THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
30 
ton, Black, and Watt performed wonders 
by very simple means ; but it took a New- 
ton, a Black and a Watt to do it. The 
truth is, that, when we get beyond the 
first elementary experiments, we cannot 
rely upon any but the most perfectly con- 
structed instruments. Modern chemical 
analysis demands the use of balances, 
weights, and measures that cannot be ex- 
temporized even by ingenious mechanics ; 
tlie spectroscope, the microscope, and the 
telescope of modern times are so perfect 
and have been so generally applied, that 
a person working with such a telescope as 
that with which Galileo discovered the 
moons of Jupiter, would stand but a poor 
chance of gleaning anything worth notice. 
The journals devoted to popular scientific 
articles are full of articles telling how 
this, that, and the other great man ac- 
complished wonders with very simple 
tools. Thus, there is an anecdote told of 
the famous Dr. Wollaston, to the effect 
that a foreign savant having called upon 
him and expressed a desire to see his 
laboratory, in which science had been 
enriched by so many important discov- 
eries, the doctor took him into a little 
studio, and, pointing to an old tea-tray on 
the table, containing a few watch-glasses, 
test-papers, a small balance, and a blow- 
pipe, said, " There is all the laboratory I 
have." It is not at all improbable that 
the story is true; but, at the same time, 
we know well enough that Wollaston 's 
laboratories were not only extensive, but 
filled with large and costly apparatus. 
His antipathy to display, and his love of 
privacy, no doubt led him to use the above 
subterfuge in order to avoid the rudeness 
of a positive refusal. 
As an offset to this story, we may be 
allowed to relate two other anecdotes, 
both quite as well authenticated as the 
one we have just related. During his in- 
vestigations into the properties of plati- 
num, he tried furnace after furnace, in the 
hope of finding one that would produce 
veritable fusion in the metal. To such an 
extent did these and kindred pieces of 
apparatus accumulate, that the room in 
which the work was done soon became 
literally filled, and the few visitors that 
were admitted had to thread a very in- 
tricate path which meandered between 
the huge piles standing on either side. 
The story runs, that one gentleman, hav- i 
ing laid down his hat in one of the by- 
paths leading from the main avenue, was 
never afterwards able to find his way back 
to it, and so lost it. : 
The second story is as follows : A gentle- 
man, having on one occasion failed to 
make himself heard by knocking in the 
outer vestibule, boldly entered the sane- f 
tum, where wonder after wonder met his • 
eye. One furnace in particular attracted [ 
his attention ; and, while he was earnestly | 
gazing at it, Wollaston approached. The 
philosopher was in a towering passion at }■ 
having his privacy so rudely broken in i 
upon; so, tapping the intruder upon the 
shoulder, he asked him if he had taken a | 
good look at the furnace upon which his |j 
attention was riveted; "For," said Wol- [ 
laston, " it is the last look you shall ever I 
take at it," and he unceremoniously | 
turned him out of doors. The truth is, f 
that many of Wollaston 's researches were | 
entirely beyond the reach of such a labor- 
atory as could be placed on a tea-tray; ; 
and we strongly suspect that the story ! 
first related had its origin in the fact that I 
Wollaston was very fond of working upon 
minute quantities. In Davy's " Chemical 1 
Philosophy " will be found engravings of I 
a set of microscopic apparatus, much of 
which was devised by T^ollaston, and very | 
successfully used by him. Faraday, in j 
his "Chemical Manipulation," gives us ij 
the following anecdote illustrative of this : 
There existed in the British Museum a 
small fragment of a black stone, the 
source and history of which were un- 
known. It was unique— no other speci- | 
men being known to exist— and Mr. i 
Hatchett, working with a quantity which : 
weighed not more than two hundred 
grains, was enabled to prove the existence i 
of a new metal, which he named Colum- I 
bium. Ekeberg afterwards discovered 
what he supposed to be a new metal, 
which he named Tantalium ; but Dr. Wol- 
laston, having examined it and compared 
it with Hatchett's account of Columbium^ 
suspected the identity of the two, and was 
able to prove this identity though he had 
not more than five grains of the stone 
