of the Centenary of the Birth of Dr. Priestley. 399 



set of philosophers in this new field of speculation." And he adds a 

 little further: " What delight would it afford to a modern electrician, 

 to exhibit, were the thing possible, some of his principal experiments 

 to Sir Isaac Newton !" And here I may be allowed to ask, If in the 

 estimation of Dr. Priestley, it would have excited admiration in the 

 mind of Newton to witness the powers of the Leyden phial, or the 

 repetition of Franklin's daring experiment, what would he himself 

 feel at the progress which his darling science has made in later times ? 

 With what ardour would he behold the electric fluid deprived of its 

 fugacious and impetuous character, and rendered the obedient servant 

 of our will by the sagacity of a Volta ! How would he rejoice to see 

 the strong analogies that exist between Electricity and Magnetism, 

 extended and confirmed by the discoveries of CErsted ! — and, finally, 

 if not their identity, yet (as has been well expressed in a very recent 

 work,) that they are merely " different aspects of the same agent," 

 proved, beyond dispute, by the incomparable researches of our own 

 highly gifted countryman [Mr. Faraday], the second "child and 

 champion" of that noble Institution in whose bosom and at whose 

 hand a Davy found that protection and assistance which enabled him 

 to triumph over the most energetic attractions of matter, to disarm 

 the fire-damp of its terrors ; and, in a word, to raise an imperish- 

 able monument to his own and his country's glory ! But to return 

 to Priestley: — I shall not enter into a detail of all that he accomplished 

 in the science; but two happy applications of electrical agency to 

 chemical research I must not pass over in silence ; since, though 

 Priestley did not himself pursue the path he marked out to its full 

 extent, it conducted others to results of primary importance. I allude 

 to his discoveries of the formation of an acid, when electric sparks are 

 taken for some time in confined portions of common air ; and of the 

 great increase of volume which ammoniacal gas experiences when 

 similarly acted on. The first fact led Mr. Cavendish, as you know, 

 to the successful investigation of the composition of nitric acid ; and 

 by little more than the mere repetition of the second experiment, 

 Berthollet effected the analysis of ammonia. It would be impertinent 

 in me to think of detaining you longer; for what more could I say 

 of Dr. Priestley that you do not already know and acknowledge ? 

 My feeble eulogy can add nothing to his fame; it is as immortal as 

 his labours were multifarious : and to him, mutatis mutandis, may be 

 applied what was said of a celebrated literary character, " Nullum 

 fere scientice genus non tetigit, nullum quod tetigit non ornavit." 



The name of W. H. Pepys, Esq. was next associated with the 

 toast "Prosperity to the London Institution," when the company 

 were thus addressed by that gentleman : 



I return you my most grateful thanks for the honour you have 

 conferred upon me. I feel it as a mark of your esteem, which I 

 shall remember as long as my days continue. The companion and 

 friend of Davy, with whom I have passed many cheerful and happy 

 days, I stand before you as a lover of chemistry, with a desire of 

 promoting that science by every means within my humble power. 



