116 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. 



shine, was proved somewhat later. For these brilliant 

 discoveries, the Royal Society elected Priestley a fellow 

 and gave him their medal, while the Academies of Paris 

 and St. Petersburg conferred their membership upon 

 him. Edinburgh had made him an honorary doctor of 

 laws at an early period of his career ; but, I need 

 hardly add, that a man of Priestley's opinions received 

 no recognition from the universities of his own country. 



That Priestley's contributions to the knowledge of 

 chemical fact were of the greatest importance, and that 

 they richly deserve all the praise that has been awarded 

 to them, is unquestionable; but it must, at the same 

 time, be admitted that he had no comprehension of the 

 deeper significance of his work ; and, so far from con- 

 tributing anything to the theory of the facts which he 

 discovered, or assisting in their rational explanation, his 

 influence to the end of his life was warmly exerted in 

 favour of error. From first to last, he was a stiff ad- 

 herent of the phlogiston doctrine which was prevalent 

 when his studies commenced ; and, by a curious irony 

 of fate, the man who by the discovery of what he called 

 " dephlogisticated air " furnished the essential datum for 

 the true theory of combustion, of respiration, and of the 

 composition of water, to the end of his days fought 

 against the inevitable corollaries from his own labours. 

 His last scientific work, published in 1800, bears the 

 title, " The Doctrine of Phlogiston established, and that 

 of the Composition of Water refuted." 



"When Priestley commenced his studies, the current 



