Excerpt from The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, 1821, Vol. 3: Historical Register Towards the end of 1818, and in the beginning of 1819, he examined at Naples the Herculanean manuscripts, and soon declared his Opinion, that they had not been acted upon by fire so as to be completely carbonized, but that their leaves were cc mentad together by a sub tance formed during the fermentation, and chemical change pro uced in along course of years. He in vented a composition for the dissolution of this substance, but could not discover more than from 80 to 100 out of 1265 manu scripts, which presented any probability of success. On his return to England in 1820, his respected friend, the late worthy professor of the Royal Society died. Many discus sions took place amon at the members res acting a proper suc cessor. Several individuals of high, an even very exalted rank, were named as candidates; but the scientific part of the society justly considered this honour, the highest that a scientific man can attain in Britain, not as a proper appendage to mere rank and fortune, but as a reward for scientific merit. Amongst the hilosophers whose labours have enriched the Transactions of e Royal Society, two were most generally adverted to, si! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.