88 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



in which, by the way, he seemed to be but faintly visible 

 I got an encouraging nod. I reiterated my belief as to the 

 number. I was then called upon to name them. When 

 I came to the last, Bunsen expressed his incredulity as 

 to its existence. Something in my look must have impressed 

 Kopp, for when I looked again at him the nods were more 

 emphatic than ever. You know how in moments of peril 

 one's senses are quickened and the faculty of recollection is 

 sharpened. Such a moment had come to me, and luckily 

 I was equal to it. Some time before I left for Heidelberg you 

 had expressed a wish to repeat Deville's work on nitrogen 

 pentoxide I don't think we called it nitrogen pentoxide in 

 those days and bade me get the subject up, which I did. 

 Although I had not seen the paper for some years, the 

 whole matter now came back to me with perfect distinctness. 

 I could visualise the pages in the A nnales de Chimie where the 

 memoir was. I seemed to see the title and the number of 

 lines below it, and I mentally unfolded the plate on which 

 the apparatus needed is figured. I quickly got to work, 

 and I think it was soon evident to the rest of the Faculty, 

 most of whom Kopp excepted probably knew nothing 

 whatever about the matter, that I had good reason for the 

 faith that was in me. Bunsen appeared to be genuinely 

 interested, and when I had finished, amidst a shower of 

 approving nods from the dear old Pro-Rector, he wound up 

 by asking who was the discoverer of the wonderful compound 

 I had described. " Henri Etienne Saint-Claire Deville," I 

 answered. " Oh ! a Frenchman ! " he cried. Whereupon 

 the whole Faculty laughed in chorus, Bunsen included. 

 Although I seemed to myself to "romp in" apparently an 

 easy winner, I had and still have a suspicion that the shrewd 

 old man, with artful simplicity, was "pulling my leg" all 

 the time. 



The last occasion I saw Bunsen was after a visit to 

 Stockholm, where Pettersson and Arrhenius had shown me 

 the laboratory of Berzelius, restored as far as practicable by 

 the pious care of the librarian of the Academy. It was most 

 interesting to me to look over the specimens a sample of 

 Wohler's synthetic urea, racemic acid, the vanadium speci- 

 mens, bits of selenium, &c., and to see the old apparatus. 

 Bunsen had then retired, and I found him a cheerless, 

 solitary man, unable to read, and physically very feeble. 

 I gave him an account of what I had seen. " But the place 

 was only a kitchen ! " he exclaimed. " Yes, but such a 

 kitchen ! There was never a kitchen like it," with which 



