Mr. W. Crookes on the Discovery of the Metal Thallium, 57 



With this view I communicated with Dr. Wm. Allen Miller*, 

 and, acting on his recommendation, sent in to the Royal Society a 

 statement of my results, under the title u Preliminary Researches 

 on Thallium." This paper was read on the 19th of June, 1862. 



On the 23rd of June a paper was read at the Academie des 

 Sciences by M. Lamy, " On the Existence of a New Metal, 

 Thallium," in which he stated that three months previously he 



* " 20 Mornington Road, N.W., 



June 12, 1862. 



" Dear Sir, — I called upon you yesterday, but was unfortunate enough 

 to find you away. My object was to ask your advice about 'thallium.' I 

 have been hard at work on the subject for six or eight months past, and 

 have found out a great deal about it, and, indeed, have a ' Preliminary 

 Note on Thallium ' nearly finished, which I was going to send to the Royal 

 Society in a week or so. Not suspecting that anyone else was working on 

 the same subject, I purposely avoided publishing any of my recent results, 

 in the hope of giving the Royal Society paper more importance ; and for 

 the same reason I have not spoken much about them. I can, however, 

 prove by witnesses that I obtained thallium in the pure metallic state as 

 early as January in this year, and several other salts of it soon after. I was 

 therefore much astonished to find, on Monday last, that M. Lamy had 

 been working on the same subject; and from the much larger quantity of 

 material at his disposal, I am pretty certain that in his memoir recently 

 sent to the Society at Lille, he has anticipated most, if not all, of my results, 

 and most likely has gone much further than I have. I therefore wish to ask 

 you, both as a friend as well as in your official connexion with the Royal 

 Society, what I had better do under these circumstances. Shall I still send 

 in my imperfect note with the knowledge that a more perfect paper on the 

 same subject has already been communicated to another Society, or shall I 

 withhold my present paper until M. Lamy's is published, and then see if I 

 can supply any fact which he may not have found out ? I have worked 

 long and hard on this subject, and cannot help feeling annoyed at the 

 prospect of losing the greater part of the credit of the discovery. 



" Pray excuse my thus troubling you, and believe me 



" Very truly yours, 



"Dr. W. A. Miller, F.R.S. "William Crookes." 



Sfc. #c. #c." 



" King's College, 

 Friday, June 13, 1862. 



" My dear Sir, — Send in your note on thallium to' the Royal Society 

 at once by all means. Though much pleased to see a lump of thallium, I 

 must own I was not a little disappointed to find you had been so far fore- 

 stalled ; but your exhibits at Kensington have quite established your priority 

 even in securing a tangible quantity. You must, however, send in your note 

 before Thursday next, which is the last day of meeting. It will only be 

 announced, I dare sa3^ but will no doubt appear at full in the ' Proceed- 

 ings/ I think you had better head it ' Note for the Proceedings.' It 

 will not prevent you from giving a full paper if afterwards it should seem 

 desirable. A foot-note stating why you are thus induced to publish might 

 be desirable. 



" Very truly yours, 



" W. Croolces, Esq." "Wm. Allen Miller." 



