310 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
vivd voce defenses revealed, as much as the defenses them- 
selves, that disarmed resentment at the time. 
As regards Davy, another cause of dissension arose in 
1823. In the spring of that year Faraday analyzed the 
hydrate of chlorine, a substance once believed to be the 
element chlorine, but proved by Davy to be a compound of 
that element and water. The analysis was looked over by 
Davy, who then and the're suggested to Faraday to heat the 
hydrate in a closed glass tube. This was done, the sub- 
stance was decomposed, and one of the products of decom- 
position was proved by Faraday to be chlorine liquefied by 
its own pressure. On the day of its discovery he communi- 
cated this result to Dr. Paris. Davy, on being informed 
of it, instantly liquefied another gas in the same way. 
Having struck thus into Faraday's inquiry, ought he not to 
have left the matter in Faraday's hands? I think he 
ought. But, considering his relation to both Faraday and- 
the hydrate of chlorine, Davy, I submit, may be excused 
for thinking differently. A father is not always wise 
enough to see that his son has ceased to be a boy, and 
estrangement on this account is not rare; nor was Davy 
wise enough to discern that Faraday had passed the mere 
assistant stage, and become a discoverer. It is now hard to 
avoid magnifying this error. But hail Faraday died or 
ceased to work at this time, or had his subsequent life been 
devoted to money-getting, instead of to research, would 
anybody now dream of ascribing jealousy to Davy? Assur- 
edly not. Why should he be jealous? His reputation at 
this time was almost without a parallel; his glory was with- 
out a cloud. He had added to his other discoveries that 
of Faraday, and after having been his teacher for seven 
years, his language to him was this: " It gives me great 
pleasure to hear that you are comfortable at the Royal 
Institution, and I trust that you will not only do something 
good and honorable for yourself, but also for science." 
This is not the language of jealousy, potential or actual. 
But the chlorine business introduced irritation and anger, 
to which, and not to any ignobler motive, Daw's oppo- 
sition to the election of Faraday to the Royal Society is, I 
am persuaded, to be ascribed. 
These matters are touched upon with perfect candor, 
and becoming consideration, in the volumes of Dr. Bence 
Jones; but in "society" they are not always so handled. 
