204 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MAY %,. 
Again Boulton writes to his partner, Watt, July 3d, 1781. 
‘«J dined yesterday at the Lunar Society (Keir’s house); there: 
was Blair, Priestley, Withering, Galton, and an American 
“rebel,” Mr. Collins. Nothing new, except that some of my 
white spathos iron ore was found to contain more air than any 
ore Priestley had ever tried, and what is singular, it contains no: 
common air, but is part fixable and part inflammable.” 
On September 20th, 1785, Watt wrote to Boulton : 
‘‘The Lunar Society was held yesterday at Mr. Galton’s at. 
Barr. It was rather dull, there having been no philosophical 
news lately, except Mr. Kirwan’s discovery of an air from phos-- 
phorus, which takes fire of itself on being mixed with common 
or dephlogisticated air.” 
We imagine that the philosophers would have hardly regarded 
their feast as dull, could Mr. Kirwan have shown to them the 
beautiful yet nauseating experiment of spontaneously inflamma- 
ble phosphoretted hydrogen. And a modern Academy of 
Sciences would be enthusiastic over such a notable discovery.’ 
The discussions of the philosophic convives were not, however, 
confined exclusively to chemistry. The period was one of great 
activity in the world of science; Laplace was applying his. 
mathematical genius to the problems of astronomy ; Herschel 
was sweeping the heavens with his gigantic telescopes ; Galvani 
and Volta were laying the foundations of a revolution in elec- 
tricity; Count Rumford in Bavaria, was devoting his great 
energy to industrial and social economy; Hutton and Werner 
were geologizing in their respective countries ; Hauy was syste- 
matizing the innumerable crystalline forms occurring in nature; 
the Mongolfier brothers were experimenting with air-balloons,. 
and prophesying the yet unsolved problem of aérial navigation 3. 
Capt. James Cook returned from his memorable voyages around 
the world full of adventure and novelties in nature; the appli- 
cation of steam to the driving of land carriages and the propel-. 
ling of boats was gradually being perfected by patience and 
genius. These together with the metaphysical and even the politi-. 
cal questions of the day, must have engrossed the attention of the 
talented friends who dined together at the full moon. ‘The pre- 
dilections of their guests sometimes determined the character of 
the subjects discussed. Thus, in the autumn of 1782, the 
venerable engineer Smeaton, having business in Birmingham 
connected with his canal, was invited to attend a meeting of the 
Lunarians at the house of Watt. Watt wrote of this evening’s 
proceedings to his friend Boulton, then in London, as follows : 
1 Gengembre, one of Lavoisier’s pupils, had discovered inflammable: 
phosphoretted hydrogen in 1783, but Kirwan’s discovery was made in- 
dependently. 
