FOR THE HUNDREDTH YEAR OF THE LITERARY AND A CENTENARY OF 80506 SCIENCE IN MANCHESTER (IN A SERIES OF NOTES) BY R. ANGUS SMITH, F.R.S., PH.D., LL.D. OF GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH CORR. MEM. OF THE ROYAL BAVARIAN ACADEMY F.C.S. ETC. LONDON TAYLOR AND FRANCIS PREFACE. Centenary of the Literary and Philosophical WHEN the Society was near its Centenary it seemed good to the members that I should be requested to write some account of its doings. I said that I could not give time to write a history: it was well known that I was much occupied. I was told, however, to do just as much or as little as it suited, since no one seemed inclined to take up the subject. I should have preferred to see the work done by one who had lived from his earliest years in Manchester, and whose romance of life was associated with the neighbourhood, as then the treatment might have suited more readers. My deepest local interests are still in Scotland, although most of my life has been spent here; still I have of course no small pleasure in tracing the course of ideas in chemistry, and in |