Vlll 



devoted himself in the first instance to a study of the modern delicate 

 methods of gas-analysis. Over these his great manipulative skill soon 

 gave him the complete mastery. At that time Frankland was engaged 

 n the investigation of the action of zincethyl upon boric ethylate ; and in 

 this research Duppa eagerly joined. The first results were recorded in 

 a joint paper communicated to the Eoyal Society in July 1860*. In 

 this paper, the discovery of boric ethide, boric etho-diethylate, and boric 

 etho-dihydrate was announced, and the chief properties of these bodies 

 described. The materials for this paper had scarcely been obtained, 

 when Duppa's health became so seriously impaired that he was obliged 

 to leave England and spend a couple of years in Italy and Algeria, 

 whence he returned in 1863 and rejoined Frankland, who had, in the 

 mean time, been translated to the laboratory of the Eoyal Institution. 

 Here, in the quiet of a gloomy room in the basement, the two chemists, 

 free from the wearing duties of teaching the elements of the science, 

 devoted themselves heart and soul to original research ; the inventive and 

 constructive skill of Duppa, aided by the liberality of the Managers of 

 the Institution, soon transformed this gloomy cell into a laboratory 

 which might be fairly regarded as a model of convenience for the class 

 of work carried on in it. At first the neighbours were loud in their 

 complaints of bad odours ; but it was discovered that these could be 

 obviated by securely closing the windows of the laboratory, which 

 was done. The atmosphere inside was thus rendered anything but 

 agreeable ; it was, indeed, sometimes so highly charged with vapours as 

 almost to prevent the eye from penetrating from one side of the room to 

 the other : but this was not found to be an unmitigated evil ; it effectu- 

 ally prevented those interruptions to work which are so common in 

 London ; for no non- worker could bear in the room more than a few 

 minutes, and rarely visited it a second time. One visitor nearly fainted, 

 and had to be quickly removed to fresh air to revive him. Thanks to the 

 Eoyal' Institution Eesearch Fund, and to the Government Grant admi- 

 nistered by the Eoyal Society, the means for the purchase of apparatus 

 and chemicals were never wanting. 



From this laboratory there issued in three years no less than fourteen 

 papers, of which Duppa was the joint author, descriptive of original re- 

 searches, and published in the Philosophical Transactions, the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Eoyal Society, and the Chemical Society's Journal. 



These researches related, first, to the synthetical genesis of acids of 

 the lactic, acetic, and acrylic series ; secondly, to the production of com- 

 pounds of mercury with the organic radicals methyl, ethyl, and amyl ; 

 thirdly, to the synthetical formation of ketones ; and fourthly, to the 

 transformation of organo-mercury compounds into organo-zinc com- 

 pounds. The records of these researches constitute the best testimony 

 * Proc. Koy. Soc. vol. x. p. 568. 



