174 Prof. Oliver Lodge on the Seat of the 
Believing firmly in the existence of films of condensed gas 
at the surface of a solid, which films require time for their 
formation or removal, he deems it sufficient to soak one of 
the plates of his condenser in the gas to be examined, and 
then to take it out and measure the difference of potential 
between it and the other plate coated only with a film of air. 
Tried thus, ozone rendered gold, platinum, and brass negative 
as against the corresponding air-covered plate. Hydrogen 
rendered its platinum strongly positive ; but its influence on 
gold was slight, and on brass uncertain. Chlorine and 
bromine made platinum negative, and ammonia made brass 
positive. 
It may be readily objected that what the soaking with gas 
accomplished was not the formation of a film of gas, but a 
film of actual chloride, oxide, or other combination. Against 
this is to be urged the fact that after removal from the gas 
the effect diminished with time, and the plates gradually re- 
turned to nearly their former state. He tried if he could 
remove the gas film from one of the plates by exhaustion 
under an air-pump, and the plate so treated exhibited a dif- 
ference when taken out and compared with an ordinary plate; 
but he was cautious enough to repeat the experiment, leaving — 
the plate under the bell-jar for the same time and not ex- 
hausting. The same difference appeared, so he attributes it 
to possible grease. 
This is the right sort of way to make experiments ; and if 
everybody experimented with proper care there would be 
vastly fewer papers published, and science would progress on 
the whole faster. 
At present it feels to me overladen with a mass of publi- 
cation, mostly of necessity by men of not absolutely the first 
order, much of it with no sort of clearness or insight, but 
rough, crude, and ill-digested. A man makes a number of 
experiments ; he does not stop to critically examine and weigh 
them, and deduce from them their meaning, nor indeed does 
he often take the trouble to examine whether any definite 
meaning can in their then shape be drawn from them ; but 
he rushes with them into print, producing a memoir of weari- 
some length and sometimes extreme illiterateness of style. 
Some one else then has the trouble of wading through the 
heap to see whether any fragments of value may perchance 
be imbedded in it, and probably he is unable to come to 
much definite conclusion, because he cannot be in so good a 
position for criticism of the experiments as the original author 
was. He therefore writes a paper pointing out defects and 
errors in the communication. Others take up the same line, 
