CORRESPONDENCE WITH SCIENTIFIC MEN. 39 



cupied by the new edition of my " Treatise on Chemistry," 

 that I can hardly find time for anything else, especially at 

 the age of sixty-seven years, when one cannot hope to have 

 the necessary vigor to undertake again a work of ten vol 

 umes. Nearly two thirds of this edition I have still to 

 compose. Besides, it is a little hazardous to enter into a 

 private discussion with this savant, because he immediately 

 prints all that is written to him, followed by a refutation. I 

 have sometimes been surprised to read in your Journal a 

 reply to my ideas that I had never seen except there. One 

 cannot be angry, however, for Mr. Hare is a good man, 

 and seeks the truth before everything ; but that makes one 

 desire not to turn a private controversy into a public one. 

 But much depends on the habits of different countries. . . . 



Will you have the goodness to give the enclosed note to 

 your son. 



Receive, I beg you, my dear Sir, the assurance of the 

 high consideration with which I have the honor to be, Sir, 

 Your very devoted servant, 



JAC. BERZELIUS. 



Professor Silliman's " Chemistry " was received 

 with approbation by the veteran chemist, whose own 

 work he had introduced to American readers. 



FROM DR. WILLIAM HENRY. 



MANCHESTER, May 9, 1831. 



MY DEAR SIR, I avail myself of the earliest opportunity 

 of offering you my best thanks for the obliging present of 

 your " Elements of Chemistry," which reached me from 

 London only a few days ago ; and I am induced to offer 

 my acknowledgments thus early, because to-morrow I am 

 about to leave home for some time, and may not soon again 

 have an opportunity of getting my letter conveyed to Liv 

 erpool. Of course I have only had time as yet, especially 



