Mr. Hum fries's Account , &c. 427 
the cloth was found in a very strong degree of heat, and 
partly reduced to tinder, and the wood of the box discoloured, 
as from burning. After a most minute examination, no appear- 
ance of any other inflammable substance could be found, and 
how the cloth could have been reduced to the condition in which 
it was found, no one could even conjecture. The idea which 
occurred, and which made Mr. Golding so uneasy, was that 
of an attempt to burn the arsenal. Thus matters were when 
I joined him, and when he told me the story and shewed me 
the remainder of the cloth. It luckily happened that in some 
chemical amusements, I had occasion to consult Hopson's book 
a very few days before, and met with this particular passage, 
which I read with a determination to pursue the experiment 
at some future period, but had neglected to do so. The mo- 
ment I saw the cloth, the similarity of circumstances struck me 
so forcibly, that I sent for the book and shewed it to Mr. 
Golding, who agreed with me that it appeared sufficient to 
account for the accident. However, to convince ourselves, we 
took a piece of the same kind of cloth, wetted it with linseed 
oil, and put it into a box, which was locked and carried to his 
quarters. In about three hours the box began to smoke, when 
on opening it, the cloth was found exactly in the same condi- 
tion as that which had given us so much uneasiness in the 
morning, and on opening the cloth, and admitting the exter- 
nal air, it burst into fire. This was sufficiently convincing ; 
however, to make it more certain, the experiment was three 
times tried, and with the same success." 
P, S. The passage Mr. Humfries alludes to is in page 629 of 
Hopson's Chemistry, where, in a note, you will find mention 
3 I 2 
