Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/166

 instruments which far exceeded those familiar to the scientific world, and produced results before unknown. His Calorimotor, so named from the facility of generating an immense amount of heat, was described in “Silliman’s Journal” in 1820.

Two years later he promulgated, through the medium of the “Philadelphia Journal of Medical and Physical Sciences,” a new theory of galvanism, accompanied by descriptions of some new modifications of galvanic apparatus. A modification of his apparatus was termed Dr. Hare’s Deflagrator. With respect to it we quote the statement of Dr. Silliman: “It is not less a proof of the merits of Dr. Hare’s apparatus that Professor Faraday, in 1835, after having exhausted his ingenuity and experience in perfecting the voltaic battery, found that Dr. Hare had already, nearly twenty years before, accomplished all that he had attempted, and with a noble frankness, worthy of all praise, he at once adopted Dr. Hare’s instrument, as embodying the best results then possible.” Its power was sufficient to fuse platinum, with the production of a brilliant light.

He also contrived an improved Gasometer, a Eudiometer, a Litrometer, a Hydrostatic Blowpipe, an apparatus for freezing water by the use of sulphuric acid, a single leaf Electroscope, and numerous smaller improvements in chemical instruments. The description of his working apparatus, employed in his lectures, was given in his “Compendium,” a book which, originating in a mere outline or syllabus, was, at the time he left the University, enlarged to a bulky volume.

Dr. Hare was exceedingly fond of discussing the philosophical bearings of the branch of science which occupied the attention of his lifetime, and occasionally promulgated his views in a controversial way in the journals. He thought for himself, and was not unfrequently in disagreement with Berzelius and other prominent chemists of Europe of the time. One subject which much occupied his attention, and gave rise