Carbon, Silicotic and Nitrogen. 19 



or form of carbon. To do the subject justice, would require 

 a careful repetition of all Dr Brown's and all Mr Knox's 

 experiments, besides a lengthened series of independent re- 

 searches, which would occupy at least six months of unremit- 

 ting labour. The fact of an anomalous production of silicon 

 is not beyond dispute ; and till it is, the practical chemist 

 cannot be expected even to consider the question of trans- 

 mutation. Should the anomalous production of silicon, how- 

 ever, be fully confirmed, I think there are few who will not 

 agree with me in wishing, that, whatever be the fate of Mr 

 Knox's explanation, Dr Brown's theory should prove true. It 

 seems absurd to wish that a law of nature should prove one 

 thing rather than another ; as if the law, when discovered, 

 could be other than of God's making, and the best that can 

 be. But what I mean is this : — Mr Knox's view, whilst it 

 cuts off nitrogen from the list of simple bodies, reveals no 

 general principle applicable to the reduction of the number of 

 remaining elements. But if, with Dr Brown, we could effect 

 the transmutation of one of these, sooner or later we should 

 assuredly succeed in effecting the transmutation of all. If we 

 can find a key, that will unlock in this way the intricacies of 

 one group of elementary bodies, we may fully believe that the 

 same instrument, or one fashioned like it, will open for us the 

 mysteries of the rest. 



In conclusion, it will be gathered from the brief and imper- 

 fect sketch I have offered, that the doctrine of Elemental 

 Isomerism, and the transmutability of the elements, exists at 

 present only as an unrealized idea, little, if at all, further ad- 

 vanced than it was in 1837, when first explicitly announced 

 by Professor Johnston. 



We are flung back, therefore, on the general analogies and 

 probabilities that warrant the entertainment of such a doc- 

 trine ; but these, I think, are neither slight in force nor scanty 

 in number. All chemistry seems to me to point steadily and 

 increasingly to the necessity of assuming, and, if possible, real- 

 izing such a law ; and many of my brethren, I am certain, 

 would agree with me in this. The scepticism so generally 

 expressed as to the truth of Dr Brown's views, was directed 

 rather against the processes and experiments by which he 



