X84* ON THE NEW SYSTEM pr CHEMISTRY. 



Is Inferred to water ; yet when it was decompofed I found much more than 

 phtog?fton? ed thewei g^oftheair; fo that it could not have been previ- 

 oufly contained in it in a ftate of folution, but muft have been 

 formed by the union of the oxigen in the dephlogifticated air, 

 and the phlogifton in the inflammable air. 

 Charcoal fup-^ That charcoal uniting with w r ater mould give fixed as welt 

 carbon and as inflammable air, I account for by fuppofing, what is by no 

 phlogifton. means improbable, that this fubftance contains the elements 

 of both the kinds of air, and that they want nothing but water 

 to enable them to take the form of air. 

 Conclufion. I hope that Mr. Cruikfhank, with the fame candour with 



which he has began this difcuffion, will re-confider his hypo- 

 thelis, and extend his examination to my other arguments in 

 defence of the doftrine of phlogifton, and againft the decom- 

 position of water. Nothing but free difcuffion is neceflary to 

 the difcovery of truth, and it is defirable that error fhould bq 

 detected as early as may be, efpecially if the confequence of 

 its reception be extenfive and important. 



Your's fincerely, 



J. PRIESTLEY. 



A Statement of the Experiments made by the Rev. Abraham 

 Bennet, F. R. S. on the Electricity produced by the contacl 

 of Metals previous to the Year 1789, and alfo ofthofe made by 

 Mr. Tiberius Cavallo, F.R.S. previous to the Year 

 1795, to which AUufion was made at Page 144 of this Journal. 

 W. N. 



Short ftatement oOMETIME previous to the period firft mentioned in the 



perfments' and titIe to the P re(ent ftetch > Mr - Bennet had remarkably in- 

 why they are creafed our power of meafuring fmali intenfitiesof Angle elec- 

 here repeated, tricity by the application of gold leaf to the bottle electrome- 

 ter of Cavallo, and by the procefs known by the name of 

 doubling ; an outline of the hiitory of which may be feen at 

 page 396 of the firft volume of the Philofophical Journal, in 

 quarto. His New Experiments on Electricity, which is a thin 

 quarto of 141 pages, were publifhed in 1789 by fubfcription ; 

 and may perhaps have been lefs univerfally diffufed in the 



fcientific 



