Prof. Tyndall on the History of Calorescence. 229 



Dr. Akin has the assurance to upbraid me with having, in the 

 face of this promise, seized the first opportunity to publish my 

 results. My promise was given in order to enable him to 

 perform honest work, and not to indulge in aggression. 



I halted that he might move on. The arrangement left open 

 to him another summer, during which he might renew the in- 

 vestigation that had broken down at Oxford, with the assurance, 

 moreover, that the object at which he aimed was no longer a 

 doubtful one. Not satisfied with this arrangement, he continued 

 to complain, and I was at length obliged to end a profitless and 

 apparently interminable correspondence with these words : — " I 

 have now only to add, that when you have so far overcome the 

 agitation of mind to which you so frequently refer, as to be able 

 to look at this question with the eyes and mind of a philosopher, 

 I shall be happy to communicate with you. But no possible good 

 can arise from a continuance of this correspondence. Hence, as 

 far as I am concerned, it is for the present at an end." 



Dr. Akin then wrote to me his fifth letter, and ended it by the 

 statement that, although he could scarcely allow himself to 

 hope much for the future, he wished, nevertheless, to say that 

 whenever I should be pleased again to communicate with him he 

 would be happy to hear from me. This letter was dated from 

 Harley Street, November 9, 1864. 



For nearly three weeks I heard nothing from or of Dr. Akin, 

 but he meanwhile was not idle. Silently, and without a word 

 of warning to me, he concocted his "Note on Ray-transmutation " 

 for the December Number of the Philosophical Magazine. After 

 the completion of that article, and twenty-four hours previous to 

 its publication, he wrote to me commencing his letter with "Dear 

 Sir," and ending it with " Believe me yours very faithfully." On 

 the very day of its publication he sent me a second note with some- 

 what similar termini) but neither of them breathed a whisper of his 

 attack. During my correspondence with Dr. Akin I availed 

 myself from time to time of the wisest advice within my reach ; 

 and the verdict of my advisers was now prompt and emphatic. 

 Prom the legal, the scientific, and the general world, I heard the 

 unanimous opinion that Dr. Akin's act of war cancelled every 

 treaty subsisting between us, and rendered the act of publication 

 a duty to science as well as to myself. 



To sum up : — 



1. Dr. Akin affirms that I have interfered with an investiga- 

 tion which he had originated and to which he had secured an 

 exclusive right. 



I assert, on the contrary, that my inquiries have been the di- 

 rect result of labours commenced before Dr. Akin was heard of 

 in this or any other field of scientific inquiry ; and that even if 



