644 



all the parties were alive and in frequent intercourse with the author 

 and with each other. 



I have only further, in Mr. Brown's name also, to do an act of 

 justice to the memory of Lavoisier, by relieving it from the obloquy 

 which has rested upon it from his supposed persistence in unjustly 

 claiming priority for himself. The following extract from a Report 

 to the Academy of Sciences on M. Seguin's experiments, dated 

 28th August 1790, and signed Lavoisier, Brisson, Meusnier, and 

 Laplace, the last named being the reporter, will prove that Lavoisier 

 was not unmindful of the appeal which had been addressed to him 

 by Blagden some years previously, and that he distinctly resigned 

 the priority of discovery to Cavendish : 



" M. Macquer a observe dans son Dictionnaire de Chimie que la 

 combustion des gaz hydrogene et oxygene produit une quantite 

 d'eau sensible ; mais il n'a pas connu toute 1'importance de cette 

 observation, qu'il se contenta de presenter, sans en tirer aucune con- 

 sequence. M. Cavendish paroit avoir remarque le premier que 1'eau 

 produite dans cette combustion est le resultat de la combinaison des 

 deux gaz, et qu'elle est d'un poids egal au leur. Plusieurs ex- 

 periences faites en grand et d'une maniere tres-precise, par MM. 

 Lavoisier, La Place, Monge, Meusnier, et par M. Lefevre de 

 Gineau, ont confirme cette de'couverte importante, sur laquelle il ne 

 doit maintenant rester aucun doute." Annales de Chimie > tome 7, 



pp. 258-9. 



JOHN J. BENNETT. 



II. " On the Influence of White Light, of the different Coloured 

 Rays and of Darkness, on the Development, Growth, and 

 Nutrition of Animals." By HORACE DOBELL, M.D., Licen- 

 tiate of the Royal College of Physicians, &c. &c. Com- 

 municated by JAMES PAGET, Esq. Received January 10, 



1859. 



(Abstract.) 



In this communication the author laid before the Society the par- 

 ticulars of a series of experiments, having for their object to discover 

 what influence is exerted by ordinary light, by the different coloured 

 rays, and by darkness on the development, growth, and nutrition of 

 animals. 



