EXCITING PREJUDICES. 5 



could be converted into another element. Dr. 

 Gull, like many more who have committed 

 themselves to force views, does not appear to 

 see that my argument is not in any way opposed 

 to facts or to established truths of physics. 



Such suggestions as those above referred to 

 seem to me objectionable, if not unjust. They 

 are calculated to make people think that the 

 conclusions I have arrived at are absurd and 

 unreasonable. They may even prejudice people 

 very unfairly against my views. If, indeed, this 

 is not the object of the statements, the reason for 

 introducing such remarks is by no means clear. 

 To attempt to excite prejudice in a reader's 

 mind against the conclusions of an opponent, 

 instead of attacking his facts and arguments, is 

 almost an admission of weakness. It is indeed 

 significant, if, as seems to be the case at this 

 time in England, an investigator cannot be 

 permitted to remark that facts which he has 

 demonstrated, and phenomena which he has 

 observed, render it impossible for him to assent 

 at present to the dogma that life is a mode of 

 ordinary force, without being held up, by some 

 who entertain opinions at variance with his 

 own, as a person who desires to stop or 



