Observations and experiments on the colour of blood / [William Charles Wells].

  • William Charles Wells
Date:
[1797]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations and experiments on the colour of blood / [William Charles Wells]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/18
    OBSERVATIONS, <bc. Read before the ROYAL SOCIETY, July 6, 1797. Dr. Priestley is, I believe, the only person who has hi¬ therto attempted to shew by what means common air brightens the colour of blood, which has been for some time exposed to it.* His opinion is, that the air produces this effect by de¬ priving the blood of its phlogiston; for blood, according to the same author, is wonderfully fitted both to imbibe and to part with phlogiston, becoming black when charged with that principle, but highly florid when freed from it. Various ar¬ guments may be brought to prove that this opinion is erro¬ neous, even upon the admission of such a principle of bodies as phlogiston. It may be said, for instance, that it is contrary to the laws of chemical affinity, that the same mass should, at one time, convert pure into phlogisticated air, by giving out its phlogiston, and immediately after reconvert phlogisticated into pure air, by imbibing that principle; both which changes are supposed by Dr. Priestley to be induced by blood upon those airs. Again; it may be urged, that, since the neutral salts, and the different alkalis, when saturated with fixed air, produce the same effect as common air upon the colour of blood, if common air acts by attracting phlogiston, those other bodies must have a similar operation. But surely it cannot be * Phil. Trans, for 1776. B
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image