science, 2 (4) (1937), 451-459.
7. D. E. Allen, “James Edward Smith and the Natural History Society of Edinburgh”, J. Soc. Bibliog. Nat. Hist., 8(4) (1978), 483-93.
8. G. N. Cantor, “The Academy of Physics at Edinburgh 1797-1800”, Social Studies of Science, 5 (1975), 109-124; for the second Edinburgh chemical society see pp. 119, 121.
9. W. Miles, “Early American Chemical Societies”, Chymia, 3 (1950), 95-113.
10. W. Miles, “John Redman Coxe and the founding of the Chemical Society of Philadelphia”, Bull. Hist. Med., 30 (1956), 469-472.
11. W. Miles, “The Columbian Chemical Society”, Chymia, 5 (1959), 145-154.
12. For example, the “Society of Dutch Chemists”, J. Nat. Phil., 1 (1797), 44.
13. “Chemical Society of Jena in Saxony”, J. Nat. Phil., 4 (1800), 144.
14. James E. McClellan III, Science Reorganized: Scienific Societies in the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1985.
15. H. A. M. Snelders, Het Gezelschap der Hollandsche Scheikundigen, Amsterdam, 1980.
16. C. de Pater in Annals of Science, 39 (1982), 422-3.
17. For example, at Oxford: the Society for Scientific and Literary Disquisition, 1795-; and at Cambridge: the Society for the Promotion of Philosophy and General Literature, 1784- and the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, 1784-. The societies of Fellows and students were quite separate.
18. J. Playfair, The Works of John Playfair, Edinburgh, 1822, 1 lxxxv.
19. The minute book for 1780-1787 of this society is in the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, MS. Gunther 4. The printed Abstract of such Resolutions and Precedents as relate to the Constitution of the Philosophical Society, dated March 14, 1788. W/M 1109, is held at Keele University Library where the document is deposited by Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd., Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent. Both documents are referred to by date of entry. From 26 November 1784 the Society met at the Baptists Head Coffee House.
20. T. E. Allibone, The Royal Society and its Dining Clubs, Oxford, 1976.
21. N. G. Coley, “The Animal Chemistry Club: assistant society to the Royal Society”, Notes & Records R. Soc. of London, 22 (1967), 173-185, 177.
22. R. F. Bud, “The Discipline of Chemistry: The Origins and Early Years of the Chemical Society of London”, Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1980. Ed. M. Berman, The Archives of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in Facsimile: Minutes of Managers’ Meetings, 1799-1900, London, 1971, 3 297 (4 June 1804) refers to the “Chemical Society of London” it seems likely that this is the same group as the Chemical Club.
23. B. Higgins, Minutes of the Society for Philosophical Experiments and Conversations, London, 1795.
24. List of members, 7-9. Addresses of members are given but not reproduced here. Many of the identifications were made on the basis of the address.
25. Thomas Blunt was the apprentice (1760) and partner (1774-91) of Edward Nairne, who was an original member of the Chapter Coffee House Society. I am indebted to A. V. Simcock for this information.
26. Ed. by Mrs. Henry [Cecilia Anne] Baring, The Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham, 1784 to 1810, London, 1866, 302.
27. R. E. W. Maddison, “Studies in the Life of Robert Boyle, FRS. Part V. Boyle’s Operator: Ambrose Godfrey Hanckwitz, FRS”, Notes & Records Roy. Soc. of London, 11(2), 1954-55, 159-188.
28. R. E. W. Maddison, “Notes on some members of the Hanckwitz Family in England”, Annals of Science, 11 (1), 64-70. It is not clear whether this is Ambrose Godfrey III (1730-1797) or Ambrose Godfrey IV (1769-1807).
29. R. J. Spring, “The Development of Chemistry in London in the Nineteenth Century”, Ph.D. thesis, King’s College, London, 1978, 326, fn.87 quotes from S. Parkes, Chemical Essays, London, 1815, 5 vols, 384-85, that Coxwell sold the first large-scale produced citric acid in England.
30. E. B. Impey, Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey, Knt., London, 1846, 365.
31. D. Hill, Practical Observations on the Use of Oxygen, or Vital Air, in the Cure of Diseases: to which are added a few experiments on the Vegetation of Plants, London, 1800, 1.
