OH the Oil Qtieation. 91 



jerks and the concussions," as well as " the expulsion of the 

 oil," and " the striking of the ceiling," which these associates 

 have all so seriously described. This, however, was not our 

 intention ; our object was to assimilate our apparatus to that 

 which had been constructed by Mr. Wilson, the ingenious in- 

 ventor of this most important mode of boiling sugar, and other 

 inflammable substances, by means of heated oil ; and to con- 

 fine ourselves to such experiments as we thought calculated to 

 discover whether the danger which these Associates had attri- 

 buted to such an operation did really exist or not. It was to 

 this object that the experiments of all the gentlemen who had 

 been engaged by Messrs. Severn, King, and Co. were directed, 

 and I congratulate them as well as myself, and even these Asso- 

 ciates, that our labours have been crowned with triumphant 

 success. I say triumphant, Because I feel, and I think every 

 good man must feel, that he has cause for triumph whenever he 

 can reflect that he has been instrumental in extricating a fellow- 

 creature from a situation in which he could contemplate nothing 

 less than a considerable diminution of his fortune, and the con- 

 sequent destruction of many of his legitimate prospects of inde- 

 pendence and comfort. 



Again, " As Mr. Parkes cannot conceive how the expansion 

 of an elastic fluid can expel a common fluid from a boiler, it is 

 very natural to find him thus attributing extreme violence to ex- 

 pansion, — -an operation which, especially in a fluid, is as gra- 

 dual and regular as can be imagined." No where have I said, 

 or even intimated, that the usual expansion of oil by heat is a 

 violent operation ; and I do not conceive that there is one indi- 

 vidual among these six Associates that would so far risque his 

 reputation as to make a direct assertion that I had. But, as 

 their book might be expected to be seen by many persons who 

 have no opportunity of reading this Journal, I do not at all 

 wonder that they were unable to resist the opportunity which 

 my commentary upon their oil-fountains had afforded them of 

 taking an unfair advantage ; in return for my having had the 

 temerity to espouse an opposite side on a great public chemical 

 question. 



