A "1 



JOURNAL, 



OF 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



JULY, 1310. 



ARTICLE I. 



Observations on the Combustion of several sorts of Charcoal, 

 and on Hidrogen Gas: by Theodore de Saussure. Read 

 at the Society of Natural Philosophy and Natural History 

 of Geneva, August the 3\st, 1809*. 



T is well known, that the proportions of carbon and oxi- proportion ©f 

 gen in carbonic acid gas could only be determined in a vague ba *° in carbo- 

 manner by the experiments of Lavoisier. The detail of his ttnauied, 

 inquiries f shows that 100 parts of this gas might contain 

 between L 25 and 28 parts of carbon : and though he first 

 adopted the latter proportion, he ultimately concluded, that 

 the former was too great, and that the quantity of carbon 

 contained in lOOlbs. of the gas did not exceed £4ibs. J 



Among the inquiries into the subject since made, those Messrs Allen' 

 of Messrs. Allen and Pepysjl are particularly lo be distin- an< * fe P7« 

 guished. They found by the combustion of charcoal in 

 oxi gen gas, that 100 parts of carbonic acid gas by weight 

 contained <28'(i parts of carbon, or of diamond, or of charcoal 



• Abridged from Annales de< himie, vol. LXXI, p. *54. 



f M^moiresde I'Acad des Sciences, 1781. 



X Lavoisier's Memoirei (,-osthumes), vol. II. 



|| Phil. Trans, for 1807, p. '7 : or J. •■• trial, vol. XIX, p. S 6. 



Vol. XXVI.— -No. 118.— JvvX, 1810. M previously 



