Professors Exner and Young

Abstract

MY statement in respect to Prof. Exner's having announced the thermo-electric neutrality of a bismuth-antimony pair immersed in pure nitrogen, rested upon a note in NATURE (vol. xxii. p. 156), and this it seems was based upon a statement in L'Electricité. I have seen those of Prof. Exner's papers which have appeared in the Annalen der Physik, and there is certainly nothing of the sort in them; but I supposed that it must be contained in some other paper in some one of the numerous other publications to which I have not access here. It never occurred to me, until within a very short time, that there could be any mistake as to his having made such an assertion. How or where the error originated I cannot quite understand; but I trust Prof. Exner will accept my apologies for my share in its propagation, and that he and all concerned will be satisfied that no misrepresentation was intended on my part. The incident is a good illustration of the extreme care necessary in commenting upon the views of another person.