388 Addresses delivered at the Commemoration 



I can scarcely find words to express to you the deep sense I have 

 of the honour you have conferred upon me, being really at a loss to 

 account for it; — only as the friend of Watson, of Davy, and of 

 Young, can I presume to receive such an honour from you. I feel 

 great pleasure in meeting so many distinguished men of science as- 

 sembled to do honour to the memory of that illustrious philosopher 

 Dr. Priestley. All chemists owe him the greatest obligations ; but 

 I feel peculiar obligations to him ; I am under personal obligations 

 to him ; — not that I ever knew him, or ever spoke to him more than 

 once. In very early youth, by mere accident, I obtained possession 

 of his first two volumes, entitled "Experiments and Observations on 

 different kinds of Air." These two volumes caught my attention, 

 and first directed my thoughts to chemistry. I studied it, with one 

 other book which was lying about my father's house, the Dispensatory 

 of Colville, to which is prefixed a short history of the Materia Me- 

 dica. As to Dr. Priestley's work, it is no wonder that it should have 

 caught my attention ; there is everything in it to captivate the 

 young mind. Let any person look into its pages, and he will not 

 fail to observe the beautiful perspicuity with which he relates his 

 experiments, and the simplicity of the steps by which he effected his 

 extraordinary discoveries. I therefore feel very deeply indebted to 

 him for making me a chemist. It is a very curious and extraordinary 

 thing that some single circumstance generally fixes our determination 

 as to our future pursuit. I will answer for it, that amongst this as- 

 sembly of eminent men, highly distinguished as you all are in science, 

 there is not one of you but can refer to some circumstance in the 

 early part of your life which set you upon your career of science, 

 and which has led to your present eminence. Sir Joseph Banks, 

 when quite a youth, happened to open a book upon botany ; he read 

 some of it, it caught his attention ; he read more of it, and from that 

 moment he imbibed a love of the science. The love of botany led 

 to the love of natural history in general. Next he imbibed a desire 

 to acquire some more valuable scientific knowledge, and then a de- 

 sire to visit foreign countries, in order to become acquainted with 

 the history and manners of its inhabitants : that led to a voyage 

 round the world. Then he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 

 subsequently its President ; and he became such a patron of science 

 that his name ought not to be, never can be, forgotten. 



" Prosperity to the Linnsean Society, and the health of Dr. Bos- 

 tock" having been proposed, that gentleman returned thanks in the 

 following address : — 



Allow me to return my thanks for the honour you have done me. 

 Dr. Priestley has been justly eulogized as having enlightened every 

 branch of science, and amongst others, natural history, which is the 

 province of the Society with which you have honoured me by asso- 

 ciating my name. My friend Dr. Daubeny has, however, pre-occu- 

 pied that point for which Dr. Priestley's character, as a scientific man, 

 is more remarkable — with respect to vegetable physiology, the doc- 

 trine of the action of light on plants, by Which nature supplies that 



