XXXV, On Sir Humphry Davy's lale Proposal for 

 improving Ike Arts of bleaching Linen and Cotton Cloth 

 ly substituting the Oxymuruite of Magnesia for the 

 Oxymnriate of Lime in the [leaching Process; with 

 some Observations in Reply to an Article in the Fliiloso- 

 phical Magazine for June. By James Ogilby, M, D, 



To Mr. Tilloc/i. 



Sir, L have noticed in your valuable publication for last 

 June, some observations upon a communication which I 

 had the honour of laying before the Kirwanian Society, re- 

 lative to a proposal which Sir H. Davy suggested for the 

 improvement of the process of bleaching liuen and cottoa 

 cloth in Ireland, in the coarse of a lecture delivered by 

 him at the Dublin Society, upon the subject of oxvmuriatic 

 acid and its combinations. The person who has signed his 

 name to those observations has thought proper to apjily 

 some very strong expressions to my communication; he 

 terms it an " incorrect statement," accuses me of " ig- 

 norance of the facts," brine;s forward a letter from his bro- 

 ther, a Dublin apothecarv, in further confirmation of the 

 *' inaccuracy of my statements," and seems to leel a de- 

 gree of satisfaction, upon the dreadful fate they will meet 

 with in the scientific world, according to his expectation. 



Should I succeed, in the following pages, in satisfying all 

 those of your readers who are interested in and competent 

 judges of this subject, that those observations upon my 

 paper contain an erroneous, partial and mutilated state- 

 ment of the facts, that those persons who have ihnught 

 proper to stand forward as the advocates for Sir Humphry's 

 proposal are totally destitute of all knowledge of the sub- 

 ject, and have throughout the discussion betrayed the 

 grossest ignorance upon every topic connected with it, and 

 that my original statement stands perfectly correct ; I hope 

 that any expr-ssions I may use will not be ascribed to a 

 desire on my part to imitate the example of my assailant, 

 but to the difficulty which naturally presents itself to the 

 rebutting of misrepresentations, without employing terms 

 which to some may appear harsh. As to the irrelevant 

 epithets employed by the person alluded to, who I under- 

 stand is a young Irish operator in the laboratory of the 

 Royal Institution, having nothing to do with the point at 

 issue, it is not necessary thai I should take any further no- 

 tice of them. 



It has been suggested to me,, that as my observations 



were 



