Robert Hunt, F.R.S.

Abstract

MR. ROBERT HUNT, whose death we have already briefly announced, was born at Devonport, then called Plymouth Dock, on September 6, 1807. His father was a naval officer who perished, with all the crew, in H.M.S. Moucheron, in the Grecian Archipelago. Robert Hunt, left to his mother's care, was destined for the medical profession; and, having been placed with a surgeon in London, he attended the anatomical lectures of Joshua Brooks; but his studies were interrupted by failing health, and his medical training was never completed. In 1840, Mr. Hunt became secretary to the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society at Falmouth. His earliest contributions to science were in connection with photography—a subject to which he applied himself with assiduity immediately on the announcement of Daguerre's discovery in 1839. Mr. Hunt's investigations led to the discovery of several new processes, which were either described in the Philosophical Magazine or announced to the British Association. His experimental researches on the chemical activity of the highly refrangible rays of the solar spectrum, his work with the actinograph, and his study of the influence of light upon the germination of seeds and the growth of plants, formed the subject of numerous papers between 1840 and 1854. Mr. Hunt's “Researches on Light” appeared in 1844. His “Manual of Photography,” which was the first general work on the subject published in this country, passed through six editions.