Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Pollution, Analytical Chemistry, Public Health, Sanitation, Disease, Accidents

    Announces the publication of Michael Faraday's 'chemical work of small size and great importance'—a reference to Faraday 1855. Explains that the work reveals Faraday's 'views of the composition' of the Thames and the philosopher's experiments for gauging its quality. Rejoices in the fact that Faraday has thereby 'enabled the public to form a correct idea' of the river's constituents, not least because his work may save more lives from river pestilence than Humphry Davy's safety-lamp reduced fatalities in mines.