170 OBJECTIONS TO THE MODERN CHEMICAL THEORY. 



ject: but the experiment, ma''e on the dormouse, appears to 

 throw a light on the nature of torpidity; which perhaps, as 

 far as T know, can not. be derived from any other fact in 

 natural history : for according tr- it, a liberal use of nutritious 

 food will in time enable this little aainfal to support a degree 

 of cold much severer than that which benumbs the same 

 creature when wild and habituated to a meager diet. This is 

 a solitary instance of the surprising effects produced on the 

 constitution by regimen; from which we mar infer, that the 

 torpidity of the dormouse arises from the united operations 

 of cold and hunger ; but future observations must determine 

 how far other torpid animals are influenced by diet, before 

 we can pronounce the preceding explanation of torpidity to 

 be general. 



II. 



On the Nonexistence of Oxigen and Hidrogen, as Bases of par- 

 ticular Gasses; the Action of Galvanism ; and the compound 

 Nature of the Matter of Heat. In a Letter from G. S. 



GlBBES, M. D. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON, 



Sir, Bath, Jan. 13, 1808. 



Objections to JL OU have already done me the honour of publishing in 

 the theory yf v your excellent Journal some opinions, which 1 maintain, 

 respecting the nonexistence of oxigen and hidrogen; and 

 the consequent failure of the Lavoisierian theory of chemistry 

 in explaining the phenomena, which are presented in that 

 science. I now take the liberty of sending some farther ob- 

 servations on the same subject, which lead me to conclude, 

 that my former opinions were well founded, and that the gene- 

 rallv received doctrine of the decomposition of water is not 



~,, c r consistent with fact. I contend, that in no one experiment 



liTeorv of the. l 



composition of have we the least evidence, that the ponderable parts of oxi- 



water not ^ n ' 1( j r0 rr ei i a i r are substances differing from each other, 



founded on . « ° . 



fact. or in any respect peculiar substances; or thai water is a 



compound resulting from the union of these two substances. 



If 



