222 Prof. Tyndall on the History of Calorescence. 



very differently towards him. Had he urged " the authority of 

 the British Association/' I should have informed him that I could 

 not recognize its authority in such a matter. At the same time 

 I should have known that the eminent leaders of that body 

 would never countenance Dr. Akin in the attempt to shut me 

 out of a field of inquiry which I had virtually entered before him, 

 and which consideration for him as a stranger had alone caused 

 me to relinquish. To render this assurance doubly sure, I wrote 

 to General Sabine, who knows more about the constitution of the 

 British Association than any other living man, and who, with the 

 kindness which I have always experienced at his hands, promptly 

 wrote to me the following reply : — 



!' Dear Tyndall, — Viewing your inquiry simply as an admini- 

 strative question, Dr. Akin's Report on the Transmutation of Spec- 

 tral Rays in the British Association Reports for 1863 indicated a 

 very wide field of experimental researches. In aid of these the 

 General Committee made a grant of £45 to Mr. Griffith and himself. 

 A part of this grant was expended in apparatus to be employed by 

 those gentlemen in the spring or early summer of 1864, the results 

 of which were designed by Dr. Akin to be presented by himself to 

 the Meeting of the British Association at Bath in the September of 

 that year. For this purpose Dr. Akin went to Oxford to join Mr. 

 Griffith, but from some unexplained cause their purpose was frus- 

 trated, and 1864 passed without the experiments being made. The 

 grant, however, did not lapse, as part of it had been expended 

 in apparatus, which it appears to be still Dr. Akin's intention to 

 employ (though not at Oxford where there is sunshine, or in Lon- 

 don where there is no sunshine suitable for the purpose). Such, so 

 far as I can collect them, is a statement of the facts. 



" The object of the British Association in making such grants is 

 to aid the progress of science, by enabling those, who may be so dis- 

 posed, to make experiments, but by no means to retard its progress 

 by discouraging others from approaching the same ground. One 

 cannot read, I think, Dr. Akin's Report in 1 863 without the impression 

 that there is work enough in the subject for a dozen at least of active 

 experimenters. He may have had an advantage (and properly used it 

 is a great one) in meditating longer than others on the laurels that 

 may be gathered, but he who desires to be foremost in the field must 

 be 'prompt in action' where there are so many competitors. 



" Always truly yours, 



"Edward Sabine." 



I also wrote to Sir William Armstrong on the same subject. 

 As President of the British Association at Newcastle, Sir William 

 Armstrong does not think himself entitled now to speak, but as 

 a private individual he states that the British Association " could 

 not, even if they proposed anything so foolish, confer upon 

 Dr. Akin any exclusive privileges in the matter/' 



