i92 On Improvements in lleachwg L'u}6n and Cotton Cloth, 



rotted. These experiments were however r»ot detailed, or 

 any satisfactory account given of them, nor were they ever 

 committt'd to print. " Now," said he, in proceeding, " if 

 a strong solution of muriate of lime destroys the vegetable 

 fibre, a weak one must have a similar, though a diminished 

 effect; and therefore the oxymuriate of lime cannot be used 

 Vk'iih safety in bleacbnig." This was the only reason ad- 

 vanced by the learned Professor in urging the propriety of 

 adopting his important proposal, and rejecting an article 

 which has been for years in general use for whitening even 

 the most delicate fabrics of flax and coUon in every part 

 of the empire, not to say of Europe. In support of this 

 reasoning, the Professor related a story of a respectable 

 apothecary in Dublin, vj\\o in the way of business was 

 preparing some muriate of lime for a customer, and that 

 in dryino; the crystals upon a cotton cloth, it was found 

 quite rotTen after the operation. Many doubts as to this 

 supposed fact in)mediately arose in the minds of some of 

 the hearers ; son)e suggested that the cloth might have 

 been previously purged by active preparations, or caustit 

 alkalis ; others, that tlie liquor of the crystals might have 

 contained free muriatic acid ; or, what is not very mipro- 

 bable, that the cloth might have come rotten from the 

 hands of the manufacturer. * 



It would be needless to multiply arguments, to show the 

 impropriety which there would be in admitting such an 

 observation as this in support of a proposal to introduce a 

 material alteration or improvement in an art of such vital 

 consequence to Ireland, and so intimately connected with 

 her staple manufacture. 



This adv )caie of Professor Davy takes upon him to 

 deny his ever having made use of the incorrect mode of 

 rcasouiuii which 1 have attributed to him, and which I 

 liave (juoted from notes taken at his lectures, and attempt* 

 to obviate the force of my observations by substituting a 

 sentence, which I can prove was used, not in treating of the 

 subject in question, but upon an occasion altogether dif- 

 ferent. 



In taking notes of Sir Humphry's lectures, I never at- 

 tempted, nor perhap-; was it possible, to take down the lan- 

 euaije verbatim; but that the expressions I have attributed 

 To him contain the substance of what he said, and what 

 he meant to convey, and nothing else; and that the sen- 

 tence could not be altered in its meaning by any mere 

 change of diction, I must positively maintain, and will 

 contmue to do so, as I have the strongest confirmation of 



it 



