Oft tie Nature ef Galvanifw, Ekffrklty, Heat, i^e. 



23 X 



Laftly, It IS probable that all the benefits to enfue from the difcovery of procuring gum 

 from the lichen may not yet have occurred, it being well known, that there is no art or dif- 

 covery that is not the parent or filler of fome other. 



VI. 



On the Nature of Gahant/m, EleBricity, Heat^ the Compofttion of Water, and the Theory, of 



Chetniflry, By a Correfpondent. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON. 



SIR, 



A HE more I confider the obje£lIons which I ftarted refpefting the explanation of the 

 phenomena on the application of the influence from the pile of Volta to water by means 

 of wires, the more am I convinced that the fyftem of chemiftry, according to M. Lavoifier, 

 is not applicable to the appearances which are continually prefenting themfelves. However 

 that fyftem may be fan£tioned and fupported by the confent of eminent philofophers, yet I 

 truft that in every difcuflion of fubjefts of natural philofophy, the laudable defire of ac- 

 quiring truth will outweigh any prefumption which may appear in an oppofition of /ucji 

 favoured do£lrines. 



The communication from Dr. Babington, which appeared in your late Journal (IV. 511}, 

 "ivas decifive. It clearly proves, what I ffad ventured to fuggeft, that water is not com- 

 pofed of the bafes of oxigen and hidrogen air. If the two gafes feparated from water by the 

 pile were colle£led, and the hidrogen air burnt in the oxigen air, would not in that inftance 

 the two kinds of electricity be converted into ordinary culinary fire ? It appears that on 

 burning thofe airs together, the water, when colledted, has loft none of its weight ; if fo, 

 does not the fire produced originate from the pofitive and negative eleCtricifies ? If water 

 is not decompofed by the pile, whence comes the hidrogen 1 Hidrogen not being a com- 

 ponent part of water, its name furely ought to be changed. If the original weight and 

 quantity of water be again colle£led after the combuftion of thofe airs, which have been 

 fuppofe"d~to be its conftituent principles, by what procefs of reafoning can we aflent to the 

 bafes of thofe airs being peculiar elements or radicals. If the matter of heat were a fimple 

 body, and if the gafeous ftate of thefe radicals depended on the greater capacity they have 

 •for caloric, whence comes the difference obferved between them when they are becoming 

 fixed ; and why does one kind of eleftricity invariably produce the fame air? The follow- 

 ing is the manner in which the phenomena of the folid, liquid, and gafeous ftates of bodies 

 arc defcribed according to the theory of M. Lavoifier. 



All bodies, from their combination with caloric, may cxift in three different ftates, which 

 lefultfrom;. 



I. Tie 



