Dr. Thomson — and his Answer. 336 



in the author's mind, we ventured to denominate thevacnous*, 

 and gave numerous examples equally remarkable with the above. 

 The Doctor is astonished at the inappropriateness of the epithet; 

 and to prove that he can be concise, clear and energetic, he has 

 lately favoured the world with the following document. " Having 

 been led by very false information, to accuse most unjustly 

 Thomas Allan, Lisq., Banker, in Edinburgh, on a subject con- 

 nected with his mineralo'^ical pursuits, I now publicly express 

 my sincere regret for having propagated a most groundless calumny 

 against that gentleman, and do dtclare, that I now find that so 

 fai- from what was reported to me, and repeated by me, having 

 the slightest foundation, Mr. Allan, on the contrary, was the 

 direct means of tracing and transmitting to the proper owner in 

 London, the minerals which were the subject of the charge." 

 (Signed) Thomas Tkoynsoji. Vide Constable's Edinburgh Ma- 

 gazine for March, 1822, p. 408, article entitled " Jury Court, 

 Jan. 21, Allan v. Thomson — Apology for Defamation." " Mr. 

 Jeffery (Advocate) said, he had only to regret, that this accom- 

 modation had not been entered into at an earlier stage, but that it 

 had been delayed till the latest moment (the day of trial,) 

 that such a measure was practicable ; he added, that as the 

 delay was to be imputed to Dr. Thomson, it was under- 

 stood that gentleman should defray the whole expense 

 incurred. This the Counsel for Dr. Thomson acquiesced in, it 

 being stated by the Court that it was a matter of private arrange. 

 mentt." Mr. Allan, as all our scientific readers know, is a 

 gentleman distinguished by the excellence of his mineralogical 

 collection, the beauty of its arrangement, and the complaisance 

 with which he lays it open to men of science. 



That our judgment concerning the general merits of Dr. 

 Thomson's manner of systematizing chemistry, is in unison with 

 that of the leading chemists of the age, we have abundant docu- 

 ments to prove. We shall content ourselves with a few extracts 

 from the writings of Professor Berzelius, a gentleman whom the 

 Doctor would wish to number in his list of friends, and against 

 whose knowledge of the subject, and amiable temper, he can have 

 nothing to object. In the Professor's paper on the composi- 

 tion of the oxides of platinum and gold, inserted in the Annales 

 de Chimie et de Physique, for Oct. 1821, we observe the fol- 

 lowing exposure of Dr. Thomson's mode of perverting chemical 

 results. " Dr. Thomson, however, in the 7th (6th) edi- 

 tion of his System of Chemistry, adopted the pero.\ide of Mr. 

 Cooper, rejected that of which I had made the analysis, and of 

 which I had described the combinations with the acids and 

 alkalis, and formed on the analytical data of Mr. Cooper, a 

 tritoxide of platinum in the following manner ; — * Mr. Edmu»4 



• See onr Revitw po5«m t Constable's Mag «< «u/)ra -.i. 



2 A 2 



