On the Compressibility of Water. 201 
stronger language than by simply saying, “ The method of 
General B. is even more like mine than I was likely to antici- 
pate.” But if it be true, as y asserts, that General B. received 
it ** from the continental observers,” his conduct in publishing 
it as he has done is by no means calculated to do him honour: 
neither will its appearance in the printed Transactions of the 
Royal Society of Edi::burgh be very creditable to that body, if 
the method be no way different from that which y says is de- 
scribed at length in the writings of three different foreigners. 
Yours very respectfully, 
Newcastle, Aug. 11, 1821. Henry ATKINSON. 
XLVII. On Mr. Perxins’s Conclusions with regard to the Com- 
pressibility of Water, drawn from the Results of émpty Bot- 
tles sunk to different Depths in the Ocean. By Mr. Joun 
Devucuar, M.W.S., Lecturer on Chemistry and on Materia 
Medica and Pharmacy in Edinburgh. 
To Dr. Tilloch. 
Dear Sir, — My attention was some years ago directed to the 
porous nature of glass, with the hope of ascertaining its extent, 
and how it might be assisted by pressure: and in May last I col- 
lected together the result of my observations on the subject, and 
laid them before the Wernerian Society. In prosecuting this 
subject I was led to examine every properly authenticated ac- 
count of bottles filled only with atmospheric air, which, although 
properly secured at the mouth, after being sunk to a considerable 
depth in the sea had been brought up full of water. The most 
recent experimeuts of which I could obtain an account, were 
those of Mr, Perkins, contained in a paper upon the Compressi- 
bility of Water, read before the Royal Society of London, and 
inserted in their Transactions for 1820, Part II. Though I dif- 
fer from Mr. Perkins in my account of the manner in which the 
water gets into the bottles; yet I do not mean at present to en- 
ter upon that part of the subject, as I have discussed it fully in 
the paper above alluded to, which will be immediately published 
in the Transactions of the Wernerian Society; I intend to confine 
myself to a remark or two upon the intention with which these 
bottles were sunk by Mr. Perkins, with the view of suggesting a 
more advisable mode of performing the experiment for the pur- 
pose of proving what he wished. 
The bottlessunk by Mr. Perkins, besides being well corked, were 
Vol, 58. No. 281. Sept, 1821, Ce gene- 
