90 Chemical Works. 



of some of the elementary gases have been determined, with tFie aid 

 of the most refined instruments, and with the most elaborate and scru- 

 pulous correctness. It were to be wished, indeed, that this should 

 be attempted under the auspices of some one of those learned socie- 

 ties, which have been instituted for the promotion of science ; and 

 that the investigation should be confided to a commission of its mem- 

 bers, whose skill, experience, and fidelity, would be a pledge for the 

 accuracy of the results. The precise admeasurement of an arc of 

 the meridian was not more important to astronomical truth, than the 

 exact determination of the specific gravities of the elementary gases 

 is to chemical philosophy.' 



" With the importance of the foregoing observation we concur ; 

 and should be proud if the chief philosophical institution of our Scot- 

 tish metropolis would take the lerad in putting into execution so desir- 

 able an objects 



"In the preface, the author has alluded to the deep loss which the 

 scientific world has sustained by the death of Sir Humphry Davy 

 and Dr. WoUaston, in a joint eulogium upon these two distinguished 

 philosophers, which is characterized no less by its just discrimination 

 of their respective excellencies, than by its forcible eloquence: 'It is 

 impossible,' says Dr. Henry, ' to direct our views to the future im- 

 provement of this Vv'ide field of science, without deeply lamenting the 

 privation, which we have lately sustained, of two of its most success- 

 ful cultivators. Sir Humphry Davy and Dr. WoUaston, — at a period 

 of life, too, when it seemed reasonable to have expected, from each 

 of them, a much longer continuance of his invaluable labors. To 

 those high gifts of nature, which are the characteristics of genius, 

 and which constitute its very essence, both those eminent men united 

 an unwearied industry and zeal, and research, and habits of accurate 

 reasoning, without which even the energies of genius are inadequate 

 to the achievement of great scientific designs. With these excel- 

 lencies, common to both, they were nevertheless distinguishable by 

 marked intellectual peculiarities. Bold, ardent, and enthusiastic, 

 Davy soared to greater heights ; he commanded a wider horizon ; 

 and his keen vision penetrated to its utmost boundaries. His iraa-. 

 gination, in the highest degree fertile and inventive, took a rapid and 

 extensive range in pursuit of conjectural analogies, which he submit- 

 ted to close and patient comparison with known facts, and tried by 

 an appeal to ingenious and conclusive experiments. He was imbued 

 with the spirit, and was a master in the practice, of the inductive 



