LAVOISIER. 255 



was prevailed upon to repeat the experiment himself, he 

 found some difficulty in believing that nearly the whole 

 of the two airs could be converted into water."* 



This passage is in Mr. Cavendish's paper ; but it is not 

 in his own hand-writing, nor is it in the paper as at first 

 printed; it is added in the hand- writing of Sir 0. Blagden, 

 and is therefore that gentleman's assertion of what had 

 passed at Paris the summer before. M. Lavoisier states 

 that it was in June Sir 0. Blagden saw him ; and also 

 states that he was present when the experiment on which 

 the French claim to the discovery rests, was performed by 

 Messrs. Lavoisier and Laplace before several Academi- 

 cians on the 24th of June. He adds the material fact, 

 that Sir Charles informed the company of Mr. Cavendish's 

 having already performed the experiment, and obtained 

 a considerable quantity of water from the combustion of 

 the two gases. He wholly omits the still more material 

 fact, that Sir Charles also stated the conclusion drawn from 

 the experiment in England ; and he does not mention that 

 he, M. Lavoisier, did not believe it possible that nearly 

 the whole of the two airs could be converted into water. 

 This omission of M. Lavoisier is quite unworthy of him. 

 Sir C. Blagden's statement was published in 1784 in the 

 6 Philosophical Transactions;' and though M. Lavoisier 

 constantly wrote papers which were published by the 

 Academy for several years after this statement of Sir 

 Charles in Mr. Cavendish's paper, and though his Memoirs 

 repeatedly touched upon the composition of water, and in 

 one of them he gave it as a truth established by himself, 



* In a letter of Blagden's, published in 'Crell's Annals/ in 1786, 

 he states having mentioned to Lavoisier also Mr. Watt's conclusions, 

 which he there admits had been made "about the same time" as 

 Cavendish's. Vol. I. for 1786. 



