could not
have possessed. Rumour and fact had connected the name of Wollaston
with these supposed interactions between magnets and currents. When,
therefore, Faraday in October published his successful experiment,
without any allusion to Wollaston, general, though really ungrounded,
criticism followed. I say ungrounded because, firstly, Faraday's
experiment was not that of Wollaston, and secondly, Faraday, before he
published it, had actually called upon Wollaston, and not finding him
at home, did not feel himself authorised to mention his name.

In December, Faraday published a second paper on the same subject,
from which, through a misapprehension, the name of Wollaston was also
omitted. Warburton and others thereupon affirmed that Wollaston's
ideas had been appropriated without acknowledgment, and it is plain
that Wollaston himself, though cautious in his utterance, was also
hurt. Censure grew till it became intolerable. 'I hear,' writes
Faraday to his friend Stodart, 'every day more and more of these
sounds, which, though only whispers to me, are, I suspect, spoken
aloud among scientific men.' He might have written explanations and
defences, but he went straighter to the point. He wished to see the
principals face to face--to plead his cause before them personally.
There was a certain vehemence in his desire to do this. He saw
Wollaston, he saw Davy, he saw Warburton; and I am inclined to think
that it was the irresistible candour and truth of character which
these viva voce defences revealed, as much as the defences themselves,
that disarmed resentment at the time.

As regards Davy, another cause of dissension arose in 1823. In the
spring of that year Faraday analysed the hydrate of chlorine, a
substance once believed to be the element chlorine, but proved by Davy
to be a compound of that element and water. The analysis was looked
over by Davy, who then and there suggested to Faraday to heat the
hydrate in a closed glass tube. This was done, the substance was
decomposed, and one of the products of decomposition was proved by
Faraday to be chlorine liquefied by its own pressure. On the day of
its discovery he communicated this result to Dr. Paris. Davy, on
being informed of it, instantly liquefied another gas in the same way.
Having struck thus into Faraday's enquiry, ought he not to have left
the matter in Faraday's hands? I think he ought. But, considering
his relation to both Faraday and the hyd