Miscellanies. 385 



it at the very outset, neither did he when I sent the manuscripts for his 

 revision, — it passed as a portion of the joint stock when the whole was 

 laid before the Society, and he allowed it to pass through the press and 

 be published without asserting any claim. Nor am I aware that he 

 attempted to appropriate it, until M. De la Rive drew attention to its 

 importance, by endeavoring to repeat it. The want of success which 

 attended M. De la Rive's endeavors, Mr. Sturgeon attributes to my 

 faulty description, and this affords him a plausible pretext to lay his 

 own version before the American public, lest they also should fail from 

 a like cause. I would gladly know what there is in my description 

 which prevented M. De la Rive from producing the same results. Surely 

 that philosopher is not to be charged with deficiency of intellect and 

 want of skill in manipulation ; it requires very little of the former to 

 comprehend the description I have given, and no large share of the 

 latter to follow it. If you will refer to the Proceedings of the London 

 Electrical Society, (a copy of which is forwarded to you by the order 

 of the committee,) you will find on page 167, an abstract of a transla- 

 tion of M. De la Rive's experiments, and will see from that, that he 

 perfectly comprehends me, but fails on account of the battery he used. 



From this you will see that the motives assigned by Mr. Sturgeon 

 are merely imaginary, but if real, they little became him — they 

 should never have fallen from his pen, because, after the experiments 

 were finished, the notes were offered him to prepare, but he declined 

 them ; and when I, at the request of the others, undertook the task, I 

 sent the prepared manuscripts to Mr. Sturgeon, as well as to the rest, 

 for his corrections or observations, if he had any to make ; and 

 they were returned from him with some emendations, but with no re- 

 mark in connection with this experiment. Surely when he tells you 

 that on account of the lateness of the hour many of his experiments 

 were not entered into, he might have said that the battery was charged 

 three different times, at each of which he was present, and on each of 

 which there must have been opportunity. I am surprised that in a 

 joint undertaking like this, he should talk of his experiments, as distinct 

 from those of the rest, but still more so, when these were kept secret 

 from us. 



With regard to the experiment in question, it appears to have resulted, 

 like many others in all the sciences, from merely fortuitous circumstances. 

 He and Mr. Mason were amusing themselves with the wires, and observ- 

 ing the length of the arc of flame, and the phenomenon of the heated 

 electrode presented itself; but neither knew which electrode it was 

 until they had examined. And this, I think, you may gather from Mr. 

 Sturgeon's own words in Ws first letter, dated October 9, 1838, where 

 he says — " the wires were made to change poles, still the same thing 



Vol. XLii, No. 2.— Jan .-March, 1842. 4!) 



■-^ 



