LECTURES IN BOSTON. 371 



am in perfect health, and am quite equal to all my labors, 

 although I think I never encountered so severe a trial ; but 

 a liberal flow of money, always acceptable when honestly 

 earned, and the delight expressed on all hands at the 

 style of successful experimenting and the course of state 

 ment and reasoning, gives me full assurance that I am now 

 as firmly established here chemically, as I was last year 

 geologically." 



" In the fifth lecture, I made a very liberal use of potas 

 sium and sodium, which are not only splendid subjects of 

 experiment but are highly illustrative of chemical principles. 

 Everything went beautifully. After the sixth lecture, at a 

 large party at Deacon Walley's, great satisfaction was ex 

 pressed to me regarding the lectures. The Mayor, Mr. 

 Armstrong, said that he thought the subject very interest 

 ing and instructive, and was pleased that a moral and relig 

 ious aspect was given to the science ; and similar views were 

 expressed by others. I communicated to-day, at the lecture, 

 the discovery that cast-steel of the first quality is formed 

 directly from the ore, and that malleable iron is manufac 

 tured from cast-iron without melting it again ; specimens 

 furnished to me by the manufacturers were also exhibited, 

 anc| I was assured that the subject excited great interest, 

 and gave much satisfaction. My mind is working like a 

 steam-engine in perpetual motion, but the night succeed 

 ing the last lecture gave me refreshing sleep, and I awoke 

 the next morning in remarkable strength." 



I make some remarks upon the important crisis which 

 brought me before the public as a popular lecturer. I was 

 called out, as I have said, in the maturity of my powers, ex 

 perience, and reputation, at fifty-five or fifty-six years of age ; 

 and the results of tjie years 1834-35-36, in Hartford, Low 

 ell, Salem, Nantucket, and Boston, were of the greatest im 

 portance to me and my family. The two Boston courses 



