382 THE LIFE OF JANES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



in the dark for two or three, and however healthy he 

 was at first, what a wreck you will make of him ! Your 

 essay was read to me or nearly $o, and gave me great 

 pleasure, mixed with a sense of how much my life has 

 been wasted. I know, and I hope allow, for your con- 

 stant partiality; but if, writing as an historian, you 

 could feel yourself justified in mentioning my name, 

 surely I might have achieved something, if the earlier 

 years of my life had not been wasted, partly from want 

 of settled purpose, and partly from griefs and cares which 

 came upon me early, and which I felt more than most 

 men, and if the last ten years had not been consumed by 

 disease. Yet after all, what good would it do now ? It 

 is hard enough as it is to tear oneself from vain and 

 worldly thoughts. Your preface seems to me admirable 

 in tone, and I am sure right in substance. Did it ever 

 occur to you that there may be a connection between the 

 permeability of rock-salt to heat, and its being equally 

 soluble in water at -all temperatures ? How is it with 

 other salts ? I think this hint might suggest something. 

 With my best regards to Mrs. Forbes, 



' Ever yours, 



'R L. E.' 



This last letter bears the date 26th March, 1859. The 

 writer died on the 12th May in the same year. 



Early in the summer 1858, we find Forbes, when 

 relieved from college work, still reverting to his old 

 pursuits, and making experiments on the freezing-point 

 and individual temperature of blocks of ice. Here are 

 some of his findings thereon : 



To A. WILLS, ESQ. 



'BRIDGE OF ALLAN, NEAR STIRLING, 

 April 26th, 1858. 



' . . . This arises partly from the circumstance that 

 I can now, I believe, show that " regelation " is, as I 

 have for some time suspected, a correlative and necessary 

 proposition from that other, that the transition from 

 water to ice in congelation is gradual. In my 1 6th letter, 



