And then, by some strange mental reaction, there floated before the writer the paragraph uttered by Professor Huxley, when in 1874 a statue to Priestley was unveiled in the City of Birmingham:
Our purpose is to do honour ... to Priestley the peerless defender of national
freedom in thought and in action; to Priestley the philosophical thinker; to that Priestley who held a foremost place among the 'swift runners who hand over the lamp of life,' and transmit from one generation to another the fire kindled, in the childhood of the world, at the Promethean altar of science.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Chemistry in Old Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila., Pa.
[2] Correspondence of Priestley by H. C. Bolton, New York, 1892.
[3] Mr. Berthollet discovered that oxygenated muriatic gas, received in a ley of caustic potash, forms a chrystallizable neutral salt, which detonates more strongly than nitre.
[4] Nine Famous Birmingham Men—Cornish Brothers, Publishers, 1909.
[5] James Woodhouse—A Pioneer in Chemistry—J. C. Winston Co., Phila.—1918.
[6] James Woodhouse—A pioneer in Chemistry—J. C. Winston Co., Phila.—1918.