J08 On the Dlfcsvtrks af Afayow, 



II. 



Letter from Dr. BxDDORS refpeiiing Cit. FouRCROr's Account of the DifcovtrUs of Mayqiv, 



To Mr. Nicholson. 

 Sir, May 10, 1799. 



I 



T would be cafy to write a comment upon Mr. Fourcroy's expofition of the merits of 

 Mayow, as long as the expofition itfelf (fee Annales de Chimie, No. 85) ; I wlfh, how- 

 ever, to fubmit only two or three remarks to that author's candour. From unremitting oc- 

 cupations of a more important nature, Mr. F. was, I fuppofe, prevented from beftowing 

 much time upon Mayow. Marks of hafte and of want of information are yciy apparent. 

 I will not inflft upon fuch an error as tranflating taedae ferali—'torche cruelle, or ujjon the 

 wrong affertion that I republiflied Mayow in 1790. In general, the French author has 

 beftowed ample praife upon our countryman ; but in the eftimate of his underftanding he 

 has failed moft materially. He has neither entered into his views nor rightly conceived the 

 fpirit with which Mayow laboured. Mr. F. fays, that the thread which he found foon broke 

 in his hands; that he did not fujpeil the extent of the career which he opened; and that he was 

 not fufficiently Jtruck with the ftngularity and importance of his firji di/coveries (p. ^g). It 

 would be extraordinary indeed, if a perfon who outftripped his age in a degree of which 

 there is no other example in the hiftory of fcience, had not been endowed with fuperior com- 

 prehenfion of mind. And Mr. F. is direfily contradifted by Mayow's dedication. Never 

 was a fenfe of the importance of a man's writings more fervently exprefled, " ^a autem 

 *« de Nitro fcripjimus, ea fe per univerfam fere naturam diffundunt I refque ahftrujas explicant 

 " quorum plerafque e numerofd fcriptorum turbd vix qutfquam attiget : and fo on. HadMr. F. 

 known that Mayow died at 27 or 28, he would not perhaps have talked of the thread breaking 

 in his hands, and of his only opening the career. What Mr. F. advances concerning caufes 

 €>{ the greater popularity of Boyle, appears to me ill founded. But I will not encroach upon 

 ■your Journal, by any further obfervations, unlefs you or your readers defire it. 



I am, Sir, your humble fervant, 



THOMAS BEDDOES. 



III. 



Obfervations and Experiments on various Saponaceous Compounds, particularly the Fijh Soap of 



Sir John Dalrtmple. By Mr. Robert Ja meson F.L.S. i^c 

 Sir, 



I 



INCLOSE you a paper on the making of Soap from Fifli, a fcheme which has been 



for fome time the objedt of very confiderable attention in this part of the ifland. As many 



feem to view it in a more favourable light than it deferves, I conceive it to be doing juftice to 



the public, to publifb, through the means of your excellent Journal, a fair ftatement of its 



plaufibility. I am, with refpeiS, Sir, your obedient fervant, 



ROBERT JAMESON. 

 SheriiFBrx, Leilh, May i^th, 1799. 



To Mr. Nicholson. On 



