served on the management of the Royal Institution and on the council of the Royal Botanical Society. In addition to these he was connected with many philanthropic and religious societies, and was a very active member of the Victoria Institute and Christian Medical Association. His public papers and lectures generally pertained to the department of physics, mathematical and experimental, and his more special work was the inventing or perfecting of apparatus. His papers date back to 1835, when he wrote upon the 'Motion of Sound in Space;' but the work upon which his reputation mainly rests was published between 1846 and 1852. This was the invention of those self-recording instruments which have been adopted at the Royal Observatories of Greenwich, Paris, and other meteorological stations. They consisted of barometers, thermometers, psychrometers, and magnetometers, which registered their variations by means of photography. His method obtained the premium offered by the government, as well as a council medal from the jurors of the Great Exhibition. The account of the perfecting of these apparatus will be found detailed in the British Association Reports from 1846 to 1849, and in the 'Philosophical Transactions' of 1847, 1850, and 1852.
Brooke also studied the theory of the microscope, and was the author of some inventions which facilitated the shifting of lenses, and improved the illumination of the bodies observed. He applied his improved methods to the investigation of some of the best known test-objects of the microscope. His name is, however, most popularly known by means of the 'Elements of Natural Philosophy,' originally compiled by Dr. Golding Bird in 1839, who alone brought out the second and third editions. After his death in 1854, Brooke edited 'a fourth edition, revised and greatly enlarged,' followed by a fifth in 1860. In 1867 he entirely rewrote the work for the sixth edition. He died at Weymouth, 17 May 1879, and his widow died at 3 Gordon Square, London, 12 Feb. 1885, aged 86.
His other publications were: 'The Evidence afforded by the Order and Adaptations in Nature to the Existence of a God. A Christian Evidence lecture,' 1872, which was three times printed, and 'A Synopsis of the Principal Formulæ and Results of Pure Mathematics,' 1829.
[Proceedings of Royal Society of London, 1880, xxx. pp. i-ii; Catalogue of Scientific Papers compiled by Royal Society, i. 653, vii. 273; Medical Times and Gazette, 1879, i. 606.]
BROOKE, CHARLOTTE (d. 1793), authoress, was one of the youngest of the numerous offspring of Henry Brooke, the author of the 'Fool of Quality' [q. v.], and designated herself 'the child of his old age.' She was educated entirely by him, and applied assiduously to literature, art, and music, in all of which she acquired high proficiency. During her father's life her time was mainly devoted to him. Among the subjects of her study was the Irish language, and the first of her productions which appeared in print was an anonymous translation of a poem ascribed to Carolan, in 'Historical Memoirs of Irish Bards,' published in 1786. Soon after the death of her father Miss Brooke was nearly reduced to indigence through the loss of money invested in the manufactory for cotton established by her cousin, Captain Robert Brooke [q. v.] An unsuccessful effort was made by some members of the then newly established Royal Irish Academy at Dublin to obtain a position for her. Her letters to Bishop Percy on this are in Nichols's 'Illustrations' (viii. 247-52). Miss Brooke, in 1789, published at Dublin, by subscription, a quarto volume entitled 'Reliques of Irish Poetry; consisting of heroic poems, odes, elegies, and songs, translated into English verse, with notes explanatory and historical, and the originals in the Irish character.' In this she included 'Thoughts on Irish Song,' and an original composition, styled 'An Irish Tale.' In the publication of this work Miss Brooke was assisted by William Hayley and others; but at the time little accurate knowledge existed of the remains of the more ancient Celtic literature of Ireland. In 1791 Miss Brooke published the 'School for Christians,' consisting of dialogues for the use of children. In the following year she published an edition of some of her father's works, under the circumstances mentioned in the notice of him. Through the subscriptions for that publication and for her 'Reliques of Irish Poetry,' in which many persons of importance interested themselves, Miss Brooke was enabled to retrieve to a small extent the loss of property which she had sustained. A tragedy which she composed, under the title of 'Belisarius,' was submitted to Kemble, and said to have been approved by him, but was eventually reported to have been lost through carelessness. In her latter years Miss Brooke resided at Longford, where she died of malignant fever on 29 March 1793. The publication of a life of Miss Brooke was projected by Joseph C. Walker, who, however, died without having made progress with the work. Some of the papers connected with Miss Brooke came into the possession of Aaron
