" 
1805.] 
reafon might it he fuppofed, that the ac- 
cent ufed by the Frenchto mark the acute 
found of their e mafculine, could alfo 
perform the office of the grave and the 
circumflex. - 
A writer, in a former number*, hav- 
ing detegted one or two inftances of falfe 
grammar in the Exercifes to Muiray’s 
Grammar, and his criticifm having been 
adverted to in the paper to which I have 
attempted a reply, give me leave to ob- 
ferve, that, had the writer of that article 
xamined fubjequent editions, he would 
have found his doubts removed. At the 
fame time, it mutt be allowed, he has 
paid this eminent grammarian a fine com- 
pliment; fince, outof more than a thou- 
fand examples, contained in the Exercifts, 
he was able to find but ove or two which 
he fuppofed to be erroneous. 
Hitchin, 1805. BP; 
j —— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SiR, 
S the learned author of the Flora 
Britannica has, in bis reply to my 
lait \etter+, expreffed a with that my in- 
tended “ Criticifms may appear as {oon as 
peffible, that if any thing can be learned 
from them, he may, with all due acknow- 
ledgment, profit by them,’’ in his next 
volume. I muft candidly inform him, 
that, upon mature and deliberate confi- 
deration, I have been led to abandon my 
defign altogether, as inexpedient and un- 
neceflary. The candour which pervades 
D;. Smith’s mind, is to me a fufficient 
pledge that he is fincerely actuated by a 
regard to truth, and a real defire to pro-. 
mote it8 interefts and extenfion ; and that, 
theretore, fo errors or imperfections 
which his work contains will be permit- 
ted, on any interefted or perfonal confide- 
rations, to remain uncorrected in the re- 
maining part, or in any future edition, 
of his truly valuable and important Flora. 
I muft, however, be permitted, in ju‘tice 
to myfelf, to add, that the motives which 
led me to offer the remarks I have already 
made, originated in a defire to correct 
what appeared to me as-error, and not 
from any fuch unworthy or illiberal ideas 
as having my vanity hurt by the rejection 
of any fuppofed botanical difcoveries 
whatever. 
The reafons Dr, Smith has affigned, in 
reply to my charges, are as iatisfaétory 
as any reafonable mind, upon the ma- 
* Vol. 18, p. gos. 
t See Monthly Magazine fox March, 
Mr. Corr’s Rebly--Cambuftion of Gas. 
427 
tureft and moft difpaffionate judgment, 
could wiih, and I can truly affure him, 
that they are fo to my own; and I truft 
he will accept this as an adequate acknow. 
ledgment for an inconfideration which ori- 
ginated in mifconception, and not in the 
moft diflant intention, or remote{t with, 
of ‘* defignedly calumniating the inten- 
tions’ of a man whom, in reality, I re- 
{pect and eftcem. 
Durham, 
May 12, 1805. 
aT 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OTHING can be more gratifying 
to the friends of ingenuity than to 
fee the merit of difcoverics or inventions 
revert to their true authors, rather than 
(as is too cfren the cafe) to perhaps fome 
ob/cure individual, who may be indebted 
for tne fuppofed claim of priority as much 
to the wonted bafhfuinefs of the real ex. 
perimentalift, as to that frowardnefs which 
in general charatterifes the novice. As 
fuch your readers will perufe the letter ef 
Mr. Henry on the dilengagement of in- 
flammable air from coal,in your laft num- 
ber, with pleafure, as well becauleit proves 
the claim of Mr. Murdoch to wha: has 
been of late pompoufly handed about as a 
new difcovery, as allo from the promife an- 
nexed of further obfervations on the fubjecét 
from Mr. Hetry himfelf. The ditillation 
of coal for obtaining various’ volatile in- 
R. H, Carr. 
gredients has been long carried om in the 
large way by Lord Dundonald and others, 
but the gas pafling off during the procefs 
has not been applied (except in the in- 
fiances at Birmingham) to any purpofe, 
althcugh its inflammable property has 
from the firft inftitution of thofe procefies 
been perfectly known; ner can I imagine 
the diftillation of coal, as propofed to be 
performed by fome few individuals, not 
only for the fake of light and heat but for 
the ammoniac, oil, &c. of the fame, to be 
capable of being carried on without in- 
fringing upon the patent of the noble Parl. 
Yet fuppofing thefe circumftances to be 
over-ruled, it appears to me that to be- 
come eligible for private purpofes fome 
provifion muft be made for the efcape of 
‘the newly formed gas, the product of the 
combuftion of the hydrogen in the atmo- 
{phere of the apartment; for in all com- 
buftions the oxygen combining with the 
bafis to be confumed, whether carbon, 
phofphorus, fulphur, or hydrogen, &c. 
engenders a compound which in the laft 
inftance is known to be water, If then, 
312 I fay 
