given on a late Trial, 3^125 



the pan of sugar, in case of any emergency, might have been 

 instantly drawn out of the heated medium without any diffi- 

 culty. Mr. Harris having stated, that he was induced to give 

 up the oil process in consequence of the very fetid smell which 

 was occasioned by the repeated heating of the oil or tallow in 

 an open vessel ; he told me in a conversation which I after- 

 wards had with him, that the vapour arising from these heated 

 substances, also spread itself through the sugar-house and de- 

 posited something upon the fine goods which injured their 

 colour, and did considerable mischief. 



Anthony Robinson, Esq. examined. This gentleman stated 

 that he had been a sugar-refiner between twenty and thirty 

 years ; that the common mode of refining sugar, is attended 

 with considerable danger, and requires incessant vigilance ; that 

 Mr. Wilson*s process requires infinitely less vigilant attention to 

 keep it right than the old mode ; that lie had known many 

 instances of sugar-houses being burnt down, but could never 

 yet discover the cause of their being burnt. 



Observations. — This gentleman, who is one of the oldest 

 sugar-refiners in the neighbourhood of London, cannot cer- 

 tainly be called a chemical witness, but, as his testimony goes 

 to prove the great combustibility of sugar and the excessive 

 danger which there usually is in the process of sugar-refining, 

 I was desirous of giving a short abstract of his evidence, es- 

 pecially as he is a person of acknowledged talent and well 

 known in the literary world. At the close of this gentleman's 

 examination, Lord Chief Justice Dallas observed that fires arc 

 sometimes occasioned by spontaneous combustion ; and that 

 the loss of the Ajax, many years ago, was supposed to be oc- 

 casioned by a fire of that kind. His lordship could not easily 

 have found a more remarkable instance of spontaneous burning 

 than this, the particulars of which are worth relating: His 

 Majesty's ship Ajax, which was thus destroyed, was a man-of- 

 war of 74 guns, stationed in the Mediterranean. It had taken 

 on board a large quantity of pyritous coal, and to this cir- 



