100 The Compound Blowpipe. 



pushed farther than his own, and a good many new results 

 added. 



It is therefore with no small surprise that, in the Annales 

 de Chimie et de Physique, for September, 1816, I found a 

 translation of a very elaborate memoir, from a Scientific 

 Journal, published at the Royal Institution in London, in 

 which a full account is given of a very interesting series of 

 experiments performed by means of Mr. Hare's instrument ; 

 or rather one somewhat differently arranged, but depending 

 on the same principle. Mr. Hare's invention is slightly men- 

 tioned in a note, but no mention is made of his experiments, or 

 of mine. 



On a comparison of the memoir in question with Mr. Hare's 

 and with my own, I find that very many of the results are iden- 

 tical, and all the new ones are derived directly from Mr. Hare's 

 invention, with the following differences. — In Mr. Hare's, the 

 two gases were in distinct reservoirs, to prevent explosion ; 

 they were propelled by the pressure of a column of water, 

 and were made to mingle, just before their exit, at a common 

 orifice. In the English apparatus, the gases are both in one 

 reservoir, and they are propelled by their own elasticity, after 

 condensation, by a syringe. 



Professor Clarke, of Cambridge University, the celebrated 

 traveller, is the author of the memoir in question ; and we 

 must presume that he was ignorant of what had been done by 

 Mr. Hare and myself, or he would candidly have adverted to 

 the facts. 



It is proper that the public should know that Mr. Hare was 

 the author of the invention, by means of which, in Europe, 

 they are now performing the most brilliant and beautiful 

 experiments ; and that there are very few of these results 

 hitherto obtained there, by the use of it, (and the publication 

 of which has there excited great interest,) which were not, 

 several years ago, anticipated here, either by Mr. Hare or 

 by myself. 



As I have cited only printed documents, or the testimony 

 of living witnesses, I trust the public will not consider this 

 communication a« indelicate, or arrogant, but simply a mat- 



