ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors show how Davy and Faraday tried to apply a theory that of Boscovich, in which the atoms were almost destitute of all properties, since they were reduced to mere mathematical points. By 1815, on his first Continental journey, with Faraday accompanying him and Lady Davy, he had become a convinced Boscovichean. As a legacy to younger scientists, Davy wrote a book of dialogues, with the title Consolations in Travel, or the last Days of a Philosopher Faraday may have derived idea of chemical combination from his reading in Naturphilosophie. Faraday remained an atomist of a kind despite his trenchant criticisms, on both philosophical and experimental grounds, of the Daltonian position. Sydney Smith remarked that while Whewell’s forte was science, his foible was omniscience; and apparently his books were only moderately well received by scientists.
