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97 
of very frequent occurrence in the Calotype, and always occurs 
when we use the io-gallic paper.” 
‘** PARSONSTOWN, 
“ March 25, 1845. 
‘* Srr,—I am sorry I did not receive your letter before Dr. Robin- 
son left this town, which I should have done, it being dated March 18: 
I did not get it until March 24. I will, however, forward it to him, 
and I am sure he will, with his usual kindness, make whatever use 
of it he thinks right. I will ask him to have it laid before the Aca- 
demy with my Paper. I agree with the observations you make on 
my Paper on general principles. There is no doubt at all that 
your Calotype, Mr. Hunt’s Energiatype, and my Catalysotype, if I 
may be allowed, for the present, to call it so, are all pretty similar 
_ in their modes of action, and perhaps they all come to the same point 
in the end,—the decomposition of the salt of silver; but, as I said 
in my former letter, if new modes of producing this effect were not 
to be named, why call your process Calotype—why call Mr. Hunt’s 
Energiatype, &c., as they all agree in their general results with 
the first experiments made with light on the nitrate of silver? Why 
not regard them all merely as zzstances of the same general princi- 
ple, and not isolate them, as it were, by designating each by a par- 
ticular name? You will say now that I agree with your ideas: I 
always did. I think that cumbering science with a multiplicity of 
hard names for every particular fact is very bad ; but the christen- 
ing of my process has been forced on me by a similar line of con- 
duct in others ; and when a nomenclature sufficiently good appears 
(a task which I wish you would undertake), I will be the first to 
blot out the word Catalysotype. 
“I do not pretend to any discovery; nor do I think, my pro- 
cess, in its chemical character, distinct from the general mass of 
facts in active chemistry. I merely regard it as a new combination, 
acting with great facility, very little complication, and, though not 
involving a new principle, being developed without requiring any 
second wash, which I looked on as characteristic until you men- 
tioned the io-gallic paper, a process of which I was certainly igno- 
rant before. You mention also Mr. Hunt’s Energiatype as being 
similar to mine; but, as first published, it undoubtedly could have 
