398 WATT. 



M. Lavoisier, who had- entirely shaken off these trammels,, 

 first presented the new doctrine in its entire perfection and 

 consistency. 



All three may have made the important step nearly at the 

 same time, and unknown to each other ; the step, namely, of 

 concluding from the experiment, that the two gases entered 

 into combination, and that water was the result ; for this, with 

 more or less of distinctness, is the inference which all three 

 drew. 



But there is the statement of Sir Charles Blagden, to show 

 that M. Lavoisier had heard of Mr. Cavendish's drawing this 

 inference before his (M. Lavoisier's) capital experiment was 

 made ; and it appears that M. Lavoisier, after Sir C. Blagden's 

 statement had been embodied in Mr. Cavendish's paper and 

 made public, never gave any contradiction to it in any of 

 his subsequent memoirs which are to be found in the Me- 

 moires de 1' Academic, though his own account of that ex- 

 periment, and of what then passed, is inconsistent with Sir 

 Charles Blagden's statement. 



But there is not any assertion at all, even from Sir C. Blag- 

 den, zealous for Mr. Cavendish's priority as he was, that Mr. 

 Watt had ever heard of Mr. Cavendish's theory before he 

 formed his own. 



Whether or not Mr. Cavendish had heard of Mr. Watt's 

 theory previous to drawing his conclusions, appears more 

 doubtful. The supposition that he had so heard, rests on the 

 improbability of his (Sir Charles Blagden's) and many others 

 knowing what Mr. Watt had done, and not communicat- 

 ing it to Mr. Cavendish, and on the omission of any assertion 

 in Mr. Cavendish's paper, even in the part written by Sir C. 

 Blagden with the view of claiming priority as against M. 

 Lavoisier, that Mr. Cavendish had drawn his conclusion before 

 April ] 783, although in one of the additions to that paper 

 reference is made to Mr. Watt's theory. 



As great obscurity hangs over the material question at what 

 time Mr. Cavendish first drew the conclusion from his experi- 

 ment, it may be as well to examine what that great man's 

 habit was in communicating his discoveries to the Royal 

 Society. 



