PHLOGISTIC THEORY. 271 



this at Vienna; but found that people there cared nothing ibout such 

 novelties. He was then induced, by Baron D'Isola, to go to Holland 

 for similar purposes. After various delays and quarrels, he was obliged 

 to leave Holland for fear of his creditors ; and then, I suppose, came 

 to Great Britain, where he examined the Scottish and Cornish mines. 

 He is said to have died in London in 1682. 



Stahl's publications appear to have excited more notice, and led to 

 controversy on the '' so-called sulphur." The success of the experi- 

 ment had been doubted, which, as he remarks, it was foolish to make 

 a matter of discussion, when any one might decide the point by expe- 

 riment ; and finally, it had been questioned whether the substance 

 obtained by this process were pure sulphur. The originality of his, 

 doctrine was also questioned, which, as he says, could not with any 

 justice be impugned. He published in defence and development of 

 his opinion at various intervals, as the Specimen Beccherianum in 1703, 

 the Documentum Theorice Beccheriance, a Dissertation De Anatomia 

 Sulphuris Artificialis ; and finally, Casual Thoughts on the so-called 

 Sulphur, in 1718, in which he gave (in German) both a historical and a 

 systematic view of his opinions on the nature of salts and of his Phlogiston. 



Reception and Application of the Theory. The theory that the 

 formation of sulphuric acid, and the restoration of metals from their 

 calces, are analogous processes, and consist in the addition of phlogis- 

 ton, was soon widely received ; and the Phlogistic School was thus 

 established. From Berlin, its original seat, it was diffused into all 

 parts of Europe. The general reception of the theory may be traced, 

 not only in the use. of the term "phlogiston," and of the explanations 

 which it implies ; but in the adoption of a nomenclature founded on 

 those explanations, which, though not very extensive, is sufficient evi- 

 dence of the prevalence of the theory. Thus when Priestley, in 1774, 

 discovered oxygen, and when Scheele, a little later, discovered chlo- 

 rine, these gases were termed dephlogisticated air, and dephlogisticat- 

 ed marine acid ; while azotic acid gas, having no disposition to com- 

 bustion, was supposed to be saturated with phlogiston, and was called 

 phlogisticated air. 



This phraseology kept its ground, till it was expelled by the anti- 

 phlogistic, or oxygen theory. For instance, Cavendish's papers on the 

 chemistry of the airs are expressed in terms of it, although his re- 

 searches led him to the confines of the new theory. We must now 

 give an account of such researches, and of the consequent revolution 

 n the science. 



