142 Dr. Akin's further Statements concerning 



him, of which he had given me the proof for private perusal. Prof. 

 Tyndall replied that there was nothing to talk over; and, as I 

 had again adverted to " definite arrangements/' he stated that 

 he had no present intention of prosecuting the matter which had 

 been discussed between us. Upon this I left. I had then reason 

 to expect that I should soon see Prof. Tyndall in a more private 

 manner ; and had that expectation been fulfilled, all the com- 

 plication that has since arisen would have probably been avoided. 

 However, some nine days had elapsed without my having seen 

 Prof. Tyndall, when on Saturday the 29th of October 1864, hap- 

 pening to be at the Library of the Royal Institution, I was ad- 

 dressed by Prof. Tyndall, who had come to the Library with an- 

 other person on some business of their own. On the invitation 

 of Prof. Tyndall, I followed him to the Laboratory. On my way 

 there Prof. Tyndall said to me, " I have been working on your 

 subject, and I have succeeded " — or other words similar in 

 meaning. Arrived in the Laboratory, Prof. Tyndall rendered 

 in my presence a piece of platinized platinum-foil incandescent 

 by the rays of an electric lamp, transmitted by a layer of bisul- 

 phide of carbon containing iodine in solution. This experiment 

 was far from being unexceptionable, or of demonstrative power; 

 yet it held out great hopes that the conjectures I had emitted 

 were realizable in fact, and on seeing it my sense of pleasure was 

 consequently great enough for a moment to obliterate all other 

 considerations from my mind. From this state, however, I was 

 soon after aroused, when, on leaving, Prof. Tyndall addressed 

 me in these (or similar) words : — (C We shall now make our 

 arrangements, at least you shall see what I intend to publish in 

 MS., and then you shall make your remarks upon it." 



Let the reader imagine to himself an emigrant from these 

 islands who, after a stormy voyage, has landed on the Western 

 coast of North America. Guided by geological knowledge, he 

 has sought out a remote uninhabited tract, where he has begun 

 to dig for gold. After many months of hard labour, suffering, 

 and privation, unrelieved by the sympathy of living being, and 

 as yet profitless from the imperfection of his tools, the emigrant's 

 preseverance begins to flag, when, one evening, he suddenly 

 perceives a man in the distance, who on approaching greets him 

 in a most affectionate manner. The new arrival is an American, 

 who, having heard of the enterprise of the emigrant, and having 

 great faith in the reasons which had led him to suppose that 

 particular spot to be rich in gold, had set out to join him 

 in his undertaking. The mere advantage of pleasant com- 

 panionship would have been a sufficient inducement for the 

 emigrant to accept of the proposal of joint work for mutual be- 

 nefit which the American is pressing upon him, but the fact that 



