Mr. Henry on Ferments arid Fermentation. 293 



I have avoided carrying thefe refleftions to the 

 phsenomena which appear in the putrid fermen- 

 tation, as not fo immediately conneded with 

 faccharine fubftancesj and from a convifVion 

 that I have already engrofled too much of the 

 Society's time. — If 1 have contributed any thing 

 to their entertainment, or that may tend to 

 enlarge the bounds of fcience, I fhall efteem 

 myfelf happy ^ and, more fo, if what has been 

 advanced may prove ufeful and advantageous to 

 my fellow-creatures — Senfible that one fuch fadt 

 is of more real worth, than the moft ingenious 

 and well-wrought hypothefis. 



that it was refolved into the two conftituent parts, viz. pure, 

 and inflammable air, of which it has been imagined, by 

 Mr. Lavoifier, and others, to be formed. But notwith- 

 ftanding a late experiment, made by this ingenious philo- 

 fopher, the refult of which feems favourable to my hypo- 

 thefis, I had, for various reafons, relinquidied this part of 

 it, before I had the pleafure of perufmg Mr. Rigby's Che- 

 mical Obfervations on Sugar, which contain fonie very candid 

 and weighty objeftions to the do^rine. Among thefe Mr. 

 Rigby remarks, that it never has been proved that water 

 does confift of pure and inflammable air, and flnce the pub- 

 lication of his Treatife, the evidence againft the prefump^ 

 tion is become ftrong by Dr. Prieftley's late Experiments, 

 by which it appears, that the water, produced in the ex- 

 plofion of thefe airs, is not a new compound, from a union 

 of the two, but a feparation of the water previoufly con- 

 tained in them. The degree of heat, Mr. Rigby obferves, 

 feems inadequate to the fuppofed efFeft, but fermentation in 

 many inlhnces, which might be adduced, brings on by flow 

 degrees, changes flmilar to thofe effeftcd, more inflanta- 

 pcou/ly, by the adion of heat. 



U 3 On 



