154 •^ ''"^ KATVEE OF WATER. 



Questions on " vantages over the hypothesis, which supposes tivo different 

 JwTte"**"^^ °^ " **"'^* Hf ^^^<:^ricUi/, capable by combination of iieutra- 

 ** lizinjif each other. The only moditication, 1 would propose, 

 '* is a slight change of lefms ; and the adoption of thofe 

 " suj^gested by Mr. Cuthbertson, viz. condensed ni\A rare- 

 " Jied, instead of positive and negative, electriGity"— and 

 yet Dr. Henry, not only in the instance before quoted, but 

 in the subsequent parts of his valuable work, upon this 

 jtibject, ol>serves, throughout, the distinction of positive 

 and negative electricity*. 



In page 173 of Mr» Parkes's book is a note, in which he 

 insinuates, that, as Mr. Davy has discovered that what h 

 termed oxigen is the principle of alkalescencey as well as of 

 acidity^ the term oxigen is improper, and that kidrogen 

 would be a more unobjectionable term. 



If any of your correspondents will favour roe with remarks 

 wpon these points, 1 shall feel myself under great obliga- 

 tions to them. 



J am, Sir, 



Your constant reader, 



A. B. 

 Cheltenham, 



. 'J!he hypothesisi that water constitues the base of oxigen 

 jind hidrogen, is by no means new. It was thus that Dr. 

 Priestley, and others who maintained the doctrine of phlo- 

 giston, accounted for the appearance of water in Mr. Caven^ 

 di&h*s experiment of the combustion of hidrogen with 

 oxigen. Some have even considered water, as the ponder- 

 able, base of all the gassfs. The opinion, however, that 

 water is a compound of oxigen and hidrogen^, has long bee^ 

 generally admitted ; and though Mr, Davy observed, in 

 the paper alluded to, that his experiments at that tim^ 

 seerned in some (degree favourable to a modified phlogistic 

 theory, yet a constant reader must have seen, that he con- 

 sidered this opinion hy ho ijoeans supported by bis suh- 

 ^equent experiments. C, 



* When t wrote the'fofcgomg, 1 had not seen the article in your last 

 Jourrtalodi rt!e'elect(ic effects of friction, 



X, Bemarks 



