156 BOARD OF REGENTS. 



"At the time of my first publication," says Dr. Priestley,* " I was not possessed 

 of a burning lens of any considerable force, and for want of one I could not possibly 

 make many of the experiments which I had projected, and which in theory appeared 

 very promising. But having afterwards procured a lens of twelve inches diameter 

 and twenty inches focal distance, I proceeded with great alacrity to examine by the 

 help of it what kind of air a great variety of substances, natural and factitious, would 

 yield, putting them into glass vessels, which I filled with quicksilver, and kept them 

 inverted in a basin of the same. With this apparatus, after a variety of other exper- 

 iments, on the first of August, 1774, I endeavored to extract air from mercurius cal- 

 cinatus per se, and I presently found that by means of this lens air was expelled from 

 it very readily. Having got three or four times as much (air) as the bulk of my 

 materials, I admitted water to it, and found that it was not imbibed by it. But what 

 surprised me more than I can well express was, that a candle burned in this air with 

 a remarkably vigorous flame." 



The gas thus discovered, to which he gave the name of " dephlogisticated air," was 

 what is now known as oxygen. 



Dr. Priestley, however, though he made a large number of experiments in regard to 

 it, remained in ignorance of its true nature until March, 1775; but in the course of 

 this month, says he, " I not only ascertained the nature of this kind of air, though 

 very gradually, but was led by it, as I then thought, to the complete discovery of the 

 constitution of the air we breathe." 



That the lens now exhibited to the Board is the one with which this important dis- 

 covery was made, cannot be doubted, since, according to the statement of his grand- 

 son, it has never been out of the family — is tzvelve inches diameter, and has a focal 

 length of precisely twenty inches. 



The annual report of the operations and condition of the Insti- 

 tution was presented by the Secretary, and read in part. 



On motion of Mr. Pearce, the Board then adjourned to meet on 

 Saturday next, at 10 o'clock. 



February 4, 1860. 



A meeting of the Board of Regents was held this day, at 10 

 o'clock, a. m. 



Present, Hon. John C. Breckinridge, Hon. James A. Pearce, 

 Hon. S. A. Douglas, Professor C. C. Felton, Professor A. D. Bache r 

 Hon. J. G. Berret, and the Secretary. 



Mr. Breckinridge was called to the chair. 



The minutes were read and approved. 



The Secretary announced the death of the following persons who 

 had been connected officially and otherwise with the operations of 

 the institution: Washington Irving, an honorary member; Pro- 

 fessor Parker Cleaveland, also an honorary member ; Professor W. 

 W. Turner, Professor James P. Espy, and G. Wiirdemann, Esq. 



Professor Felton, then addressed the Board as follows : 



Mr. Chancellor : The year 1859 will be memorable in the history of civilization 

 for the number of illustrious men who have passed away from the scene of their 

 earthly labor in its course. The year 1769 was remarkable for the number of men 

 born in it, who have changed the whole aspect of science and letters and the political 

 condition of the world. Of the great men born in that year, one, Humboldt, the 

 most eminent of all, lived to the year 1859, thus spanning over the interval between 

 them by a life of ninety years consecrated to the highest objects of human pursuits. 



* Experiments and observations on different kinds of air, &c, by Joseph Priestley, vol. ii, pp. 106- 

 112. Birmingham, 1790. 



