T. S. Hunt—Celestial Chemistry. 125 
matter was much higher than it is now, and that these other 
things [the ideal elements] existed in the state of perfect gases— 
Separate existences—uncombined.” He further suggested, from 
Spectroscopic evidence, that it is probable that ‘‘we may one 
ay, from this source have revealed to us independent evidence 
”? 
it is that I have made no reference to Sir Benjamin Brodie on 
the several occasions on which, in the interval between 1867 
and myself, was one to which we were both naturally, one 
might say inevitably, led by different paths from our respective 
fields of speculation, and which each might accept as in the 
highest degree probable, and make, as it were, his own. 
I write, therefore, in no spirit of invidious rivalry with my hon- 
cred and lamented friend, but simply to clear myself from the 
charge, which might otherwise be brought against me, o: 
* Nature, August 25, 1881, vol. xxiv, p. 396. 
+ Ideal Chemistry, a Lecture, Macmillan, 1880. 
