Prof. Tyndall on the History of Calor -escence. 223 



It was in answer to the express desire of Dr. Akin to see me 

 that I informed him at the end of my note from Chale that I 

 should be in town on the following Saturday. He came. I have 

 since ransacked my memory for the details of our interview ; and 

 though I cannot recall the whole of them, the essential ones are 

 perfectly clear to me, while the result is as vivid to my mind as 

 the occurrence of yesterday. Without waiting to obtain the 

 knowledge of Dr. Akin's character that ten minutes' conversa- 

 tion might have given, I remarked that although he and I had 

 reached the same point by independent routes, he was the first 

 to publish definitely his ideas, and that, therefore, I would not 

 interfere with him. I stated that although my plans were pre- 

 pared, I was perfectly willing to suspend them. Dr. Akin's 

 reply was that he was delighted to find the subject taken up, 

 and was only anxious to see it prosecuted to a successful issue. 

 Of these words I have the most distinct recollection. I did not 

 know at the time that the note written to him on the previous 

 Wednesday had excited his " astonishment -' ; nor did I know 

 that he had come, as he has since informed me, expecting that I 

 would make him an offer that we should work together; but 

 pleased by his apparent frankness, on the spur of the moment I 

 used these words : — " We might perhaps attack it together." 

 I use the phrase "spur of the moment" because it strictly 

 represents the fact, but they who know me best will be the last 

 to believe me capable of retreating from a position assumed even 

 on the spur of the moment. And had Dr. Akin agreed to my 

 proposal, no matter what consequent penalties it might have 

 involved — and they, I doubt not, would have been great — I 

 should have carried it out to the letter. But he did not agree 

 to my proposition. He said that he had associated himself with 

 Mr. Griffith at Oxford, and that he was compelled to fulfil his 

 engagement with that gentleman. 



Let me here remark that neither Dr. Akin nor myself pro- 

 fesses to remember the whole of what occurred during this inter- 

 view ; and when he spoke of his being bound to Mr. Griffith, 

 some conversation followed, the precise terms of which I do not 

 recollect ; but it drew from Dr. Akin a proposition, which I 

 do remember perfectly well. 1 will allow him to supply what I 

 have here forgotten. In a letter written to me more than three 

 months ago, he affirms that when he declared himself bound to 

 Mr. Griffith at Oxford, I rejoined : — " Can we not make it a triple 

 alliance 1" His reply was, " No, leave us the sun at Oxford, but 

 as regards experiments on artificial rays, I shall be happy to co- 

 operate with you separately ." Of the words " triple alliance w I 

 have no recollection, but they are so like what I should use under 

 the circumstances, that I do not doubt the correctness of Dr. 



