I write now, though it may be some time before I send my letter, but that is of no great consequence. I received your letter to Dr. Reid and read it on the coach going to Hastings, where I have been passing a few weeks, and I fancy my fellow passengers thought I had got something very droll in hand; they sometimes started at my sudden bursts, especially when I had the moment before been very grave and serious amongst the proportions. As you say in the letter there are some new facts and they are always of value; otherwise I should have thought you had taken more trouble than the matter deserved. Your quotation from Boyle has nevertheless great force in it. I shall send with this a little thing in your own way “On the Alleged decline of science in England.” It is written by Dr. Moll of Utrecht, whose name may be mentioned in conversation though it is not printed in the pamphlet. I understand the view taken by Moll is not at all agreeable to some. “I do not know what business Moll had to interfere with our scientific disputes” is however the strongest observation I have heard of in reply. I do not think I thanked you for your last Pharmacopœia. I do so now very heartily. I shall detain this letter a few days that I may send a couple of my papers (_i.e._ a paper and appendix) with it, for though not chemical I think you will like to have them. I am busy just now again on Electro-Magnetism, and think I have got hold of a good thing, but can’t say; it may be a weed instead of a fish that after all my labour I may at last pull up. I think I know why metals are magnetic when in motion though not (generally) when at rest. We think about you all very much at times, and talk over affairs of Nelson Square, but I think we dwell more upon the illnesses and nursings and upon the sudden calls and chats rather than the regular parties. Pray remember us both to Mrs. Phillips and the damsils--I hope the word is not too familiar. I am Dear Phillips, Most Truly Yours, M. FARADAY. R. Phillips, Esq., &c., &c., &c. [Sidenote: TEN DAYS OF SPLENDID WORK.] September 24 was the third day of his experiments. He began (paragraph 21) by trying to find the effect of one helix of wire, carrying the voltaic current of ten pairs of plates, upon another wire connected with a galvanometer. “No induction sensible.” Longer and different metallic helices (paragraph 22) showed no effect; so he gave up those experiments for that day, and tried the effects of bar magnets instead of the ring magnet he had used on the first day. [Illustration: FIG. 5.] In paragraph 33 he says:--