228 Prof. Tyndall on the History of Calorescence. 



of the inquiry. On the following Monday, however, I received 

 a letter from this gentleman which entirely changed the aspect 

 of affairs, and in which he informed me that, on thinking over 

 the experiment I had showed him, his mind had become greatly 

 agitated. He referred to our interview in April, and to what 

 he asserted had occurred between us since. Like his last article 

 in this Journal, that letter consisted of a single broken fibre of 

 truth in a tissue of error. I then went through the assertions 

 of Dr. Akin one by one, pointed out where they were exag- 

 gerated, where he had unduly intensified language, and where 

 his statements were, as I believed, at direct variance with facts. 

 His last paper furnishes some illustration of the intensification 

 of language which I then sought to correct. In my reply to 

 his intimation that I had appropriated his ideas, I stated that 

 " my work would have been far more completely done by this 

 time had he never existed." Dr. Akin's version of this state- 

 ment of a fact is this : — " Professor Tyndall, who is charitable 

 enough to express an implied wish for my non-existence, will no 

 doubt be gratified to learn that the experience I have met with 

 at his hands has acted upon me in the manner he would seem 

 to desire." 



It was sufficiently evident from Dr. Akin's correspondence that 

 he was very much disappointed. He had been " greatly depressed 

 and discouraged in mind " at Newcastle. " An indelible mark 

 of pain " had been left upon his memory by the treatment he 

 received at Oxford; and now his misfortunes culminated on find- 

 ing, in London, the goal at which he aimed attained by another. 

 Still that other, though sorely irritated, was less anxious to avail 

 himself of his success than to show Dr. Akin "how lightly he 

 valued the whole matter when a question of good faith came into 

 play." The letter which contained my corrections of Dr. x\khVs 

 misapprehensions concluded thus : — 



" And now for a few concluding words : — I cannot help express- 

 ing my deep regret that you did not write to me in a different 

 manner. I should have gone almost any length to gratify you, had 

 you adopted another tone ; and I shall prove my sincerity in writing 

 thus, by doing that which still remains in my power to do. I have 

 to say, then, that from this 3rd of November 1864 to the 3rd of 

 November 1865 I shall not make known, publicly or privately, any 

 experiments on ' ray-transmutation. 5 Nearly seven months ago I was, 

 as you know, ready to take this subject up. Out of deference to you 

 I did not do so ; so that at the termination of the period referred to I 

 shall have held back for nearly nineteen months. That you will be 

 able to release me long before, by the actual performance of this 

 experiment, is almost beyond a doubt ; and in this event I hope 

 to muster sufficient greatness of heart not to envy you." 



