328 Phillips on the Oil Questio7i. 



select certain passages to show the character of the means to 

 which you have resorted, for the purpose of obtaining what 

 you term " triumphant success," and then leave you to enjoy it. 



For the sake of reference I shall call your first paper the 

 Observations, and the second the Reply ; between the styles 

 of which there is an amusing difference. In the Observations 

 you nearly confine yourself to the statement, or misrepresenta- 

 tion or suppression of evidence ; but in your Reply you take a 

 more elevated flight, and quote Horace and Persius and 

 Virgil, with a facility truly surprising to those who know you. 



You must of course be right about siueet acids and silent 

 explosions: the first expression is correct because you bor- 

 rowed it ; the second is absurd, because it was used by an 

 opponent. Explosion with noise, a term which you employ 

 and defend, does not necessarily imply, you say, that there 

 may be noiseless explosions; and you inform us in the Reply \\vAi 

 an explosion is " a hissing or an inferior kind of noise ;" whilst 

 in the Chemical Catechism, you describe an explosion as having 

 nearly killed Pilatre de Rozier, although it took place only in 

 his mouth ; and in your laboratory an explosion or inferior 

 hissing noise shattered several twelve-gallon glass receivers 

 into ten thousand pieces. So much for your ridiculous contra- 

 dictions ; I shall presently notice your serious ones. 



Speaking of the Associates (meaning those who replied to 

 your Observations*) you say, {Reply, p. 92, note)" they have 

 made two calculations as to the quantity of oil which their vessel 

 would hold, viz., one at p. 44, and the other at p. 51 of their 

 book. And though they are calculations which any school- 

 boy could have made, they are both erroneous." 



* See Remarks on a communication published in No. XX. of the Journal 

 of Science, and the Arts, entitled ' Observations on the Chemical Part of 

 the Evidence, given upon the late trial of the action brought by Messrs. 

 Severn, King and Co., against the Imperial Insurance Company. By 

 Samuel Parkes^ F.L.?., M.G.S., fyc' By Richard Phillips, F.R.S.E. ^c, 

 Philip Taylor, J.G. Children, F.R.S., Ifc, John Martineau, Jun', John^ 

 Bostofk, M.D., F.R.S., ^"c, and John Taylor, M.G.S. 



