188 HENRY DEACON 



resolved into other equivalent forces. A 

 chemical result, therefore, may be the 

 resultant of indirect forces, or the resultant of 

 many indirect forces acting in many directions ; 

 and also the resultant of indirect forces may 

 bring about a chemical result, which lies 

 outside the path or direction of many, and, in 

 some cases, perhaps outside the path of all 

 the forces engaged. That is to say, we may 

 deal with the composition and decomposition 

 of concurrent chemical forces, much in the 

 same way as we deal with these problems in 

 mechanics." " May it not be said that the 

 skilled chemist, like the skilled navigator, can 

 so use the union of forces that by the aid of 

 the wind itself he sails nearly in the wind's 

 eye ? " 



His lecture given before the fellows of the 

 Chemical Society, June 3Oth, 1872, on 

 " Deacon's method of obtaining chlorine, as 

 illustrating some principles of chemical 

 dynamics," is full of abstruse philosophical 

 reasoning on the following points : 



1. As to the most suitable active catalytic 

 substance. 



2. Whether the mass or the surface of the 

 substance was the active element. 



3. As to the effect of various temperatures. 