32. B. Daines, “Observations on the Floating Ice which is found in High Northern and Southern Latitudes. To which are added Experiments on the Freezing of Sea Water. By B. Higgins, M.D.”, London, 1776, 121, as part of The Probability of Reaching the North Pole Discussed, London, 1774-76.
33. C. H. Wilkinson, An Enquiry into the Natural History, Chemical Properties and Medical Virtues of the Rock Oil, or Green Mineral Naphtha of Barbados, London, 1830, 57-8, fn. Wilkinson (ci 763-1850) recalls being a member of Higgins’s society in 1796 and 1797. I am indebted to Hugh Torrens for this independent proof of the society’s continued existence.
34. Royal Society of Arts, Loose Archives, C11/33 Eden. This proposal was first mentioned in D. G. C. Allan, “Productions, Inventions and Improvements: A Note on the History of the Royal Society of Arts”, Chemistry and Industry, 12 August 1961, 1244-6.
35. F. W. Gibbs, “Bryan Higgins & his Circle”, Chemistry in Britain, 2 (1965), 60-65.
36. Royal Society of Arts, Minutes of Committees, bound annually. D. Hudson & K. W. Luckhurst, The Royal Society of Arts, 1754-1954, London, 1954, 119-125, 172.
37. Royal Society of Arts, Minutes of the Society, 1796-97, vol. 42. George Wilson was Chairman of the Committee of Chemistry, 1791-1799.
38. Anonymous, Life of William Allen, with selections from his correspondence, London, 1846, 3 vols., 1 24.
39. E. Clarke, Guy’s Hospital Gazette, 33 (1919), 379-384 & 396-401.
40. J. R. Wall, “The Guys Hospital Physical Society (1771-1852)”, Guy’s Hospital Reports, 123 (1974), 159-170.
41. S. Wilks & G. T. Bettany, The Biographical History of Guy’s Hospital, London, 1892. For these facts I am indebted to Mr. Alan Baster, Assistant Librarian, Guy’s Hospital.
42. H. C. Cameron, Mr. Guys Hospital 1726-1948, London, 1954,95, 145. Cameron makes no mention ofa chemical society.
43. I have added Taylor and Crevel, who were not in the list of members but appeared in the list of officers.
44. C. A. Browne, “The Life and Chemical Services of Frederick Accum”, J. of Chemical Education, 2 (10), 1925, 829-851; 2 (11), 1925, 1008-34 & 2 (12), (1925), 1140-49.
45. C. A. Browne, “Recently acquired information concerning Frederick Accum, 1769-1838”, Chymia, 1 (1948), 1-10.
46. R.J. Cole, “Friedrich Accum (1769-1838) A Biographical Study”, Annals of Science, 7 (1951), 128-143.
47. Med. & Phys. J., 16 (1806), 96.
48. Monthly Magazine, 21 (1 July 1806), 556.
49. Phil. Mag., 25 (1806), 83-86.
50. [Nicholson’s] J. of Nat. Phil., 14 (1806), 268-70.
51. F. Accum, A Practical Essay on the Analysis of Minerals, London, 1804, preface and section headed “Chemical Demonstrations or Private Lectures, on Practical Chemistry”, at end of copy in British Library.
52. Managers’ Minutes (13), 3 143 (6 June 1803).
53. E. Thorpe, Essays on Historical Chemistry, London, 1911, Essay XVIII, 565. wrote that: “even as far back as 1806 an effort was made to form a Chemical Society independent of the Royal Society, to be called the London Chemical Society, but it received scant encouragement from persons in high places, and few chemists of note joined its ranks. Sir Joseph Banks, indeed, frowned down upon all such attempts. ‘I see plainly’, he once said, ‘that all these new fangled associations will fully dismantle the Royal Society, and not leave the old lady a rag to cover her’. And the frown of the masterful old President meant social ostracism to all who chose to disregard it. But… Banks, if he could not reverse, could at least control and modify a natural tendency, and with the aid of Wollaston, Davy, Hatchett and Brande he managed to keep chemistry for a time almost exclusively under the cloak of ‘the old lady’.” It is not known what evidence Thorpe had for this statement it may have been a reference to the Animal Chemistry Club rather than Accum’s Society.
54. Sowerby Collection, General Library, British Museum (Natural History), Box 27, Philosophical and Chemical Society, Regulations, London. [1808]. Section II. Of the Views of the Society.
