JOHN MAYOW : CHEMIST AND PHYSICIAN. 323 



precursors of Lavoisier. This position he holds and is likely to 

 hold for all time. 



It is impossible within a small compass to give even an 

 outline sketch of his scientific work.* In the explanation of cal- 

 cination and combustion, no one before Lavoisier had so firm a 

 grasp of the truth as he ; he was the first to teach anything wortli 

 teaching concerning respiration. The true idea of compounds 

 and the doctrine of elective affinity are first clearly and fully 

 expressed in his works", and he was one of the first experimenters 

 on the chemistry of the gases. 



It has been charged against him, that he "embraced the 

 hypothesis of Dr. Hooke and without acknowledgment," and 

 Hallam^- adds that he " clogged it with so many absurd additions 

 of his own as greatly to obscure its lustre and diminish its 

 beauty." The charge of absurd additions is itself absurd; these 

 additions constitute Mayow's claim to greatness, a claim univer- 

 sally allowed. The charge of " appropriating without acknow- 

 ledgment " would be a more serious one, if that of dishonesty 

 which is implied in the phrase "without acknowledgment" 

 could be maintained. But it cannot, Mayow's book on the face 

 of it is a selection of the truest of the teachings of his predecessors, 

 with experiments, suggestions and developments of his own. 

 In the second paragraph* of his chief work he complains of the 

 number of writers on the subject ; the truth being overwhelmed 

 in a crowd of writings, there was no reason why he should name 

 the writers from whom he rescued it. Moreover it may be justly 



* A fair but condensed account can be found in Mr. Eodwell's " Birth of 

 Chemistry," or in the short account of the development of the science prefixed 

 to Dr. Brando's " Manual of Chemistry." In the recent edition of the Encycld. 

 Brit. (1886-87), page 461, there is a very fair and terse account of his scientific 

 position. 



11. See Whewell, " Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," (1847), Vol. I. 

 page 395. 



12. Introduction to the literature of Europe. — Hallam. 



* Non me latet quam plurimos jam extare de Nitro tractatus et vix quempiam 

 e nuperis authoribus esse, qui non aliquid de eodem scripsit. Quasi nimirum in 

 Fatis esset, ut Sal hoc admirabile non minus in Philosophia quam Bello strepitus 

 ederet ; omniaque sonitu suo impleret. Interim tamen Veritas scriptorum 

 multitudine plane obrui videtur ; et nitrum etiamnum in tenebris latet. — De Sal 

 Nitro et Spiritu, Nitro Aereo. 



