1 10 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. III. 



facture a convenient arrangement of tubes for distilling, and at 

 last we succeeded in erecting a most beautiful and simple appa- 

 ratus, which completely effected its purpose, and saved us all 

 trouble in tending it. You would be greatly amused did I tell 

 you some of the little incidents which take place in the labora- 

 tory ; they are rather of too flimsy a kind for grave insertion in 

 a letter, however well fitted for telling you while chatting to- 

 gether ; but as this will only cost you the breaking of the seal, 

 I may venture to tell you one. While rummaging one day over 

 one of the dark cellars which are appendaged to the class-room, 

 we stumbled on a great, large, thin, glass vessel in a hamper, 

 generally used for holding sulphuric acid, and known to mer- 

 chants by the title of a carboy. It was at once agreed on by 

 the triumvirate, composed of Eob. Christison, Geo. Wilson, and 

 Mariano Martin de Bartolome, that the said vessel would make 

 a most excellent recipient for the distilled water we were en- 

 gaged in preparing. We soon succeeded in dragging it from its 

 obscurity ' into life, and light, and fame,' and in doing so dis- 

 covered that it contained a large quantity of some liquid. 

 Christison out with the bung and down with his nose al- 

 most to the bottom, and slowly pulled it out with a most merry, 

 gleesome look, as he sung out, ' Smell that, Mr. Bartolome, and 

 you too, Mr. Wilson.' As soon as we had inserted our probosces 

 as far down as we could (I half wish that I had your nose, but 

 no matter), he declared it was the mother liquor of opium ; in 

 other words, the infusion of opium, from which the morphia 

 alone had been removed, and which contained all the other pure 

 and crystallizable principles. Here was a prize, a very useful 

 bottle, and a valuable liquid. All the basins and platters were 

 immediately in requisition to contain the nectar ; and Barto- 

 lome and I set about devising a plan of cleaning the bottle, 

 which -was encrusted with the thick resinous matter. Alas, 

 alack-a-day ! man is born to disappointment ; the fragrant 

 liquid, after boiling for three days, and almost suffocating us 

 with its extraordinary odour, ended in smoke, affording us no- 

 thing but an abominable tarry stuff, which has spoiled all our 

 niters, towels, etc. ; and for the bottle, woe is me ! ' Frailty/ as I 

 had occasion to write to Miss L in the letter I told you of, 



