Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Chemistry, Experiment, Amusement, Lecturing, Class

    To illustrate the exquisite refinements of the 'superior classes', the narrator describes how two 'French gentleman' staying at the hotel where he was lodging, engaged 'every morning in earnest conversation' which, from their 'gestures', appeared to be about chemistry. Adds that the after a few days he saw the gentlemen comparing and hotly debating some powders and, being one of the most 'intelligent attendants' at the Royal Institution lectures and wishing to report to Michael Faraday, got a friend to inquire into the matter and discovered that the 'philosophers' were arguing over the virtues of different shaving powders.