wrote that he hoped the readers of the _Medical Repository_, in which
the several papers appeared, would

participate the pleasure we feel on taking a retrospect of our
pages, and finding the United States the theatre of so much
scientific disquisition.

And yet, when in 1800, a pamphlet of 90 pages bearing the title "The
Doctrine of Phlogiston established, etc." appeared there was
consternation in the ranks of American chemists. Woodhouse was aroused.
He absolutely refuted every point in it experimentally, and Dr. Mitchill
avowed--

We decline entering into a minute examination of his experiments,
as few of his recitals of them are free from the _triune_ mystery
of phlogiston, which exceeds the utmost stretch of our faith; for
according to it, _carbon is phlogiston_, and _hydrogen is
phlogiston_, and _azote is phlogiston_; and yet there are not
_three_ phlogistons, but _one_ phlogiston!

It was imperative to submit the preceding paragraphs on chemical topics,
notwithstanding they have, in a manner, interrupted the chronological
arrangement of the activities of the Doctor in his home life. They were,
it is true, a part of that life--a part that every chemist will note
with interest and pleasure. They mean that he was not indifferent to
chemistry, and that it is not to be supposed that he ever could be,
especially as his visits to Philadelphia brought to his attention
problems which he would never suffer to go unanswered or unsolved
because of his interest in so many other things quite foreign to them.
However, a backward look may be taken before resuming the story of his
experimental studies.

It has already been said that the non-appearance of letters caused him
anxiety. For instance he wrote Lindsey, July 28, 1796--

It is now four months since I have received any letter from you,
and it gives me most serious concern.

But finally the longed-for epistle arrived and he became content,
rejoicing in being able to return the news--

I do not know that I have more satisfaction from anything I ever
did, than from the lay Unitarian congregation I have been the
means of establishing in Philadelphia.

For the use of this group of worshipers he had engaged the Common Hall
in the College (University of Pennsylvania).

But amidst this unceasing activity of body and mind--very evidently
extremely happy in his surroundings--he was again crushe