Farther experiments relating to the decomposition of dephlogisticated and inflammable air. Read April 7, 1791 / by Joseph Priestley.

  • Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804.
Date:
1791]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Farther experiments relating to the decomposition of dephlogisticated and inflammable air. Read April 7, 1791 / by Joseph Priestley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/12
    farther experiments, &c* Read before the ROYAL SOCIETY, April 7, 1791* TH E do&rine of phlogifton, and that of the decompofttion of water, have long engaged the attention of philo- fophical chemifts, and experiments have fometimes feemed to favour one conclufion, and fometimes an oppofite one. I have myfelf been very differently inclined at different times, as ap¬ pears in my publications on the fubjeft; and I am hardly fen- lible of a wifh which way this important controverfy, as it may be called, be decided, notwithftanding the part that I have taken in it, I cannot help thinking, however, that the expe¬ riments, an account of which I fhall now lay before the So¬ ciety, are decifive in favour of the compofition of an acid from flephlogifticated and inflammable air; and, therefore, that the opinion of thefe two kinds of air neceffarily compofing water cannot be well founded. It is, indeed, fufficiently evident, that the fame elements likewife compofe fixed air, and there¬ fore it is the lefs extraordinary that they fhould compofe ano¬ ther acid. The doctrine of phlogifton I would, however, obferve, will not be affetled by the moft decifive proof of the compofition of water from dephlogifticated and inflammable air ; fince this A would