The Age of Wonder (94 page)

Davy, Jane, Lady
(née
Kerr;
then
Apreece): meets Davy, 304, 337; background and character, 337-8; Davy courts and corresponds with, 340-2; marriage and honeymoon with Davy, 343, 346-7; deteriorating marriage relations, 348-50, 374-6, 397, 400-1, 405, 412-14; social life, 350, 357, 377, 415; attitude to Faraday, 352, 358, 402, 448; Continental tour with Davy (1813-15), 352, 355, 357-8; in Paris, 353; Ticknor meets, 360; fishing holidays, 361; and Davy’s preoccupation with developing miners’ safety lamp, 365; two-year European tour with Davy (1818-20), 375-8, 380; Banks’s attitude to, 384; holiday with Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, 398; unpopularity in Penzance, 401n; absence from Davy’s later Continental tours, 414-15, 420; and Davy’s nurse in Laibach, 421, 423; and Scott’s review of
Salmonia,
423;
and
Davy’s writing of
Consolations in Travel,
425; Davy’s later easier attitude to, 431; visits dying Davy in Rome, 432; and Davy’s death, 433; inheritance from Davy, 434

Davy, John (Humphry’s brother): birth, 234; and Humphry’s romantic attachments, 241, 301; recalls Humphry’s early experiments, 249; sadness at Humphry’s departure for Bristol, 253; as Humphry’s temporary assistant at Royal Institution, 298n; and Humphry’s marriage to Jane, 343, 346; serves as military doctor, 359, 433; on Humphry’s marriage difficulties, 376; and Humphry’s solving naval ships’ corrosion problem, 412; accompanies Humphry on 1827 Continental tour, 414-15; attends mother’s funeral, 414; and Humphry’s poems to Josephine, 423; visits dying Humphry in Rome, 432-3; later travels and career, 433; writes life of Humphry, 434;
The Angler and his Friend,
434;
Fragmentary Remains
(of Humphry Davy), 434;
Memoirs of Sir Humphry Davy,
275, 434

Davy, Kitty (Humphry’s sister), 238-9

Davy, Robert (Humphry’s father), 237-40, 243

Dawkins, Richard, 313n, 429n;
Unweaving the Rainbow,
321n, 440n

de la Tour, Georges, xix

Demba (African slave boy), 215-16

Dennett, Daniel, 313n

De Quincey, Thomas, 413; ‘Animal Magnetism’, 315n;
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater,
431

Descartes, René, 249, 448

Dessalis, Dr: marries Harriet Blosset, 42

Dettela, Josephine (‘Pappina’), 377, 419, 421-3, 427, 432, 434

Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of, 137, 139, 147, 217-18, 235, 251-2

Dickens, Charles, 453-4

Dickson, James, 214, 220

Dictionnaire des Athées,
198

Diderot, Denis:
Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville,
46n

Diodati, Villa, Lake Geneva, 327, 457

Djerassi, Carl, 429n;
Oxygen
(play), 373n

Dolland, John, 79; achromatic telescope, 78

Dolland, Peter, 78

Dollfus, Audoin:
Pilâtre de Rozier,
153-4n

Dolphin
(ship), 3, 17, 30

Dootah (Tahitian chieftain), 23-4, 28-9

Dorset, John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of, 134, 152

double stars, 87, 90 & n, 95

Dublin: Sadlers’ balloon flights from, 156, 158; Davy lectures in, 304, 340

Dudley, John William Ward, 1st Earl of, 347, 412

Durham, Bishop of
see
Barrington, Shute

Dwyer, Patrick, 257-8

Dyer, Susan, 149, 154-5 & n

earth, age of
see
Creation

Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley, 360

Edgeworth, Lovell, 265

Edgeworth, Maria, 264, 281, 291, 350

Edinburgh Review,
299, 317, 369, 435

Edwards, Bryan, 212, 221, 232

Einstein, Albert: General Theory of Relativity, 360; images, 465n

electricity: experiments in, 245; Davy’s interest in, 273-4; Davy lectures on, 295-6; and Vitalism theory, 309-10, 312, 314, 317, 428; animal, 431-3; Faraday’s researches into, 444, 453-4; John Herschel on, 444

electro-chemical analysis, 298

Elizabeth, Princess, 111

Encke, Johann, 193

Endeavour,
HMS: voyage, xvi, 1, 3, 5, 9-11, 13; deaths, 13-14, 40; and Tahitian thieving, 16; leaves Tahiti, 35; continues voyage to New Zealand and Australia, 38; health and condition of crew, 39; official account of voyage (by Hawkesworth), 44; Banks’s pride in voyage, 57

Enfield, William:
History of Philosophy,
243

Englefield, Sir Harry, 189

English Channel: balloon crossings, 148, 153

Epictetus, 73

Estrées, Louis César le Tellier de Louvois, Marshal d’, 69

ether, 284

‘Eureka moment’, xvii, 94n, 98, 456

evolution: Darwin’s theory of, 313, 451 & n, 461; Coleridge on, 322-3; Davy on, 455