55. This is collated from an undated list (internal evidence suggests that it should be dated 1807) and a list dated 1808. Addresses of town members are given but not reproduced here.
56. Works of David Ricardo … Life by J. R. McCulloch, London, 1846, xvii.
57. John Haslam was elected a member of the Society for Promoting Natural History (SPNH) in 1785, as were A. Allardyce (1789) and H. S. Conway (1790), (both of Higgins’s society). On 27 September 1784 this society decided against the proposal of George Wilson (of the Society of Arts committee of chemistry) “that such Specimens as are the Result of Artificial Chemical Operations shall be considered as a Part of Natural History”. Minutes of the SPNH, Linnean Society.
58. Ed. Emily Robertson, Letters and Papers of Andrew Roberston, London, [1895], 150.
59. British Library, Add. MSS. 60360-66, account books of William Ayrton, 1803, 1805-1810. Entry for 11 December 1807 in Add. MS. 60363.
60. A., A. [Anna Atkins], Memoir of J. G. Children, Westminster, 1853, 149-55, 279.
61. A. E. Gunther, “John George Children, F.R.S., 1777-1852”, Bull. B.M. (N.H.) Historical Series, 6 (4), (1978), 75-108.
62. Lowry referred to this analysis in a letter to David Mushet, Gloucestershire Record Office, D2646/9. I am indebted to Hugh Torrens for this reference.
63. Sowerby Collection (39). Box 4, Item 5 (1), Committee Meetings, Philosophical and Chemical Society.
64. Box 4, Item 5 (2).
65. This list has been compiled from two separate lists at the Lambeth Archives Department [IV/87/2b] and the Sowerby Collection B.M. (N.H.) Box 24.
66. J. B. MacDonald, “The Sowerby Collection in the B.M. (N.H.) a brief description of its holdings and a history ofits acquisition”, J. Soc. Bibliog. Nat. Hist., 6 (6), February 1974, 380-401. The whole issue pp. 378-568, is devoted to studies of the Sowerbys.
67. Both lists (49) give “E. Davey”. Identification is based on a letter in the Sowerby Collection (39), Box 18, from E. Davy, to J. de C. Sowerby dated 14 November 1815. In this letter Davy, Secretary of the Cork Institution, asked Sowerby to place an advertisement for a lecturer in natural history for the Cork Institution in the London papers. He adds: “pray remember me very kindly to your father & Brothers also to Mr. E. Forster & his Brother—& to Mr. Lowry”. This suggests that he had been a member of the Lambeth circle.
68. Sowerby Collection (39), Box 41.
69. Obituary of J. de C. Sowerby, Lancet, 23 September 1871, 451.
70. A. de Carle Sowerby, A. M. Sowerby & J. E. Stone, The Sowerby Saga: being a brief account of the origin and genealogy of the Sowerby Family, Washington, D.C., 1952. Part II., 34. Sowerby Collection (39), Box 4 Item 15 a short biography of J. de C. Sowerby by his son William. No confirmation of his friendship with Faraday has been found.
71. G. F. Elliott, “Two London Clay Clubs 1836-1847, and 1923-1940”, J. Soc. Bibliog. Nat. Hist., 5 (5), 1970, 333-9.
72. Sowerby’s two eldest sons were frequent visitors from mid 1802 onwards, but particularly so during 1803 and 1804. Linnean Society, General Minute Book, No. 1. 1802-1813.
73. The Entomological Society of London was formed on the dissolution of the (third named) Aurelian Society (1801-1806). R. Cuming was a member of this Society (see “Original declaration” of the Society, 1 June 1801 in Southwark Local Studies Library, p. 595.7).
74. The Aurelian Society is described in A. H. Haworth, Prodomus, 1803.
75. Lepidoptera Britannicae, London, 1811, postscript, 587. The rule compelling members to give up unique specimens to the society’s cabinet was much disliked. In 1806 the Entomological Society was formed by most of the members of the Aurelian but it did little between 1812 and 1822 when some of its members formed the Entomological Society of Great Britain.
76. Obiturary, G. B. Sowerby, Proc. Linnean Society, 1855, 2, 415.
77. Obiturary, G. B. Sowerby, Proc. Linnean Society, 1855, 2, 42. George Brettingham married Elizabeth, second daughter of Nicholas and Mary Meredith in 1811 and his elder brother James de Carle married Mary Ann Edwards in 1813. It seems possible that both had married daughters of members of the Lambeth Chemical Society though certain identification has not been achieved.
