could so persuade himself, for these bodies surely
possessed weight. Why did he not rely more upon his balance?

With Woodhouse he discussed the product from passing water over heated
charcoal. He had been endeavoring to refute certain statements made by
Cruikshank. There is no question but that he had carbon monoxide in
hand, and had it as early as 1799, and that he had obtained it in
several different ways. Observe this statement:

I always found that the first portion of the heavy inflammable
air, resulting from the passage of steam over heated charcoal was
loaded with fixed air (CO_2), but that in the course of the
process this disappeared, the remaining air (CO) burning with a
lambent flame.

Scarcely had Priestley set foot in Philadelphia on his third visitation
than the _Port Folio_, devoted usually to literature and biography,
printed the following unkind words:

The tricks of Dr. Priestley to embroil the government, and disturb
the religion of his own country, have not the merit of novelty.

To which the _Aurora_ replied:

When Porcupine rioted in the filth of a debauched and corrupt
faction in this city, no person experienced so much of his obscene
and vulgar abuse as Dr. Priestley. There is not a single fact on
record or capable of being shewn, to prove that Dr. Priestley was
guilty of any other crime than being a dissenter from the church
of England, and a warm friend of American Independence. For this
he was abused by Porcupine--and Denny is only Porcupine with a
little more tinsel to cover his dirt. It is worthy of remark, that
after a whole sheet of promises of "literary lore" and "products
of the master of spirits" of the nation--the first and second
numbers of the _Portable Foolery_, are stuffed with extracts from
British publications of an ordinary quality.

The attack of the Port Folio was most ungracious. It may have been due
to irritation caused by the appearance of a second edition of
Priestley's "Letters to the Inhabitants of Northumberland." Nevertheless
the thoughtful and dignified men of the City--men who admired
Priestley's broad catholic spirit and brave attitude upon all debatable
questions, men who appreciated his scientific attainments, invited him
to the following subscription dinner, as announced in the _Aurora_,
March, 6th:

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon about one hun