Volume 1

Elements of chemistry, in a new systematic order, containing all the modern discoveries. ... / by Mr. Lavoisier. Translated from the French by Robert Kerr.

  • Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 1743-1794.
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of chemistry, in a new systematic order, containing all the modern discoveries. ... / by Mr. Lavoisier. Translated from the French by Robert Kerr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    91/432 (page 85)
    which has iince been fubftituted the term of vital air. We fliall prefently fcc what \ve ought to think of thefe dénominations. In refle&ing upon the circumftances of this j experiment, we readily perceive ; that the mer- cury, during its calcination, abforbs the falu- brious and refpirable part of the air, or, to fpeak more ftridly, the baie of this refpirable part ; îhat the remaining air is a fpecies of mephitis, incapable of fupporting combuftion or refpira- tion ; and, confequently, that atmofpheric air is compofed of two elaftic fluids of different and oppofite qualities. As a proof of this important truth, if we recombine thefe two elaftic fluids, which we hâve feparately obtained in the above experiment, viz. the 42 cubical inches of mephi- tis, with the 8 cubical inches of highly refpirable air, we reproduce an air precifely limilar to that of the atmofphere, and poffefling nearly the famé power of fupporting combuftion and refpiration, and of contributing to the calcination of metals. Although this experiment furnilhes us with a very Ample means of obtaining the two prin- cipal elaftic fluids which compofe our atmo- fphere, feparate from each other, yet it does not give us an exad idea of the proportion in which thefe two enter into its compofltion : For the attraction of mercury to its refpirable part of the air, or rather to its bafe, is not fufficiently ftrong to overcome ali the circumftances which F 3 oppofe