122 Amili/ sis of Scientific Books. 



is scarcely a single determination of Dr. Thomson's on any 

 chemical subject of difficulty, during the last eight years, which 

 has not been reversed. The angry tone, moreover, which he has 

 of late introduced into scientific discussion, merits castigation ; 

 as it tends to disturb the harmony which, with slight exceptions, 

 has long prevailed among all the eminent cultivators of che- 

 mistry. 



Every contributor, indeed, to the general stock of knowledge, 

 however slender his contribution, should be viewed with friendly 

 eyes, unless his motives be obviously corrupt and his commu- 

 nication either equivocal or calculated to mislead. But above 

 all things, we ought to receive with gratitude every gift from the 

 distinguished votaries of the science, to whose disinterested 

 genius its astonishing progression is due. Such men ought not 

 to have their researches controverted on frivolous grounds, or 

 be treated with contumely and petulance. 



Dr. Thomson's attacks on the exalted reputation of the Presi- 

 dent of the Royal Society have long excited our surprise and 

 indignation, and as we observe them still persevered in, and still 

 unanswered, we shall use our humble endeavours to expose 

 their injustice and futility. In the second volume of the Annals 

 ofPhi/osophy, page 33, he says, " Sir Humphry Davy has em- 

 braced the Daltonian theory, with some modifications and 

 alterations of terms ; but his notions are not quite so perspi- 

 cuous as those of Mr. Dalton, and they do not appear to me so 

 agreeable to the principles of sound philosophy." Sir H. Davy's 

 view is the simple representation of facts ; Mr. Dalton's is mixed 

 with hypothesis ; zvhich is most consonant to sound philosophy, 

 we leave our readers to determine. In Dr. Thomson's com- 

 ment on the claim of Mr. Higgins to the atomic theory, we 

 have the following passage : "I wrote the note which has 

 occasioned all this discussion, because I thought Sir H. Davy 

 treated Mr. Dalton harshli) and unjustly, in the notes to which 

 I had formerly alluded. I was not ignorant of the reasons 

 which prepossessed Davy against him, and his notes struck 

 me as something like an attempt to crush him by the superior 

 weight of his own name and situation*." But the full force 

 of Dr. Thomson's hostility was exerted in depreciating the 

 Miner's Safety-Lamp. In reporting the proceedings of the 

 Royal Society for January 11, 1816, Dr. Thomson, speaking 

 of tlie property of a wire-sieve to intercept flame, says, " This is 

 certainly one of the most extraordinary and unaccountable facts 

 connected with the propagation of heat and combustion. It is 

 possible (supposing the fact to be correct) that so great an 

 attraction may exist between the wire and the air surrounding 

 them, that the internal combustion and expansion is not able to 



* Annals of Philosophi/, v. IV. p. 65. 