Examiner
(journal), 353

extraterrestrial life: speculations on, 91-2, 167, 199, 209, 357, 426

Fabricius, Johann, 49

Fadiman, Anne: ‘Collecting Nature’, 49n

Fara, Patricia:
Newton: The Making of a Genius,
xviiin

Faraday, Michael: electro-chemical experiments, 298n; appointed laboratory assistant at Royal Institution, 348-9; attends Davy’s lectures, 349; accompanies Davy and Jane on Continental tour, 352-7, 370; character and appearance, 352, 358; letters to Abbott, 352, 354, 357-8; religious beliefs, 352, 450, 452; and Davy’s claiming priority in analysis of iodine, 354; lectures and discourses, 358, 453-4; promoted at Royal Institution, 358; assists in Davy’s development of miners’ safety lamp, 363-6, 373; and Davy’s absence in Durham, 363; belief in scientific knowledge, 371; unrewarded by Royal Society, 394; and Davy’s candidacy for presidency of Royal Society, 398; Davy blackballs Fellowship of Royal Society, 401; marriage, 401; eventual election as Fellow of Royal Society, 402; injured in laboratory explosion, 402-3; bust at new British Library, 404n; appointed Director of Royal Institution, 405; as Athenaeum club secretary, 405; Davy abandons as protégé, 418; and Davy’s
Consolations in Travel,
430; declines to stand for Royal Society President, 436; not recognised, 438; and Babbage’s polemic on scientists, 440; researches into electro-magnetism, 444, 453; congratulates John Herschel on
Study of Natural Philosophy,
445; attends British Association meetings, 447; friendship with Coleridge, 448; achievements and appointments, 453, 468;
The Times
misspells name, 453; Mary Somerville writes on, 458; ‘The Chemical History of a Candle’, 454

Faraday, Sarah (
née
Barnard), 401-2

Farinelli, Signora (singer), 76, 108

Fatima (Ali’s wife), 216

Felling colliery disasters (1812, 1813), 351

Ferguson, James, 61, 77;
Astronomy Explained,
70, 74, 82, 91;
Autobiography,
74

Ferrari, Giorgio, 217

Feynman, Richard:
The Meaning of it All,
313n

fire: understanding of, 145;
see also
combustion

fire-damp (methane), 351, 357, 362-6, 368-9

fireflies: Davy’s poem on, 378-9

Fitzroy, Captain Robert, 446

Flammarion, Camille, 424n

Flamsteed, John, 61, 77, 90, 95, 102, 176;
Celestial Atlas,
79 & n

Fleurus, battle of (1794), 155

flight
see
balloons

Flinders, Matthew, 212, 386

Florence, Italy, 355-7

Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de, 167

Forster, Thomas, 317

Fortin, Nicholas, 248

four elements, 245-7

Fowles, John:
The French Lieutenant’s Woman,
242

France: voyagers in Tahiti, 3-4; development of balloons and ballooning, 125-32, 136, 145-6, 149; military interest in balloons, 155-6; cloud terms, 160n; invasion threat from, 200; war with Britain, 231; medical and surgical skills, 306; Davy travels in, 354-5

‘Frankenstein nightmare’, 94n

Frankenstein’s Creature (fictional figure): origins and nature of, 330-4; stage and film representations, 334-5; and Newton statue at British Library, 404n; Andrew Crosse claimed as original of creator, 420; influence and effect, 457n

Franklin, Benjamin: on French aerial experiments, 125-6, 132, 134, 135, 137; Jeffries meets in Paris, 152; and animal magnetism claims, 314; researches into electricity, 444

Franklin, Rosalind, 373n

Fraunhofer, Joseph, 440 & n

French language, 242

Friedrich, Caspar David:
The Sea of Ice
(painting), 469n

Friend, The
(Coleridge’s magazine), 49n, 338, 340, 367

Fulford, Tim (ed.):
Romanticism and Science,
249n

Furneaux, Captain Tobias, 49

Fuseli, Henry, 105-6

galaxies see nebulae

Galignani, Giovanni Antonio, 385

Galileo Galilei, 77, 86n, 171, 428

Galvani, Luigi, 296, 314, 444

Galvanic Society, 317

galvanism, 273, 285-6, 328-9

Gambia, river, 214-16, 221

Garland, Private William, 224

Garnerin, Jacques, 159

Garnett, Thomas, 292

gas lighting, 382

gases: in medical treatment, 251, 257, 272

Gay-Lussac, Joseph, 159, 297, 299, 345, 353-4, 398, 403n

Geneva: Davy in, 433; see
also
Diodati, Villa

Gentleman’s Magazine,
136, 408, 460

Geological Society, foundation, xix, 393

geology: Davy lectures on, 294; Davy on limits of knowledge in, 356; and religious belief, 451, 459; Lyell on deep time and, 454-5, 459

