"Comparatively little is known concerning the personal history of [Cavendish]. Nor is there much hope now that more may be gleaned. It may be doubted, indeed, whether there is much more to learn, for apart from his scientific achievements, his life was singularly uneventful. He lived a solitary, secluded existence, and, despite his rank, and, in his later years, his great wealth, he deliberately refrained from any attempts to exercise the slightest social influence. He left no personal records, and few of his letters seem to have been preserved, possibly because few were written. Such as are known relate almost exclusively to matters of science and are otherwise of very slight human interest. All the knowledge of him we possess is based upon the fragmentary notices of a few contemporaries, principally Thomas Young, Thomas Thomson of Glasgow, Sir Humphry Davy, and Lord Brougham. Their accounts, together with the reminiscences of others who had a certain small measure of personal acquaintance with him, or were able to communicate hearsay information concerning his character, habits and mode of life, have been brought together by the late Dr George Wilson, of Edinburgh, whose Life of the Honble Henry Cavendish, written at the request of the Cavendish Society, and published in 1851, still remains the only authoritative biography of the philosopher."