James Cumming (chemist)

[1] Cumming is remembered for his research-led teaching[2] and his lectures during which he would literally shock the audience with a galvanic apparatus.

His father was considered socially more than a mere hotelier, and the hotel's clientele included bishops and visiting aristocracy.

[3] Graduating he took holy orders earlier than most aspiring academics under the Bishop of Lincoln, George Tomline, in 1802.

He would point out where previous experiments had blown a hole in the ceiling and how other professors had been maimed by an ill-considered demonstration.

Students at Cambridge could graduate in mathematics or in classics without taking any "professional" lectures in additional subjects like chemistry.

[4] In 1827 Cumming published ‘'A Manual of Electro-Dynamics,’', 1827 (after Montferrand's ‘Manuel d'Electricité Dynamique,’) ‘Report on Thermo-Electricity’ in ‘Brit.