JOURNAL 



OP 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



F EBR U A RT 179 8. 



ARTICLE I. 



An Attempt to accommodate the Difpiites among the Chem'ijls concerning Phlogijlon. In a Letter 

 from Dr. MjTCHILL of Neiv Tork to JOSEPH FsiESTLEr, LL.D. F. R, S. ts'f. (2i'c. 

 Dated November. 20, 1797 *. 



CJn reviewing the ftate of philofophlcal controverfy as carried on both in Europe and 

 America between the Phlogiftians and their opponents ; it has of late appeared to me, that 

 much of the difficulty which attends the fubjeft arifes, as In abundance of other cafes, 

 from the want of a precife language and of a right underftanding of each other's meaning. 

 This was fo evident to me in the prefent cafe, that I informed my audience of it in one 

 of my public ledlures in Columbia College, and added my belief, that due attention to 

 terms, their application and ufe, would have great influence in bringing the difpute to a 

 termination. 



Having fubjefted water heated to the temperature of fleam in an eolipilc, and dire£ted 

 the fleam ifluing from it to the furface of red-hot charcoal ; the coal brightened, and a 

 greater flame was obferved near the fpot againfl which the fleam was made to play. 

 Here was an occurrence oppofing the common obfervation of mankind, that water will 

 always cxtinguifli fire by rcafon of its own incombuflibility. Water kept at or below a 

 certain temperature will cxtinguifli fire, and fo will oil; but if water be raifed to a heat 

 fufficicntly high, it will alfo burn or undergo deconipofition like oil. As far as I could 

 judge from ihc phenomena before me, water in proper circumftanccs underwent a true 

 combudion, and was inflammable for the fame reafon that oil was, bccaufc it contained a 

 fomething that would burn ; and this fomething feemed to be cxadlly fimilar to that which 

 made oil capable of exhibiting flame. It llruck me inllantly, that the inflammability of 



» L'gniniuiiita-cd l.y llic Auilii-r. N. 



Vol. I. — I'tiiPvLARv 1798. 3 Q. ll"* 