78. J. L. Roget, A History of the Old Water-Colour Society now the Royal Society of Painters, London, 1891, 1 172.
79. Sowerby Collection (39), Box 27, letter from Neale, General Post Office, 6 September 1809 to G. B. Sowerby concerning a trip to “beat for Larva”, in which Neale also mentions Fenton.
80. Linnean Society, Certificate of Recommendation of Wm. Sweeting. I am grateful for the assistance of the Librarian, Gina Douglas.
81. Linnean Society, General Minutes 1802-1813, 25 May 1812.
82. Monthly Magazine, 30 1 August 1810, 11-12. By “C. C.”. “Far from being an opponent to the Linnean Society, I deem it an introductory seminar to raise future candidates for admission into that ever by me revered society”. The society was described as a union of Fellows of the Linnean Society and “practical collectors” lacking a classical education. It is not known why J. P. Neale and R. Cuming were not proposed as Fellows of the Linnean Society.
83. “List of the Register of Students of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1769-1922”, British Library, Microfilm, Mic. A1185.
84. A. Graves, A Dictionary of Artists who have exhibited works in the principal London exhibitions from 1760 to 1893, London, 1895.
85. Holden’s Triennial Directory for 1809, 1810, 1811, 5th edn. (1811) lists “Cuming, R. drawingmaster, 3, Dean’s-r. Walworth”. The list in the Lambeth Archives (49) is written on the back of an envelope addressed to “Richd. Cummings, Deans Row, Walworth”.
86. A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts. A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their Work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904, London, 1905.
87. P. J. P. Whitehead, “Zoological Specimens from Captain Cook’s Voyages”. J. Soc. Bibliog. Nat. Hist., 5 (3), (1969), 161-201, see pp. 168, 190.
88. Obituary R. Cuming [Anon.] J. Brit. Archaeol. Assoc., 27 (1871), 542-544. I am indebted to D. E. Allen for bringing these references to my attention.
89. Managers’ Minutes (13), 3 205-206, 23 January 1804.
90. T. Allen, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth, London, 1826, 146-7.
91. Managers’ Minutes (13), 4 8 May 1809.
92. Post Office Annual Directory for 1811, London. Rich. Farmer, Esqr., Kennington was elected to the Society of Arts on 11 February 1801.
93. Johnstone’s London Commercial Guide and Street Directory, 1817, 342.
94. N. Meredith’s Rudiments, 1810 was “printed for the Author, Mount Street”. The Rules of the Lambeth Chemical Society were printed for Meredith and Son, Mount Street, Lambeth. By B. Meredith, Silver Street, Wood Street, Cheapside.
95. H. G. Friedstein, “A Short History of the Chemistry of Painting”, J. of Chem. Educ., 58 (4), April 1981, 291-295.
96. Sowerby Collection (39), Box 2 Item 5, announcement of a Lecture on Chromatometry on 1 December 1808 by James Sowerby, lasting one hour, 5s. a ticket. The demonstration room could only take twenty people at a time. Monthly Magazine, 27 1 February 1809, 70 gives an account of Sowerby’s lecture given on the 12 and 19 December 1808. “Mr. Sowerby continues to repeat the lecture every Monday”.
97. Ed. Prince Hoare, The Artist: A Collection of Essays, relative to painting, poetry, sculpture, architecture, the drama, discoveries of science, and various other subjects, London, 1810, 2v. Reprint, originally issued 1807-1809. 2 (12), 199-205.
98. Lambeth Archives Department, IV/87/1, Rules of the Lambeth Chemical Society, London, 1810.
99. Sowerby Collection (39), Box 24. “Occasional Discourse delivered to the Lambeth Chemical Society”, last paragraph.
100. Lambeth Archives Department, IV/87/1, Rules of the Lambeth Chemical Society, London, 1810.
101. Sowerby Collection (39), Box 2 Item 5 (3).
102. There was at least one all-female philosophical society at the end of the eighteenth century at Chichester, but its existence is all that is known of it, see Commercial and Agricultural Magazine, 2 (6), January 1800, 69.
