Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-07-22
DIR. PRIESTLY's DISCOVERY or
nEVnrU

discovery of vital air, called oxygen,
by DR.. Priestly, will be celebrated at
Northumberland, Pa. on the first of
next month. 1t twill be the first chemi-
cal centennial which the world has wit
messed; an evidence Of scientific deyel-
opment which is Worth considering.
During all the ages that preceded IVA,
the atmosphere we breathe was re-
garded as a simple homogeneous gas or
substance. Greek philosophy looked
on olympian Jupiter as an emblem of
the air orspirit of heaven. DR.. Draper
truly says that the discovery of oxygen
utterly exploded metaphysical philoso-
ply. Air was breathed into the nos
trils of Adam, and he became Giving
soul" Good spirits and evil spirits
have long occupied the places of life
destroying gases, invisible and intangi-
bic. DR.. Priestly DISTURBED old tradi-
tions, and mob assembled round his
dwelling, which they committed to the
flames, whilst the houses Of those who
were known to be his friends shared
the same fate. lie narrowly escaped
with his life, and for three days one of
the chief cities of England was a scene
of riot.
This great and good man at last
found an asylum in the United States.
President Jefferson received him with
distinction, although the alien and
sedition laws of Adams administra-
ton were aimed in part against him.
The Popular Science Monthly for
August, which lies before US, contains
an admirable lecture by DR.. J. w.
Draper, CT New York, on Priestly's
discovery of oxygen gas, and bio
graphical sketch of his life and SER
vices, which is equally interesting. The
sons of Priestly emigrated from Eng
land to France and settled there, but
were driven to America during the
throes of the revolution, and found a
resting place in Northumberland, Pa,
whittier their father followed them.
Northumberland is an old town in the
Susquehanna valley, l32 miles north OF
Philadelphia; yet, in 1795, only so years
ago, when DIR. Priestly settled there, it
had no mail nor postofice. DR.. Frank
liz, or his successor, soon gave the
place two mails week.
In 1893, when party politics ran
high, under Adams, a candidate for re-
election, backed 10y the alien and sedi-
ton laws, and Thomas Jefferson at the
head of the Democracy of the Revo.u-
ton, it is stated as a fact, that Presi-
dent Adams intimated to DR.. Priestly
that he had "better abstain from saying
anything on politics, lest he should get
into difficulty" A Northumberland
paper assailed the Federal policy of
Adams so powerfully that the articles
were credited, unjustly, to DR.. Priestly.
The science of government has made
small progress since the Revolution,
but such is not the fact in the science
of chemistry, or that of organic life.
DR.. Priestly proved that living animals
contaminate the atmosphere that sur
rounds them, by placing mice in glass
jars closely stopped to exclude outside
air. They soon consumed the unknown
something that supports life and keeps
a candle or lamp burning in a room.
Growing plants, placed in the Jar
where mice had persisted from bad air,
consumed IN sunlight the carbon that
came from the animals.
Researches of this character, since
varied and repeated a thousand times,
establish the existence Of a self-adjust-
ing balance between plants and ami
mails, organic nature) with air and wa
ter as their bond Of union. Having
found that the exact balance between
the centripetal and centrifugal forces
which keep the earth forever moving
round the sun, differs in no respect
from the atmospheric balance of vital
air, which multiplies either plants or
animals to preserve perfect equiibri'
um between them, scientific physiology,
agriculture and chemistry, approach
the accuracy of astronomy. Nature
leaves very little to chance in the uni
verse, as the studies of mankind VII
demonstrate in the next oneOr tive CEN
turies. Capital, which is now the idol
of advancing millions, must become
valueless as : badge of distinction;
Just as an ocean Of water and vital air
to fill every mans skin with all it Will
hold, however air and water may be
changed into any vegetable or animal
substance, cannot be the exclusive
property of any one person, family or
nation. Nature is liberal, and man
will be in time as liberal.
Science is fairly solving the problem
of life to the result that the Creator of
all is no respectcr of persons. Heredi-
tary legislators and rulers in England
did not like the theory of the discover
er of oxygen, and drove him across the
Atlantic into the rebellious provinces
of America. 1t often happens that
what selfish and wicked men intend to
subserve some selfish and evil purpose
is overuled for good. DR.. Priestly will
probably confer greater benefits on
mankind in the second century after
his birthday in 1873, than in the first.
st present, the light Of science has
hardly reached one in a thousand, if
one in ten thousand, in Europe and
America. Oxygen, molecules and mo-
lecular life and motion are matters little
known to the million. Yet the
million is beginning to understand
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