Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/152

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1836.]
On the Condensation of the Gases, &c.
137

February or the beginning of March, he inquired what I had been doing, and I communicated the results to him as far as I had proceeded, and said I intended to publish them in the 'Quarterly Journal of Science.' It was then that he suggested to me the heating of the crystals in a closed tube, and I proceeded to make the experiment which Dr. Paris witnessed, and has from his own knowledge described[1]. I did not at that time know what to anticipate, for Sir Humphry Davy had not told me his expectations, and I had not reasoned so deeply as he appears to have done. Perhaps he left me unacquainted with them to try my ability. How I should have proceeded with the chlorine crystals without the suggestion I cannot now say, but with the hint of heating the crystals in a close tube ended for the time Sir Humphry Davy's instructions to me, and I puzzled out for myself in the manner Dr. Paris describes, that the oil I had obtained was condensed chlorine. This is all very evident from the paper read to the Royal Society, though it may seem at first to stand opposed to the notes and papers that Sir Humphry Davy communicated in conjunction with and after mine. When my paper was written, it was, according to a custom consequent upon our relative positions, submitted to Sir Humphry Davy (as were all my papers for the ' Philosophical Transactions ' up to a much later period), and he altered it as he thought fit. This practice was one of great kindness to me, for various grammatical mistakes and awkward expressions were from time to time thus removed which might else have remained.

The passage at the commencement of the paper which I shall now quote was of Sir Humphry Davy's writing, and in fact contains everything that, and perhaps rather more than, he had said to me: "The President of the Royal Society having honoured me by looking at these conclusions, and suggested that an exposure of the substance to heat under pressure would probably lead to interesting results, the following experiments were commenced at his request [2]. "I say "rather more, because I believe pressure was not referred to in our previous verbal communication. However, I proceeded to make the

  1. Paris's Life, p. 391.
  2. Phil. Trans. 1823, p. 160, or Phil. Mag., First Series, vol. p. 413 or page 85.