396 



NATURE 



[November 24, 192 1 



ing his youngest son, Henry, to clear the land, in 

 planning his new house, working at his "Church 

 History," and occasional experimenting. Towards 

 the end of 1795 he sent papers to the American 

 Philosophical Society on the analysis of atmo- 

 spherical air and on the generation of air 

 from water, which filled twenty quarto pages of 

 vol. 4 of the Transactions of that learned body. 

 These papers have little or no scientific value : 

 their main interest consists in the fact that they 

 were the first contributions he made in America 

 to the literature of chemistry. As was the case 

 with all his papers, they were written in the lan- 

 guage of phlogistonism, and Stahl's doctrine was 

 already on the wane, even in Young America. 

 In the same year Priestley lost his favourite son, 

 Henry. It was a bitter blow, from which neither 

 he nor his wife ever wholly recovered. Indeed, 

 from this time Mrs. Priestley's health steadily 

 declined, and nine months later she, too, passed 

 away. She was a woman of remarkable fortitude 

 and strength of character, generous and affec- 

 tionate, and a true helpmate to her husband. 

 Her great-granddaughter, Madame Belloc, has 

 paid a worthy tribute to her memory. 



There were now rumours that Priestley intended 

 to return to England, or at least to Europe, and 

 he actually contemplated taking up his residence 

 in France. It is doubtful whether he was ever 

 wholly reconciled to his life in America. He said 

 himself: " Here, though I am as happy as this 

 country can make me ... I do not feel as I did 

 in England." He had occasional fits of depres- 

 sion — all the more remarkable for a man of his 

 usually serene and equable temperament. He 

 felt, too, that his " character as a philosopher was 

 under a cloud." Phlogistonism was a lost cause, 

 and, in spite of his efforts to keep it alive, he 

 understood quite well, as Prof. Smith says, that 

 " the entire chemical world was against him. " Ex- 

 perimenting was now irksome to him, and, as he 

 states, he became " quite averse to having his 

 hands so much in water"; moreover, Priestley 

 was an eminently sociable being, and he had little 

 congenial society in Northumberland. 



He simply hungered for letters from his friends 

 in England. He wrote to Lindsey : "I cannot 

 express what I feel when I receive and read your 

 letters. I generally shed many tears over them." 

 He turned more and more to theology, interested 

 himself in the politics of the country, although 

 he took no active part in them, wrote on public 

 education and on the organisation of the college 

 which "President Jefferson contemplated for the 

 State of Virginia. He was still, at times, drawn 

 to science, for he had fitted up a small laboratory 

 NO. 2717, VOL. 108] 



adjacent to his house, and the experimental work 

 he did in it was embodied in " Six Chemical 

 Essays," which were communicated to the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society and are printed in their 

 Transactions. The essays consist of miscel- 

 laneous observations of no special scientific value. 

 Indeed, it must be admitted that Priestley's chemi- 

 cal work in America added little to his scientific 

 reputation. The laboratory, a small wooden 

 building, remains much as he left it. It will 

 shortly be removed to the Campus of Pennsylvania 

 State College, where it will be preserved as a 

 memorial to the famous chemist. Much of the 

 apparatus is, however, in the possession of 

 Dickinson College (Pa.). It is to be hoped that 

 it will be ultimately deposited in the laboratory — 

 surely the most fitting place for it. It would add 

 greatly to the historic interest of the memorial. 



It was on the piazza of Priestley's dwelling- 

 house that the men who assembled on August i, 

 1874, to celebrate the centenary of the discover) 

 of oxygen, then and there foundel the American 

 Chemical Society. 



The opening year of the new century found 

 Priestley suffering from the infirmities of age. 

 He was now nearly toothless, which, together with 

 his incurable stutter, added to his diflftculties of 

 speaking. Moreover, his sense of hearing became 

 impaired, and he was obliged to use an ear- 

 trumpet. He was, however, thankful that his 

 eyes did not fail him. During one of his visits 

 to Philadelphia he had an attack of pleurisy, and 

 for a time his life was in danger, while occa- 

 sionally he suffered from ague. He said of him- 

 self : 



" Tho' I was never robust, I hardly knew 

 what sickness was before my seizure in Phila- 

 delphia, but the old building -has since that had 

 so many shocks, that I am apprehensive it will 

 ere long give way. But I have abundant reason 

 to be satisfied, and shall retire from life conviva 

 sahir." 



His apprehensions were soon to be realised. In 

 the spring of 1803 he had a dangerous fall, and 

 strained the muscles of the thigh, and for a time 

 was obliged to use crutches. He suffered from 

 the cold of the winter of 1804, and again con- 

 tracted pleurisy, from which he died on Feb- 

 ruary 6, in the seventy-first year of his age, 

 breathing his last in the act of correcting a proof- 

 sheet. 



Prof. Edgar Smith gives the fullest and be^' 

 account of Priestley's life in America which ha^ 

 yet appeared. He seems to have tapped every 

 available source of information, and has had 

 access to manv letters and memoranda hitherto 



