on the Oil Question. 89 



hension of forgetting this promise, for I have noticed, as far as 

 I have proceeded in the book, that what one of these associates 

 asserts, the others repeat*. 



The charge of having " attempted to discredit the detail of 

 results" I also deny, for I had no interest in attempting any 

 thing but the exposure of sophistry and the establishment of 

 truth. And it was not likely that I should expatiate on the dif- 

 ference between old and neiu oil, when my own experiments 

 had convinced me, that all which had been said upon this part 

 of the subject amounted to nothing. Mr. Dalton and Dr. 

 Thomson positively proved in court, that the continued heat- 

 ing of whale-oil produces no such change. " I have made 

 several experiments," said Mr. Dalton, " on that subject, and 

 there is scarcely any difference between the two, as far as con- 

 cerns the production of inflammable vapour f." And when Dr. 

 Thomson was examined by the Solicitor-General to the same 

 point, he stated that " he had kept a quantity of whale-oil con- 

 stantly at the temperature of 350° or 360° for six weeks, and 

 that this produced no change, except that the colour of the 

 oil became darker, and its consistence, when cold, greater. But 

 that the property of the oil, as far as relates to the production 

 of inflammable vapour, had not undergone the least alteration J." 

 Other gentlemen, possessing considerable chemical knowledge, 

 and of unimpeachable reputation, offered the same opinion ; 

 and yet these co-partners, without adducing one solitary new 

 experiment, still persist in endeavouring to persuade the pub- 

 lic, that the mere heating and cooling of a mass of whale-oil, 

 day by day, for three months, will so far change its nature, as 

 to render it capable of giving out, at a low temperature, such a 

 quantity of inflammable vapour as would endanger the safety of 

 the building in which it was placed. A theory of tliis kind, if 



* " By many strokes that worke is done. 



Which cannot be performed by one." Withers' Emblems. 



t Mr. Gurney's Report of tlie Trial versus the I'hoeuix Insurauce Ollice, 

 page 172. 



J ll)i(l. jia^e l2a. 