103. Lambeth Archives Department, IV/87/2C. The two lectures by Cuming are held in the Southwark Local Studies Library, [Cuming Papers, 2/Boxes 40-41] in Box 41 entitled “Lecture on Light” and “Lecture on the Sources of Caloric”. These also contain lists of the accompanying experiments performed by Cuming. These boxes contain his extensive notes on many subjects, particularly chemistry and entomology, extracted from published works.
104. Sowerby Collection (39), Box 13, containes the draft of the reply, which differs only slightly in wording from the published version. In Box 1 is a draft of a letter, dated May 1811 to an unknown addressee concerning the analysis of the resin.
105. The resin was inquired after in 1816 in a letter from Sir Joseph Banks to Bernard Geary Snow on behalf of Alexandre Brongniart. W. R. Dawson, The Banks Letters. A Calender of the manuscript correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, London, 1958, 770-771.
106. These three documents are in Lambeth Archives Department, IV/87/2a, 2e, 2d respectively.
107. Sowerby Collection (39) Box 4, Item 5 (2).
108. W. H. Brock, “The London Chemical Society, 1824”, Ambix, 14 1967, 133-139.
109. C. A. Russell, N. G. Coley & G. K. Roberts, Chemists by Profession: The origins and rise of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, Open University, 1977, 55-60.
110. A., A. [Anna Atkins], Memoir of J. G. Children, Westminster, 1853, (45), 255.
111. C. A. Russell, Science and Social Change, London, 1983, 208-212.
112. C. A. Russell, N. G. Coley & G. K. Roberts, Chemists by Profession: The origins and rise of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, Open University, 1977, 55-60., ch. IV.
113. D. Orange, “Rational dissent and provincial science: William Turner and the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society”, in eds. I. Inkster & J. Morrell, Metropolis and Province: Science in British Culture, 1780-1850, London, 1983, 205-230.
114. Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society (NLPS) archives, “Reports, Papers and Catalogues of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne”, 11 vols., 1793-1824, collected by Anthony Hedley (Hedley volumes). Hedley 1 3rd Report, 1794, 4. It is possible that the minutes of the general committee meeting of 19 April 1795 which gave permission to a group of members to use the Society’s rooms for monthly meetings also refer to this group. Hedley 1 (124), committee meeting minutes, April 19, 1795.
115. NLPS archives, “Literary and Philosophical Society, Letters”, 7 MS. vols., 1793-1866. 1, letter dated 27 January 1797.
116. I. Inkster, “Studies in the History of Science in England during the Industrial Revolution, circa 1790-1850”, 2v. Ph.D., Sheffield University, 1977, p. 541.
117. source the Doncaster, Nottingham and Lincoln Gazette, 7 February 1806; p. 743.
118. source the Liverpool Chronicle, 20 June 1804.
119. Pers. comm. F. J. G. Robinson that Stancliffe placed no advertisements in the Newcastle newspapers before 1801. Pers. comm. Norman Cawthorn that the only advertisements placed by Stancliffe in Newcastle newspapers during 1801-1815 were on seven occasions from 17 October 1801 to 31 July 1802 in the Newcastle Courant. In none of these does Stancliffe mention the society.
120. In his advert in the Newcastle Courant, 31 October 1801, Stanclifle unusually gave a list of subscribers to his course (55 male, 28 female) which appears to consist mostly of members of the Lit. & Phil, and their relations.
121. C. Frost, An Address, delivered to the Literary and Philosophical Society, at Kingston-upon-Hull; at the opening of the seventh session, on Friday, 5 November 1830, Hull, 1831. 7.
122. I. Inkster, “Studies in the History of Science in England during the Industrial Revolution, circa 1790-1850”, 2v. Ph.D., Sheffield University, 1977, p. 128.
123. I. Inkster, “Science and the Mechanics’ Institutes, 1820-1850: the Case of Sheffield”, Annals of Science, 32, (1975) 468.
124. I. Inkster, “Science Instruction for Youth in the Industrial Revolution.: The Informal Network in Sheffield”, Vocational Aspects of Education, 25, (1973) 98.
125. R. H. Kargon, Science in Victorian Manchester, Manchester, 1977, 97-98.
126. M. Tylecote, The Mechanics’ Institutes of Lancashire and Yorkshire before 1851, Manchester, 1957, 160-16.
127. R. Angus Smith, A Centenary of Science in Manchester, London, 1883, 348fnl.
128. R. H. Kargon, Science in Victorian Manchester, Manchester, 1977, 88-90.