642 



February 17, 1859. 



Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair. 



The Lord Bishop of London and the Lord Bishop of Ripon were 

 admitted into the Society. 



The following communications were read : 



I. " Statement of Facts relating to the Discovery of the Com- 

 position of Water by the Hon. H. CAVENDISH." In a 

 Letter from J. J. BENNETT, Esq., F.R.S., to Sir B. C. 

 BRODTE, Bart., P.R.S., dated February 12, 1859. Received 

 February 14, 1859. 



Since the death of our late excellent and lamented friend Mr. 

 Robert Brown, several appeals have been made to his executors to 

 publish certain evidence presumed to have been in his possession 

 relating to the much-agitated question of the priority of Cavendish 

 or "Watt in the discovery of the composition of water. As the execu- 

 tor to whom Mr. Brown entrusted his papers, and having been for 

 many years honoured with his entire confidence, I feel called upon 

 to respond to these appeals, and I therefore request that you will 

 kindly lay before a Meeting of the Royal Society the following brief 

 statement on the subject. 



The date and nature of Cavendish's communication to Priestley 

 have always been considered as essential elements in the determina- 

 tion of the question ; and it was the evidence which Mr. Brown 

 possessed in regard to these particulars, which, in his estimation, 

 "placed Cavendish's claims as the discoverer of the composition of 

 water beyond dispute." That evidence, however, was not derived 

 from any unpublished document, but formed part of a section of 

 Deluc's "Idees sur la Mete'orologie," which although especially 

 entitled, "Anecdotes relatives a la decouverte de VEau sous la 

 forme cFAir" appears entirely to have escaped the notice of those 



