Chapter III (3)

There can be no doubt that Dr. Garnett printed these pamphlets, the one of twelve and the other of two hundred and sixteen pages, without consulting the managers; for at their meeting on February 2, 1801, they resolved that the annual courses of philosophical and chemical lectures at the Royal Institution should commence ‘as soon as the new theatre can be got ready for them, and that Count Rumford be authorised to take all such steps on the part of the managers as shall be necessary in that business;’ and they also resolved that Sir Joseph Banks, Henry Cavendish, and Count Rumford be a committee to superintend the drawing up and publication of a suitable syllabus or account of the philosophical and chemical lectures given at the Royal Institution. They further resolved that no syllabus of lectures or other account of what is doing or done, or to be done, at the Royal Institution, be published by any person or persons without the permission of the aforesaid committee, or the express leave of the managers formally signified in writing. This last resolution shows that Count Rumford had then probably determined that Dr. Garnett should give up his professorship at the Royal Institution.

On February 16 the managers resolved that their resolutions of February 2 should be communicated to Dr. Garnett, and on this day they determined to engage Mr. Humphry Davy as Assistant Lecturer on Chemistry. Still the managers did not decide on the removal of Professor Garnett, for the following letter shows that Count Rumford at this time had some conversation with him as to the terms upon which he would give up his rooms in the house. On February 22 Dr. Garnett wrote to Count Rumford:

SIR,--I have considered the matter you did me the honour to desire
I would deliberate upon, and I place much confidence that when
you and the other managers of the Royal Institution reflect upon
the necessary expenditure for rent, coals, and candles, domestics
and other out-goings, the sum of 100_l._ per annum will not be
considered as an improper allowance for giving up the apartments
and advantages assigned me in the house of the Institution by the
honourable managers.

You will allow me to add that I have also considered the
possibility of my residing out of the house occasioning any
inconvenience to the interests of the Institution, and that if
upon the maturest consideration I was not confident no such
inconvenience could arise, there is no personal compensation that
could tempt me to quit my residence in the house of the Institution.

It is with great deference I take the advantage at the same time
to submit to your and the other managers’ consideration whether
the funds of the Institution are in your and their judgment in a
condition to authorise any of that gradual increase of my salary
of 300_l._ which the resolution of September 14, 1799, gave me
well-founded reason to hope for, and which I now most cheerfully
and with perfect confidence beg to leave to the candour and
liberality of yourself and the managers.

I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your very
obedient Servant,

THOS. GARNETT.

On February 23 it was resolved that the consideration of Dr. Garnett’s letter be postponed till the annual accounts of the Institution for the present year be made up and the state of its finances ascertained.

The lectures began in February. His biographer says: ‘The transactions of the winter almost completely undermined his constitution. He became sallow, listless, melancholy. A gloomy day or the smallest disappointment gave him inconceivable distress.

‘The effect produced upon his lecturing was remarkable. Debility of body as well as uneasiness of mind incapacitated him. His spirited and, at the same time modest, method of delivery was changed into one languid and hesitating. He would have resigned in the middle of his course, and on one occasion at least Count Rumford, at a few hours’ notice, found a substitute to lecture for him.’ This was on the evening of March 2, when with the shortest possible notice Count Rumford got Dr. Crichton to give the lecture on account of the illness of Dr. Garnett.

He again wrote to the managers on May 11, and on the 25th a special meeting of the managers was held, and it was resolved that ‘the managers, taking into consideration the two applications of Dr. Garnett, are unanimously of opinion that they cannot agree to make any alteration in his present salary and situation.’

On June 1 Davy was appointed Lecturer on Chemistry.

On June 15 it was resolved by the managers unanimously that Dr. Garnett’s resignation should be accepted, that his salary up to the end of the year should be paid to him by the Committee of Expenditure, and that his letter of resignation should be preserved. Unfortunately this letter does not exist now.

‘Dr. Garnett had long determined to apply himself to medical practice, and at the same time to give private lectures, to secure that income of which he seemed fated to be disappointed.’

In the summer of 1801 he removed to Great Marlborough Street, and brought his family to London, and he sought for practice as a physician. He built a lecture room; he made arrangements for editing the ‘Annals of Philosophy, Natural History, Chemistry, Literature, Agriculture, and Fine Arts’ for the year 1800, intending to continue it yearly; and he prepared himself to give not less than eight courses of lectures during the winter. At his own house he gave two courses on Chemistry, one on Mineralogy, one on Botany, two on Experimental Philosophy, and a private course on this subject also; he gave a course on Botany at Brompton, and in a room at Tom’s Coffee House, in the City, a course of popular lectures on Zoonomia, or the Laws of Animal Life in Health and Disease. This was for the convenience of medical students and others in that part of the town.

A return of ill health prevented him from completing some of these courses, but he used every means to increase his private practice. In May 1802 he was elected physician to the Marylebone Dispensary, which he thought would bring the success which he seemed never able to obtain. Very weak in body and not exempt from anxiety of mind, he began the hard work of his Dispensary. He caught typhus fever from one of the patients in June, and died on the 28th of that month.

He left his children penniless.

On August 2 Dr. Garnett’s executor, Mr. Parker, asked permission to have the popular lectures on the Laws of Animal Life, the Zoonomia, printed at the press of the Royal Institution, and that the printer to the Institution, Mr. W. Savage, might receive subscriptions for the publication of the work. The managers resolved to subscribe for the Institution 50_l._, and in 1804, when the work was published in quarto, they allowed it to be dedicated to them, a privilege which they refused on many occasions afterwards. The dedication was in these words:

To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Managers of the Royal
Institution of Great Britain these Lectures, composed by a man who,
in his lifetime, was honoured by their selection as their first
lecturer, and whose infant family have since experienced their
benevolence and protection, are, with permission, dedicated by the
trustees of the subscription in favour of these orphans.

The amount of the subscription was nearly two thousand guineas.