406 On the Atomic Theory. 
Notwithstanding the silence of so many most respectable 
writers authorizes me in believing that none before me has ex- 
tracted from the nut-galls of the oak a volatile conerete oil; yet 
it is still possible that some chemist, especially a foreigner, may 
have anticipated me, not only in obtaining it, but in announcing 
it to the public, without my having any knowledge of the fac 
In such an event, I shall always refleet with pleased on my hav- 
ing rendered more common by this letter the knowledge of a 
fact certainly not contemptible, inasmuch as it appears to have 
been unknown to the above chemists as well as to myself. 
I am, &c. 
Pisa, June 1816. J. BRANCHI. 
LXVII. On the Atomic Theory. An Extract of M.H. Gaur- 
TIER DE Oxaunry, from the ‘ Journul de Physique” for 
May 1817, page 392. Translated, with Remarks, by W.B: 
I, often occurs in the sciences, that a discovery rests unknown 
even in the country which gave it birth, and that a long time 
afterwards, the same object having drawn attention, men dis- 
cover a former work written on the same subject. For example, 
in 1630, John Rey discovered the cause by which lead and tin 
increase in weight when sufficiently heated, and it was not until 
the immortal jabours of Lavoisier that chance drew attention 
towards the work ef Rey. It might also happen that two scien- 
tific men engaged in similar résearches should arrive precisely at 
the same results without knowing any thing of each other’s la- 
bours*; but, under all circumstances, the discovery of right be- 
longs to the person who had first published on the subject, more 
especially when the author has not only observed a principal 
fact, but at the same time developed the consequences which 
flow from it. Under this point of view, it appears to us incon- - 
testable that Mr. Higgins was the first who developed and pub- 
lished the Atomic Theory, and anticipated that of Definite Pro- 
portions, which the labours of MM. Proust, Dalton, Berzelius, 
Gay-Lussac, &c. have afterwards fully established. In the work 
under our consideration Mr. Higgins claims priority as to the 
Atomic Theory, the base of which he announced to the public 
tour of good old honey, and has evidently the aroma and taste of galls. 
Placed on paper and exposed to the flame of a wax candle, it instantly melts, 
and the paper becomes oily and transparent ; in this state, when again ex- 
posed to the flame, it iz amediately evaporates, and leaves the paper so clean 
that one may afterwards write on it with the greatest ease. 
* It is possible indeed for two persons to hit upon the same solitary fact 
or discovery, but not ona new system which engaged an octavo volume. 
TR. 
in 
