186 
CLARKE. 
American scholars, and took an active part in the work of 
the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. At 
Northumberland he completed his discovery of carbon mo¬ 
noxide, and made some of the earliest experiments upon gas¬ 
eous diffusion; but unfortunately much of his time was de¬ 
voted to theory, and to defending, against the attacks of 
Lavoisier’s followers, the moribund doctrine of phlogiston. 
Priestley’s discovery of oxygen was the corner-stone of chemi¬ 
cal science; but the discoverer, great as an experimentalist, 
was not successful as a philosopher, and he never realized 
the logical consequences of his achievement. To the day 
of his death he opposed the new chemical philosophy, and 
clung to the obsolete ideas of an earlier generation. 
During the first quarter of the present century the prog¬ 
ress of chemistry in the United States was slow. It is not 
my purpose to discuss in this address the details of its ad¬ 
vancement, for that work has already been exhaustively done 
by another; * still, several events happened which deserve 
notice here. First, Robert Hare, in 1802, invented the oxy- 
hydrogen blow-pipe. With that instrument, in following 
years, he succeeded in fusing platinum, silica, and about 
thirty other refractory substances, which had hitherto re¬ 
sisted all attempts at liquefaction. But few men have given 
a greater extension to our experimental resources. The cal¬ 
cium light and the metallurgy of platinum are among the 
direct consequences of Dr. Hare’s invention. Secondly, in 
1808, Professors Silliman and Kingsley, of Yale College, 
published their account of the meteorite which fell at Weston, 
Connecticut, the year previous. This paper attracted wide¬ 
spread attention, and drew from Thomas Jefferson the oft- 
quoted remark, “ That it was easier to believe that two Yan¬ 
kee professors could lie than to admit that stones could fall 
from heaven.” The analysis of the meteorite was the work 
of Silliman, and was among the earliest of its kind. It was 
* Benjamin Silliman, Jr. “American Contributions to Chemistry.” 
American Chemist, August, September, and December, 1874. An ad¬ 
dress at the “ Centennial of Chemistry. 
