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XXXIII. Reply to Berzeliiis's Attack on Dr. Thomson's ^^At- 

 tempt to establish theFirst Principles of Chemistry hij Experi- 

 ment ;" noticed in the Philosophical Magazine and Annals^ 

 vol. iv. p. 450. Bi) Thomas Thomson, M.D. F.R.S. Re- 

 gius Professor of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine a?id Annals. 



Gentlemen, Glasgow, February 6, 1829. 



'VT'OUR December Number, though published I presume 

 -*■ move than a month, has only reached me about half an 

 hour ago. It contains Berzelius's attack upon my character 

 inserted in his Arberetlllre, for 1827. I had not seen tiiis at- 

 tack before ; but I had heard of it, and been informed of its 

 nature and spirit by several foreign gentlemen, whom I have 

 the pleasure of reckoning among the number of my friends. 

 I had resolved to take no notice of it whatever, being per- 

 fectly aware that, as far as my reputation and character are 

 concerned, it would do me no injur}'. INIy character and re- 

 putation are too well established in my own country, where I 

 am best known, to run any risk from the foul aspersions of the 

 Stockholm Professor. I could only have told him that my 

 feelings were at least as high, and my conduct through life at 

 least as honourable, as his own. I could only have thrown 

 back his foul aspersions with the contempt which they de- 

 served, and demanded that satisfaction which every gentleman 

 feels himself entitled to, when his character has been unjustly 

 traduced. The question was not whether my experiments 

 were accurate or inaccurate; but whether I was an honest 

 man or a scoundrel. Such a question I might surely be par- 

 doned for not thinking it necessar}- to discuss. My experi- 

 ments were all made in the laborator}^ within the walls of the 

 College of Glasgow, and there was .scarcely one of them that 

 was not witnessed by more than one competent judge. Indeed 

 more than one-fourth of the salts whose composition I have 

 given in my First Principles, were analysed by my pupils. 

 Ample testimony might therefore be produced to authenticate 

 the actual performance of all my experiments. But surely 

 that man must be wofully ignorant of the state of moral feel- 

 ing in Great Britain, who could allow himselfto suppose that 

 a chemical Professor could exist in one of its most celebrated 

 medical schools, capable of setting honour and honesty at de- 

 fiance. So certain indeed did I fieel that not one of my 

 countrymen could for a moment adopt such an idea, that I 

 reatl the tirade of Berzelius with comparative indifference. 

 And nothing would have induced me to have noticed it at all, 

 N. S. Vol. 5. No. 27. March 1829. 2 F but 



