the History of Calcescence. 141 



showed me the proof of the paper since published in the Philo- 

 sophical Magazine for November 1864, and he invited me to read 

 the paper in his presence, while he was perusing his letters. On 

 reading the very first sentences of the proof, I was somewhat 

 displeased by the marked manner in which Prof. Tyndall alluded 

 in them to the " difference" between his reasonings and my own 

 on the subject of lime-light. I was still more startled to learn 

 that, whilst a fortnight ago I had been informed by Prof. 

 Tyndall that he was occupied with different matters, he should in 

 the meanwhile have attacked a research intimately related to that 

 which had formed the subject of our agreement. I might have 

 expected that, in the experiments on the spectrum of the oxy- 

 hydrogen-flame, concerning which I was the first to enunciate 

 the views which those experiments were intended to test, Prof. 

 Tyndall might have invited me to join him, or, at least, to be pre- 

 sent while they were making — the more so as I was then in town, 

 and daily in the Library of the Uoyal Institution. However, my 

 astonishment increased when I came to the passage in which 

 Prof. Tyndall expressed his resolution not tc to publish anything 

 relating to the subject" of " the production of incandescence" by 

 invisible Herschellic rays till the " arrangements devised by me 

 had had a sufficient trial." Considering the agreement that 

 had subsisted all along between us, this statement of Prof. 

 Tyndall was rather puzzling to me. Moreover, abstracting 

 altogether from that agreement, I saw objections in the use of the 

 term (l to publish." An unwary reader might assume that Prof. 

 Tyndall, when writing the sentence above mentioned, had already 

 accomplished what I was searching after, but from generosity 

 towards myself would not publish his results. I, who knew 

 better, and other readers, on the other hand, were obliged to 

 assume that Prof. Tyndall intended to work out the subject 

 privately, and to defer the publication of his results till the 

 period referred to. A proceeding of this kind I considered an 

 unusual one among men of science, and one fair neither to my- 

 self nor to Prof. Tyndall ; as it is scarcely possible, or perhaps 

 jit, to keep scientific results secret which are arrived at at a public 

 place like the Royal Institution. An observer of physiognomy 

 would have noticed that the impression which the reading 

 of the passages adverted to had made on me was far from 

 favourable. However, I was not prepared to make any imme- 

 diate remarks, and I consequently merely stated to Prof. Tyndall 

 that, regarding the <c arrangements " referred to by him in his 

 paper (meaning the experiments on sunlight begun at Oxford), 

 it was unlikely that I should proceed with them for the future. 

 I further inquired of Prof. Tyndall what day he might be at 

 leisure, when I should be ready to { - talk over " his paper with 



