The life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish : including abstracts of his more important scientific papers, and a critical inquiry into the claims of all the alleged discoverers of the composition of water / by George Wilson.

  • George Wilson
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish : including abstracts of his more important scientific papers, and a critical inquiry into the claims of all the alleged discoverers of the composition of water / by George Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    amanuensis, Blagden, and not by himself. It forms one among the personal incidents of the Water Controversy, inasmuch as it contains the only direct reference which Cavendish made to Watt throughout the discussion. It is as follows :— As Mr. Watt, in a paper lately read before this Society, supposes water to consist of dephlogisticated air and phlogiston deprived of part of their latent heat, whereas I take no notice of the latter circumstance, it may be proper to mention, in a few words, the reason of this apparent difference between us. If there be any such thing as elementary heat, it must be allowed that what Mr. Watt says is true.* Cavendish then proceeds to explain (as he had already announced to the world in 1783) that he is not a believer in elementary heat; and that even if he were, he should not think it necessary to insist upon its evolution accom- panying the union of hydrogen and oxygen, as of more import- ance than its development during other chemical combinations. The passage is elsewhere commented on, so far as the doctrine it teaches Is concerned. I consider it here only in its character of a personal reference by the one rival to the other. The advocates of Watt read this passage by the light of the suspicions which they inherit from De Luc, and some (Sir David Brewster and Mr. Muirhead, amongst others) have gone the length of affirming that it contains an implicit acknow- ledgment of Walt's priority, and a confession of the wrong his rival had done him in not mentioning his name in the origmal draft of the Experiments on Air, communicated to the Royal Society on January 15th, 1784. Yet certainly his words do not convey this meaning, although those who contend for it rest their argument solely on the words. These make no allu- sion to obligation; they make no acknowledgment of priority; they do not even assert identity of opinion, but are chiefly occu- pied with the assertion and defence of a difference in the doctrine which Cavendish taught. Watt, a pupil of the school of ]Black> was a firm believer in the materiahty of heat, and attached great importance to its evolution when water was produced from fts elemLts. Cavendish was of the school of Newton, and regarded heat as immaterial, neither did he think that there * PMI. Trans. 1784, v MO- The passage is enclosed between square brackets inMr. Muirliead's reprint. Walt. Corr., p. 135.
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