242 Dr. ThomsoiCs Answer to the Review of the [April, 



reviewer of my sixth edition confined himself to sneers against 

 my skill as a chemist, or my competence to draw up a System 

 of Chemistry, I should have considered it an useless undertak- 

 ing to attempt the defence of a work, which has run through 

 six editions, without any support whatever but its own merit ; 

 which has been translated into most European languages ; which 

 has, in spme measure, stamped the character of every systematic 

 treatise both in Britain and America, and even on the continent 

 of Europe ; and which has been sanctioned by the almost unqua- 

 lified approbation of the most eminent chemists in Britain, 

 France, and Germany. 



But when Mr. Brande thinks proper to arraign my character 

 as a man, and to accuse me of the basest and most profligate 

 conduct ; it is no longer in my power to remain silent. Silence 

 indeed in such a case could scarcely fail to be construed into an 

 acknowledgment of guilt. But as my real conduct has been the 

 very reverse of what Mr. Brande has stated it to be ; as I have 

 uniformly prided myself in the honesty, sincerity, and indepen- 

 dence of my character ; as I have been at considerable pains to 

 give credit to whom credit was due ; as I have uniformly, both 

 m my System, and in the Amials of Fhilosophu, while I continued 

 its Editor, given the merit of every chemical fact to the original 

 discoverer of it, as far as my knowledge of the subject enabled 

 me to go ; as I am not conscious of any wilful misrepresentation 

 or twisting of facts to serve any particular purpose ; I should 

 consider myself as guilty of a kind offelo de se, if I w^ere not to 

 step forward in the present case in my own vindication. I owe 

 it likewise to the University of Glasgow, to which I have the 

 honour to belong ; and to his Majesty, who bestowed on me the 

 Professorship, which I fill, without any solicitation on my part, 

 to show the world that neither my abilities, my knowledge, my 

 industry, nor my character, render me unworthy of that situation, 

 or of the kind and munificent manner in which it was bestowed 

 on me. 



It is some consolation at least to think that Mr. Brande has^ 

 placed me in very good company. An attack upon Berzelius 

 pretty much in the same style as the recent philippic against me, 

 appeared in an early number of Brande's Journal. In another 

 number we have a timde against Gay-Lussac, scarcely less flip- 

 pant, and about as well founded. The object seems to be to 

 convince the public that all chemical knowledge is confined 

 within the walls of the Royal Institution. I consider Mr. 

 Brande's attack upon the College of Physicians, and upon the 

 Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Glasgow, as connected 

 with the same system. What renders these attacks more 

 indecent and improper than they otherwise would be, is, that 

 the Editor of the Journal has never had the benefit of a Univer- 

 sity education, and seems quite ignorant of the systems iol- 

 iowed in these seminaries. For instance, when he says that 