George II, King, 65, 68

George III, King: Banks meets on return from Tahiti, 42-3; Banks advises at Kew, 49; Omai presented to, 50; sends condolences to Banks for gout, 57; interest in astronomy, 99, 168; summons Herschel to court, 109-10; appoints Herschel King’s Personal Astronomer, 110-11; remark on Herschel, 110, 409; buys Herschel telescopes as royal gifts, 114; proposes sponsoring ballooning, 133; sees Lunardi’s balloon flight, 138; meets Lunardi, 139; finances Herschel’s forty-foot telescope project, 164, 176, 178, 180, 190; visits Herschel’s telescope project at The Grove, 177-8; mental decline, 180-1; praises Herschels to Lalande, 188; death, 395; bequeathes books to British Museum library, 404

George, Prince of Wales
(later
King George IV): interest in ballooning, 137-8; gives watch to Lunardi, 139; grants and honours to Herschel, 181; confers knighthood on Davy, 342; awards baronetcy to Davy, 369; accession to throne, 395

Gerard, John:
Herbal,
8

Germany: as inspiration for
Frankenstein,
328-30

Gibbon, Edward, 110

Giddy, Davies: letters from Davy, 199, 259, 274, 277; lends books to Davy, 251; Beddoes writes to on Davy, 252; Anna Beddoes runs away to, 280, 286; as guardian of Anna Beddoes’s children, 302; marries and changes name to Davies Gilbert, 302; supports Davy’s candidature for presidency of Royal Society, 397; supports Faraday’s election to Royal Society Fellowship, 402

Gilbert, Davies
see
Giddy, Davies

Gillman, Dr John, 308, 321

Gillray, James, 277, 292

Gleick, James:
Richard Feynman and Modern Physics,
313n

Godwin, William: on property, 16n; published by Johnson, 106, 271; and Davy, 267-8; and authorship of
Frankenstein,
325

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: on solitary scientific genius, xvii; essays on meteorology, 160; on nature of science, 247; in Jena circle, 315; on Newton’s
Optics,
319; Jane Davy meets, 412; Humboldt praises, 440; ‘Empirical Observation and Science’, 249n, 443n;
Treatise on Colour,
443n

Goree (island), West Africa, 223

Gosse, Sir Edmund:
Father and Son,
451n

Göttingen: acquires Herschel telescope, 114, 168

Gray, Robert
(later
Bishop of Bristol), 351, 361, 365

Great Barrier Reef (Australia), 38n, 39

Great Reform Bill (1832), 437

Green, Joseph Henry, 306-7, 321-3;
Spiritual Philosophy,
322

Green, William, 5-6, 10, 40

Grove, The (house), Slough, 165-6, 174-5, 188, 194

Guiccioli, Teresa, 380

Hachette, Pierre, 401

Haiti, 386-7

Hale-Bopp comet, 172n

Hallam, Arthur, 451n

Halley, Edmund: comet, 171-2

Hamblyn, Richard:
The Invention of Clouds,
160n

Hamilton, Sir William, 46n, 55, 221

Hamilton, Sir William Rowan, 447

Handel, George Frederic, 69

Hanover: Herschel family in, 65-9, 75; Caroline returns to, 409

Hardy, Thomas:
Two on a Tower,
118n

Harrington, Robert, 413; ‘The Death Warrant of the French Theory of Chemistry’, 273

Harrison, John, 47, 77, 109, 373n, 438n

Hastenbeck, battle of (1757), 69

Hatchett, Charles, 339, 374

Hawkesworth, John:
Account of Voyages Undertaken…for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere…by…Captain Cook,
44

Hawking, Stephen: images, 465n;
A Brief History of Time,
88n

Haydn, Joseph:
The Creation,
107, 199

Haydon, Benjamin Robert: hosts ‘Immortal Dinner’, 318-19, 321n, 327;
Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem,
318-19

Hayes, Charlotte, 54

Hazlitt, William, 209

Heaton, James, 372

Heaven’s Gate cult, 172n

Hebburn colliery, 368

Hecla,
HMS, 396

Hector, Edmund, 145

Henderson, Thomas, 90n

Henslow, John, 460-1

Hepworth, Dame Barbara, 237n

Herapath, William, 284

Herculaneum: Davy investigates calcinated papyri rolls from, 376, 378, 380

Herodotus, 217

Heron, Ralph, 143, 155

Herschel, Alexander (William’s brother): home life in Hanover, 71, 75; moves to England, 80; moves to Datchet, 111, 114; accompanies William to Göttingen, 168; wife irritates Caroline, 169; and construction of William’s giant telescope, 177; wife’s death, 183; unhappy pre-marital love affairs, 195