Shelley and science

Abstract Percy Bysshe Shelley was born 200 years ago, on 4 August 1792, and was drowned near Viareggio in Italy a month before his 30th birthday, on 8 July 1822. From his schooldays onwards he was fascinated by science, and his poetry is much enriched by the infusion of scientific imagery.1 Shelley was the eldest son of a dull country squire and Whig Member of Parliament, Timothy Shelley of Field Place near Horsham, Sussex. Sent to Eton College when he was 12 years old, Shelley rebelled against the discipline and much of the teaching; but he had the great good fortune to find an inspiring mentor in Dr James Lind, F.R.S. (1736-1812), physician to the Royal Household at Windsor:2 the Castle and the College are only a mile apart. As a result Shelley became enthusiastic for experiment and well informed in science by the time he left Eton for Oxford at the age of 17. Why was Lind so appealing to Shelley? James Lind came from a prosperous Scottish family, and one of his lifelong friends was his cousin James Keir, F.R.S. (1735-1820), a pioneer of the modern chemical industry.3 In his 20s Lind was also a close confidant of James Watt: it was to Lind that Watt wrote the letters about his invention in 1765 of the steam engine with separate condenser4. In the same year, at the age of 29, Lind sailed as a ship’s surgeon to India, the East Indies and China. He took great interest in these largely unknown lands and brought back many examples of Chinese art and manufacture, and objects of scientific interest, including specimens of corundum. Lind returned at the end of 1767, and in 1770 he became acquainted with a more famous scientific traveller, Joseph Banks, fresh from his voyage with Cook in the Endeavour. Banks and Lind planned to sail with Cook on his second voyage, but difficulties arose;5 instead they went on an expedition to Iceland in 1772.