On the Tdenlity of Silex and Oxygen. 3^1 



potash ^of commerce contains silex, and retains it with some 

 di'gree oF force, not as an adventitious ingredient, but ra- 

 ther as the superabundance oi' that primitive store, from 

 whence it had derived that portion which is essential to its 

 existence as potash. Now, that the constitution of potash 

 no longer remains in doubt, and that oxygen has been proved 

 to be as essential to the formation of potash as it is to that of 

 sulphuric acid, I see no explanation more congenial and satis-,- 

 factory than what I have here ventured to suggest, especially 

 uhcn it is proved that the primitive seat of potash is in rocks 

 ^nd stoneSy and in the very centre of such bodies, where the 

 ^itmosphere can have had no influence ; for, as far as regards 

 its vegetable and animal existence, all is merely secondary, 

 and, consequently, does nut apply so forcibly in this theory, 

 though, even here also, we need be at no loss for proofs. 



The power which silex exercises over potash, soda, and. 

 ^ variety of other substances which enter into the compo- 

 sition of glass, is a notorious instance of its neutralizing 

 efficacy ; for no acid more completely obtunds the acrimgny 

 of alkaline bodies and disarms them of their corrosive clija- 

 racter. The effervescence, which resvills when silex and 

 the alkali enter into fusion, and form this insipid compound, 

 is not observable till the materials are on the point of per- 

 fect conibinalion : hence, as son)ething is apparently evolved, 

 neither oxvgen nor any other aeriform fluid can be supposed 

 to enter ; so that the acidity, if the term may be applied, to 

 coerce the alkaline matter, is alone due to the sand which 

 is usually employed in the making of this beautiful and use- 

 ful compound. Indeed, vitrification, in all instances, seems 

 to be accon)plished by silex or by oxygen ; and the glass 

 of lead, of antimony, of phosphorus, borax, or of any other 

 body, is due to one, as much as the glass in common use, 

 is to the other of these oxygenating agents. 



In many very trite and familiar experiments, upon bodies 

 containing either silex, an acid, or oxygen in some con- 

 dition or other, tfee phenomena which succeed may be 

 traced to the same cause. Thus, scintillation of hard bodies 

 on collision again'st each other, as flint against seel ; that of 

 two siliceous stones, which emit not only light but the pe- 

 culiar 



