WATER IN MURIATIC ACID GAS. 27 5 



jection to the result which the experiment with the charcoal 

 affords. 



My preceding conclusions, I trust, are now sufficiently esta- Inference, 

 blished, and it is unnecessary to enter on any recapitulation of ™* J^jjj * 

 the argument. Water has been obtained from this salt both and did not 

 when it is heated in close and in open vessels ; and no source °f f^^os^ 01 * 

 fallacy exists, as was affirmed by Messrs. Davys, in any absorp- 

 tion of water from the atmosphere. They accounted for the 

 production of water on that supposition, and it is now amply 

 refuted, 



I have only a single observation to make on Mr. J. Davy's Considera- 



concluding remarks in his last communication, that he has " no nons reIatin 5 



6 ' . to personal 



intention of answering personal aspersions, which are only in- aspersion and 



jurious to the author when unjustly made." The necessity was censure, 

 imposed upon me by assertions which he had advanced of stat- 

 ing some circumstances connected with the manner in which he 

 and his brother had conducted the controversy. I did so with 

 reluctance, and only in so far as was necessary to my own vin- 

 dication from a very intemperate attack. My observations 

 conveyed censure, no doubt, but not aspersion -, for they were 

 founded on facts, and these were very explicitly stated, that 

 Mr. J. Davy might, if he pleased, enter into any explanation with 

 regard to them. This he has not done, and the facts, I believe, 

 he is unable to controvert. 



In concluding this investigation, I cannot but contrast the From arev i ew 

 assertions that were made, and the tone that was assumed, with of the manner 

 the result that has been established. " At first view," said a " th^re-* 6 

 Mr. J. Davy, speaking of my experiment of obtaining water suits were dis- 

 from muriate of ammonia, " the result appears improbable, suggests^ that 

 and opposed by several facts 5 and, in a very short time, I was it might, wita 

 convinced by experiments that it was incorrect." Again, P r0 P" etv > 

 " Mr. Davy, my brother, informed me, that he had not ob- more modest 

 served the slightest traces of moisture in making the experi- and temperate, 

 ment on a large scale in exhausted vessels; and assured me, 

 that I should not, was not the salt exposed to the atmosphere." 

 In repeating the experiment accordingly, no water was pro- 

 duced " agreeably to my brother's result, not even the slightest 

 traces appeared." Mr. Murray's errour," he adds, " appears 

 to have arisen partly from too great confidence placed in the 

 accuracy of his experiment, and partly from overlooking, 



that 



