Off Gas IHnmmatkn. 37 



Having expressed my opinion of the misnomer in calling the 

 Professor's a " natural history method," I would suggest the 

 propriety, as it is so wholly dependent on externals, of having 

 it known by the denomination of the superficial system. 

 I remain, sir, 



Your most obedient servant, 

 Old Brompton, Jan. 7, 1820. P. J. BroWN. 



IV. Remarks on an Arlicle entitled " A few Facts relating to 

 Gas Illumination " pnllished in No, 14 of The Quarterly 

 Journal. By George Lowe, Esq, 



To Mr, Tillock. 



Sir, — X H E occasion of my troubling you with the following 

 remarks has arisen from the perusal of a most extraordinary fact- 

 perverting paper, which found a place amongst the highly inter- 

 esting pages of the Quarterly Journal for July last. The paper 

 I allude to is styled " A few Facts relating to Gas Illumination." 

 If by this title the writer meant it to be understood, that the 

 facts were very few in number, which he intended his paper 

 should contain ; then it will on all hands be allowed to be well 

 chosen. But if, seriously, the writer of it believed, and intended 

 to make the scientific world believe, that the assertions it sets 

 out with are " facts that are true," it appears to me, that 

 charity to the writer, the cause of truth, the cause of gas illumi- 

 nation, and the credit of the pages of a scientific work, alike de- 

 mand that a ray of light should be thrown upon the subject, by 

 the reflections of some other pen. 



To do this fully and fairly, we must take each objectionable 

 sentence as it rises, and make such answers to it as the experi- 

 ence and practice of this part of the country mW bear us testi- 

 mony. 



No one will more readilv agree with the sentiments of the wri- 

 ter, in his opening paragraph, than myself; — that the producing 

 of gas fit for illumination from coal, has justly been ranked 

 amongst " the greatest benefits which the science and enterprise 

 of this country have conferred on mankind." It is from a like 

 sense of its importance, that I trust you will consider as praise- 

 worthy the humblest endeavours of any individual who shall lend 

 assistance to this national nianufacture,which is yet in its infancy; 

 by either removing, refuting, or even palliating, the grounds of 

 complaint, which, if too highly coloured, might deter numbers of 

 our cleverest men from entering the path of its experimental in- 

 C 3 vcstigalion 



