124 APPENDIX. 



other, when afforded by the triangular prism, white light 

 intervening. 



I always felt strong suspicion of the want of originality in 

 the viOLET-coloured ray, and yet as I could not at the time get 

 rid of it, without injustice, from the defined position it seemed 

 to retain, and confirmed as it then stood, by opinions of such 

 high authority, I was obliged to let CARBON stand as the only 

 solid element in existence, while I freely consigned to the list 

 of compounds, all the metals, from the analogous and collateral 

 proofs I then possessed, of their want of originality of 

 constitution. * 



My first calculations were made on TERRESTRIAL LIGHT, in 

 which carburetted hydrogen, oxygen, and azote, were used, in 

 the proportions stated in the analysis, in page 2 of the Pros- 

 pectus. I have thought it better to give the original Prospectus 

 with ALL ITS ERRORS, as it was printed and circulated, MY 

 CORRECTED VIEWS AND OPINIONS being sufficiently declared 

 in the Theory I have now presented. 



Years had rolled on, and actively engaged in pursuits 

 requiring the application of nearly the entire of my time, I 

 continued to occasionally taste the enjoyments of Science, 

 always rejoiced at her advance, but to devote no labour 

 to the furtherance of my hypothesis, until by accident, about 

 two years since, happily meeting with Mr. Field, I was, 

 for the first time, struck with his prismatic lens, and its 

 effects in establishing the reduction of the original prismatic 

 rays, to THREE, with which the learned President of the 

 Section of Physics and Mathematics, of the British Asso- 

 ciation, Sir David Brewster's discoveries, perfectly accorded. 

 I was consequently enabled to do, consistently with my 

 opinions, what I had long desired, to DISMISS CARBON from 

 a position of constituency in CELESTIAL light ; and convinced 

 that as it was not THERE TO BE FOUND, and that the perfect 

 imitation of Celestial Light was to be effected experimentally, 

 by the ignition of the three original gases, Oxygen ; Nitrogen, 



