134 JOULE'S HISTORIC SKETCH. 



would have been recognised ; how Joule discovered it is 

 not clear ; it can only have become known to him about the 

 time he was writing. Neither is it likely that a recollection of 

 the views and experiments of Rumford and Davy, which 

 was quite lost sight of at the time, would have immediately 

 revived had it not been for Joule's sketch. 



It was, no doubt, this sketch that furnished the means by 

 which an attempt was made to diminish the growing import- 

 ance that was being attached to Joule's work in its effect 

 on the revolution in philosophic thought, by setting up the 

 work of Mayer, in particular, as diminishing the lustre 

 of that of Joule. Although, in the controversy which this 

 attempt succeeded in raising, in their warmth, some of 

 Joule's supporters somewhat minimised the credit due to 

 Mayer, Joule himself took no part in this, but always 

 insisted on giving Mayer and others full credit for what they 

 had done, declaring himself more than satisfied with the 

 share which he received. 



