1825.] of Claude-Louis Berthollet. 175 



unchangeable and universal dominion over matter, which pro- 

 duces the harmony between all the relations and properties of 

 the compounds ibrmed by nature, with those of tiie same combi- 

 nations produced in the laboratory. This assigns thosfe limits 

 tjf saturation, which neither nature nor art can for an instant 

 vary. And i/ieie is, says Proust, repeating the words of Ber- 

 thollet, witli which the latter had reproached him as implying an 

 extravagant proposition, t/iercis indeed an 'eqinlibiiiiin obedient to 

 the decrees of nature, which determines, even in our laboratories, 

 the proportions of every combihation. 



Such is an outline of the profound vievv'S Oil the subject of 

 combination entertained by Proust. We have also seen those 

 supported by Berthollet, and thfe manner in which their contro- 

 versy was conducted. Upon viewing the whole, we iliust adriiit 

 that it is rare in history to meet with philosophers so eminently 

 celebrated, maintaining doctrines so opposite, upon a subject so 

 important, yet without for a moment stoopirig to any thing 

 unfair, or permitting the smallest rancoilr to minglfe in their 

 discussion. It must indeed be admitted that he who had the 

 most difficult part to support, docs occasionally evade arguments 

 which it was impossible fully and directly to meet ; and also that 

 his awkward manner of experimenting occasionally put it in his 

 adversary's power to correct some of his positions. But we must 

 still hold that the expernnental and argumentative ingenuity of 

 either party was well poised against the other, and that it would 

 be difficult to point out such another scientific discussion in 

 which there may be found so much to interest, while nothing 

 occurs that can for a moment offend. 



It was the prevalent idea previous to this period that the 

 putrefaction which water always undergoes after being long kept 

 in W'Ooden casks, and which sO greatly injures its taste and 

 smell, is the effect of an inhereiit principle vVhich accompanies 

 the liquid from the spring. Berthollet, however, conceived the 

 cause of this putrefaction to be the solution of an extractive fnat- 

 ter from the wood, and that this might be prevented by charring 

 the inside of the cask. This process would possess the double 

 advantage of wholly excluding the water- frorii the wood on the 

 one hand, whilst the antiseptic qualities of the carbon must 

 check any pntrefaclive tendency in the \Vatet- whatever iriight 

 be its origin on the other. He accordingly took two casks of 

 the same materials, charred the interior of one, and filled both 

 with water. At the end of four months, the wat^t in the charred 

 cask had contracted no unpleasant taste or smell whatever, 

 while the water in the other t^'as becbmfe so piitrid, that its very 

 8rtiell was inl()h;ral)lc. 



Not lonj:, afterwards, the celebrated navigator Krusenstern, 

 having seen a statement of this mode of preserving water quoted 

 in a periodical journal, immediately put it in practice with a 



