86 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



is not very creditable to us since it is actually mentioned by 

 Davy. As an historical fact I believe the first so-called 

 potassium isolated by Davy was fluid at ordinary tempera- 

 tures owing to the amount of soda in the electrolysed potash. 

 I still recall Bunsen tilting the bottle back and fro to observe 

 the flow of the shining mobile fluid. (A few days afterwards 

 he told me all that was then known of this fluid alloy and 

 referred me to Gmelin's Handbuch?) I assure you I felt a 

 little limp at the moment more limp, indeed, than my 

 crushed hat and, the conversation flagging, he suggested 

 that he should show me the place where he intended that I 

 should work. It was in his own little laboratory, a couple of 

 benches away from him, and where I had as companions 

 Victor Meyer and an American Gideon Moore a man of 

 extraordinary ability, who had the misfortune to be stone-deaf 

 but who taught himself German and spoke it fluently without 

 having heard a sound of the language. 



We then passed into the lecture-theatre, and, stepping 

 across the room, he pointed to a picture on the walls. It was 

 a plate from the Phil. Trans. the curves of the chemical 

 intensity of daylight, which I had measured for you in 

 Portugal, or in the Brazils I forget which. This he had 

 caused to be framed, and placed in the lecture-room. I felt 

 that after all I had not lived in vain. 



I could run on interminably with my reminiscences of 

 " Papa " Bunsen, as we affectionately termed him. How 

 affectionately we, and not only his own students but the whole 

 University, regarded him may be illustrated by the following 

 incident of which I was witness. It was during my time in 

 Heidelberg that Bunsen experienced the explosion which 

 nearly cost him the sight of his remaining eye. It occurred 

 at night time when he was alone in the laboratory, and was 

 probably due to the escape of occluded hydrogen from a large 

 quantity of reduced mixed platinum metals over which he 

 incautiously held a lighted taper. Next morning the rumour 

 ran round the town that Bunsen was blinded, and the Wrede 

 Platz was packed with students and burghers anxiously 

 inquiring if the news were true. No certain information could 

 be gained, and the crowd swayed backwards and forwards 

 throughout the day waiting for tidings. It was late in the 

 afternoon before a proper examination could be made, when 

 it was discovered that the eye was safe. Friedrich, the 

 surgeon, promptly stepped out on to the balcony to announce 

 the fact, when the air was simply rent with huzzas, caps went 

 up, men embraced each other, women wept. Such a scene I 



