1-28 On Mineralogy. 



said, were capable of existing in an intenDediafp condition, 

 having lost their phlogiston without having acquired oxyceH) 

 such as massicot seenud to he among the preparations of 

 Jead, finery cinder among the productions of iron, and cer- 

 tam of the white subhinaies among tlic modilicatii)ns of 

 zinc. He ilkistrafed this idea bv observing that carbon was 

 an example of these several combinations; for when united 

 with phlogiston it is intlannnable, or burns with blaze; 

 when associated with oxv>fen it is incombustible; and when 

 connected with neither ot them, it would indeed consume 

 by a red heat, tbrou^jh the connection it formed with oxy- 

 gen ; but, inasmuch as no phlogiston is present, there is no 

 appearance of flame. 



He expressed tbe probability of the metallic nature of car- 

 bon, phosphorus, and sulphur; all of which when com- 

 bined with metals might be considered as alloys, in the same 

 manner that the articles of the first order are when mixed 

 with each other. By reason of the different attractions 

 which the metallic bases exert for oxygen and for phlogiston, 

 at different degrees between the highest and lowest tempera- 

 tures, they are oxided or metallized; and those proces&es 

 in the more refractory, are aided by the chemical action 

 of the more fusible metals, and of inflammables, cooperating 

 with the requisite heat. And as both oNvgen and phlogiston 

 exist plentifully in the fire, the metallic basis, accordnig to 

 its constitution, combines either with one or the other, and 

 thereby becomes either a phlogislure or an oxide ; or it re- 

 mains unconnected with either in the middle stale, in which 

 some of the metals have been observed. 



In the course of h.is observations, professor Mitchill gave 

 an account of the experiments made, in the Royal institution 

 of London, on the earths and alkalies, and of the dispo- 

 sition of the inflummahle agent to attach itself to the ■nega- 

 tive side of the Voltaic apparatus, while the axijgcnoics ad- 

 hered to the positive. And finally, Dr. Mitchill, by an in- 

 dependent and different survey t>f this interestiug subject, 

 has arrived at a conclusion substantially the same with that 

 of prolessor Davy. 



XV'Iir. Account 



