Note F — Chapter V · THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.

This lecture, which is one of the events of each session of the Royal Society, owes its origin to Mr. Henry Baker, F.R.S., a learned antiquary and naturalist, who, by his will of July, 1763, bequeathed the sum of £100 to the Society, the interest of which was to be applied “for an oration or discourse to be spoken or read yearly by someone of the Fellows of that Society, on such part of Natural History or Experimental Philosophy, at such time, and in such manner, as the President and Council of the said Society for the time being, shall please to order and appoint.” Baker died in 1774, and the bequest came into operation during the presidency of Sir John Pringle; and Peter Woulfe—one of the last of the English alchemists—was appointed to deliver the lecture, which he did for three successive years.