136 On the Condensation of the Gases, $c. [1836. 



At that time I did not reprint the part relating to the conden- 

 sation of the gases. I find that this omission may be construed 

 into a design to withdraw the statement from publication ; I 

 have no reason, however, to alter or weaken .a word of it, and 

 so am in a manner constrained to insert it here, where indeed 

 it finds its proper place.] 



With respect to the condensation of the gases, I have long- 

 ago done justice to those to whom it was really due*, and now 

 approach the subject again with considerable reluctance ; for 

 though I feel that there is some appearance of confusion, still 

 I regret that Dr. Davy did not leave the matter as it stood. 

 All my papers on the subject in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society had passed through the hands of Sir Humphry Davy, 

 who had corrected them as he thought fit, and had presented 

 them to that body. Again, all the facts that Dr. Paris has 

 stated upon his own knowledge t are correct; he made that 

 statement as his own voluntary act and without any previous 

 communication with me, so that I think I might have been left 

 in that silence which I so much desired. 



The facts of the case, as far as I know them, are these : In 

 the spring of 1823, Mr. Brande was Professor of Chemistry, 

 Sir Humphry Davy Honorary Professor of Chemistry, and I 

 Chemical Assistant, in the Royal Institution. Having to give 

 personal attendance on both the morning and afternoon che- 

 mical lectures, my time was very fully occupied. Whenever 

 any circumstance relieved me in part from the duties of my 

 situation, I used to select a subject of research, and try my 

 skill upon it. Chlorine was with me a favourite object, and 

 having before succeeded in discovering new compounds of 

 that element with carbon, I had considered that body more 

 deeply, and resolved to resume its consideration at the first 

 opportunity : accordingly, the absence of Sir Humphry Davy 

 from town having relieved me from a part of the laboratory 

 duty, I took advantage of the leisure and the cold weather and 

 worked upon frozen chlorine, obtaining the results tfhich are 

 published in my paper in the ' Quarterly Journal of Science ' 

 for the 1st of April, 1823J. On Sir Humphry Davy's return 

 to town, which 1 think must have been about the end of 



* See page 124. f Paris's Life of Davy, pp. 390, 391, 392. 



J Vol. xv. p. 71 or page 82. 



