LECTURES IN BOSTON. 371 



am in perfect health, and am quite equal to all my labors, 

 although I think I never encountered so severe a trial ; but 

 a liberal flow of money, always acceptable when honestly 

 earned, and the delight expressed on all hands at the 

 style of successful experimenting and the course of state- 

 ment and reasoning, gives me full assurance that I am now 

 as firmly established here chemically, as I was last year 

 geologically." 



" In the fifth lecture, I made a very liberal use of potas- 

 sium and sodium, which are not only splendid subjects of 

 experiment but are highly illustrative of chemical principles. 

 Everything went beautifully. After the sixth lecture, at a 

 large party at Deacon Walley's, great satisfaction was ex- 

 pressed to me regarding the lectures. The Mayor, Mr. 

 Armstrong, said that he thought the subject very interest- 

 ing and instructive, and was pleased that a moral and relig- 

 ious aspect was given to the science ; and similar views were 

 expressed by others. I communicated to-day, at the lecture, 

 the discovery that cast-steel of the first quality is formed 

 directly from the ore, and that malleable iron is manufac- 

 tured from cast-iron without melting it again ; specimens 

 furnished to me by the manufacturers were also exhibited, 

 an^ I was assured that the subject excited great interest, 

 and gave much satisfaction. My mind is working like a 

 steam-engine in perpetual motion, but the night succeed- 

 ing the last lecture gave me refreshing sleep, and I awoke 

 the next morning in remarkable strength." 



I make some remarks upon the important crisis which 

 brought me before the public as a popular lecturer. I was 

 called out, as I have said, in the maturity of my powers, ex- 

 perience, and reputation, at fifty-five or fifty-six years of age ; 

 and the results of tjie years 1834-35-36, in Hartford, Low- 

 ell, Salem, Nantucket, and Boston, were of the greatest im- 

 portance to me and my family. The two Boston courses 



