78 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



confine myself to those precise particulars to which his expressions 

 regarding myself are directed. 



And first, as regards the conversation between Dr. Wollaston and 

 the President. In a paper in my own hand-writing, which I can, 

 satisfactorily to myself, identify as having been written either on the 

 24th or 25th November, 1826, certainly not later, I find it written: 



" The President was distinctly asked by Dr. Wollaston whether he 

 intended to use the privilege, by courtesy accorded to him, of naming 

 the Secretary, to which no one would object, or fairly to throw it 

 open to the Council. His answer to the former part of the alterna- 

 tive was susceptible of any sense that one might choose to put upon 

 it ; to the latter, it was both in Dr. Wollaston's opinion and my 

 own a negative." 



Secondly, as to the question whether the President did or did not 

 promise me that Mr. Babbage should be my colleague. He assuredly 

 never did make to "me that specific promise, nor, so far as I know, to 

 anyone else. What he did promise me (not me only, but others) 

 with regard to Mr. Babbage's pretensions, was that the question of 

 the succession to the Secretaryship, as between him and his com- 

 petitor, should be referred to the Council; by which I all along 

 understood (as I suppose anyone would) that the relative claims of 

 the candidates on every ground should be fairly taken into conside- 

 ration at one of its regular morning meetings, and come to be decided 

 on as a matter of free election. Under such circumstances I felt 

 quite confident of Mr. Babbage's success and justified in assuring 

 him that I did so. 



In conclusion, it is with the utmost reluctance that I have written 

 the above in connexion with the name of one for whose distinguished 

 talents and services to science I yield to none in admiration, and I 

 entirely appretiate Dr. Davy's motives in writing the letter which 

 has given occasion to this from, 



Gentlemen, 



Your obedient Servant, 



J. F. W. Herschel. 



P.S. — The above was written on the date it bears. On considera- 

 tion, however, I concluded that it would be wrong for me to appear 

 in the matter unless called on by both parties. This is so far now 

 the case that I have received a letter from Mr. Babbage, requesting 

 me to allow him to publish certain extracts from a letter of mine 

 bearing reference to the " promise " or " understanding " above 

 spoken of. 



Collingwood, Dec. 20, 1864. 



ON THE DISCRIMINATION OF COMPOUNDS OF SESQUIOXIDE OF 

 MANGANESE AND OF PERMANGANIC ACID. BY HOPPE-SEYLER. 



The author has discovered in the spectroscope a method of dis- 

 tinguishing the solutions of permanganates from the sesquisalts of 

 manganese, the latter of which have often a similar coloration to the 

 former. 



H. Rose, who first described the preparation and properties of 



