164? Dr. Kane's Notice on the Theory of the JEthers. 



" It appears to me exactly as if Mr. Kane wished to assert, 

 in opposition to Berzelius, that he is the discoverer of the 

 Ethyl theory, which some of his countrymen, in an absurd 

 manner ascribe to him, because he at one time had the idea 

 that oether might as well be considered as an oxide, an idea 

 which with just as much right has been laid claim to by 

 Dumas and BouUay. I am only astonished that he has not 

 honourably, totally disavowed his claims, since during the 

 battle he has kept himself in the rearmost ranks, nay, he has 

 passed over from one side to the other; and certainly he 

 cannot think, now that the victory has been decided, to ap- 

 propriate the laurels to himself." 



In the observations which it is my duty to make, in order 

 to show the groundlessness and uni'easonable nature of the 

 I'emarks of Professor Liebig, I am anxious that it should be 

 understood that I do not mean to enter into any personal or 

 recriminating discussion with a philosopher to whom I am 

 under so many obligations for the kindness and zeal with 

 which he directed my first studies in organic chemistry in his 

 laboratory at Giessen, and with whom I continue up to the 

 present day in constant and most friendly communication. 

 It is my duty to show that my theory of the gethereal combi- 

 nations was not merely an accidental idea or a vague point of 

 view, but that from the commencement, it possessed a com- 

 pleteness and accordance with facts, which the system of Ber- 

 zelius did not acquire until it had undergone cm important 

 modification in the hands of Professor Liebig. 



In January 1835 I published in the Dublin Journal of 

 Medical and Chemical Science a short paper, in which the 

 question of priority between Berzelius and myself was dis- 

 cussed and the exact nature and extent of my views fully 

 shown. Neither that paper nor the original notice of 1833 

 was ever copied into any English scientific journal, nor, that 

 I am aware of, into any foreign one. In 1S36 I asked one of 

 the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine to notice it; but it 

 was not done, probably because the chemists in England did 

 not take much interest in such subjects at the time. Neither 

 Dr. Turner in his Elements of Chemistry, nor still later Dr. 

 Thomson in his Organic Chemistry, has made any refer- 

 ence to my memoir, although both giving the Ethyl theory, 

 and ascribing the discovery of it to Berzelius and Liebig; in 

 fact the only one of my countrymen who to my knowledge is 

 exposed to the charge of bad taste in alluding to my views, is 

 Mr. Richard Phillips, who in his translation of the London 

 Pharmacopoeia has noticed the priority of my paper, and has 

 consequently given me credit for it. 



