16 On the Distribution of the 



science is iinfolded by one mind, and applied and extended, 

 as in the case before us, by others. The decomposing energies 

 of the pile of Volta were discovered by Nicholson, Carlisle, 

 and Cruickshank. They were extended and applied to chemi- 

 cal generalisations by the eminently superior talents of Davy. 

 Mr. Tennant discovered that explosions would not pass small 

 tubes ; and this is the clue to the mystery of the safety-lamp. 

 But every page of the history of science records analogous 

 instances, and shows that, however eminent may be the merit 

 of an inventor, he who applies and improves upon the inven- 

 tion, who extends its precincts, and levels it to the purposes 

 of common life, is the real benefactor, and that he it is who 

 should reap the praise and enjoy the renown ; but such, as I 

 have before said, is not Mr. Dalton. 



My third query is directed to the applications of this theory 

 to the more abstract and refined departments of chemical 

 science ; and happy should I be, if, under this head, I could 

 find grounds of justifying the determination of the Council in 

 regard to this royal medal ; here it is that Richter comes in 

 for his share of conquest, and that Gay-Lussac stands pre- 

 eminent ; but here chiefly it is that we ascribe, as is most due, 

 much honour and credit to the laborious industry of Dr. Prout, 

 who has applied the theory of proportions to some intricate 

 questions of vegetable and animal composition, and who has 

 thrown out some singularly felicitous hints on the relations 

 between the specific gravities of bodies in their gaseous states, 

 and the weights of their atoms. 



Thus, then, I have endeavoured candidly to weigh Mr. Dal- 

 ton's pretensions, as urged in the President's speech, and find 

 them, in their utmost latitude, insufficient and unsatisfactory. 

 Even his best friends and professed admirers must allow, if 

 they have condescended to read the preceding quotations, that 

 his claims are certainly not founded upon a rock, that at 

 least much suspicion hangs over their authenticity ; and if 

 there be any who are not satisfied with the evidence I have 

 adduced, let them attentively peruse " Higgins's Comparative 

 View," and afterwards the second volume of " Dalton 's New 

 System," " and then to breakfast with what ai)petite they 

 have." The fact is, that over the present question there should 



