VISIT TO EUROPE: RESIDENCE IN LONDON. 143 



acids, the arsenical compounds, &c. We operated upon 

 arsenious acid, white arsenic, by nitrate of potassa in a hot 

 crucible, for the purpose of turning it into arsenical acid. 

 Mr. Accuni did not caution me against inhaling the fumes 

 which were floating about the room, and, indeed, without a 

 caution from him, I ought to have been on my guard, as I 

 very well knew these fumes to be poisonous ; but our minds 

 were so much engaged that we neglected our safety. We 

 both suffered serious inconvenience for some days in pros- 

 trated muscular power, and in debility and derangement 

 of the digestive organs. The time passed in this manner 

 with Mr. Accum was, in general, profitably spent ; some- 

 times we were engaged together a whole morning. He 

 would receive no compensation for his time, his re-agents, 

 and his services, the only instance of the kind that I met 

 with anywhere, at home or abroad, during my novitiate. 



Eventually, however, Mr. Accum received compensation 

 indirectly by the very considerable order, already named, 



which he executed for Yale College Coming to 



the laboratory one day, I found Accum laughing and in 

 high glee on account of a good bargain he had made with 

 Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister, for government. Mr. Pitt, 

 he said, had ordered a large quantity of chemical apparatus 

 for a place in my country. "Ah," I replied, " what is the 

 name of the place ? " " Pondicherry," he replied. " Pondi- 

 cherry, indeed ! That is not in my country : it is in India, 

 at our antipodes ; and, moreover, Mr. Pitt would not send 

 apparatus to my country." " But no matter," he said, " I 

 have taken this opportunity to sweep my garrets of all my 

 old apparatus and odds and ends that had been accumu- 

 lating for years, and have turned everything over to gov- 

 ernment." Well, thought I, Mr. Pitt is not here to look 

 after his apparatus, and if he were present he would 

 probably not be a very good judge ; but I am here, and 

 shall keep a sharp lookout for my own concerns. 



On my passage out from New York, I copied into my 



