The Enquirer

PHILADELPHIA, May 15.

The invaluable chemical laboratory of Mr. John Harrison, in the Northern Liberties of this city, was on Sunday morning between the hours of twelve and one o'clock, consumed by fire; the laboratory stood several hundred yards from the high road and from the habitations of the neighborhood, and as no work was going on at the time, there is from this and other causes, strong ground to believe that it was purposely set on fire; an attempt was made some time since to poison Mr Harrison and his wife, and the poison had actually been taken in a small quantity. the black boy who made the attempt is now in prison for the crime; a similar attempt had been made to set fire to his house, but the combustibles were timely discovered.

Independent of the atrocious crime of this mischief, the destruction of his most important work is to be deplored, as it might from its comprehensive means and perfection in all the most important branches of chemistry, be deemed a national establishment; having been the fruit of research made with great diligence and industry by Mr. Harrison in various parts of Europe; it had reached after twelve years of indefatigable labor and unremitting industry, that point of completion which, with only a small protection from the fostering hands of government, would have rendered the U. States perfectly independent of Europe in every article produced by chemical science. We cannot help ascribing the destruction of this work to the same source from which so many of the domestic efforts of industry have already experienced enmity and conflagration. Mr. Harrison's loss cannot be much less than 60,000 dollars.