^g5 0/J Hydrngeiit as the Principle of Flame. 



flattered mvfelf tliey hnve a tc.ukncy to accommodate and reconcile the gentlemen of both 

 fides to each other, and to the truth. But in tl>is if I have deceived myfelf, I have only ,., 

 appeal to your known experience and candour. It does however feem to me capab e o 

 getting through with much of the difcuffion not yet folved between Mr. K.rwan and the 

 French philofonhers ; and between yourfelf and Meffrs. Adet and Maclean ; and I fuf- 

 pea the celebrated experiments of Mrs. Fulhame are in no wife repugnant to th.s mode of 

 interpretation. , . ., 



Permit me to exprefs my fatlsfaaion, before I conclude, that you have not given up the 

 points before the philofophical world, without due examination. I no more like unani- 

 mous decifions in hade upon a queftion of fcience than of legiOation. The fure way to .n- 

 troducc errors both into laws and into philofophical performances, is to afient to new bills 

 and proiefls upon the credit and authority of the propofer. without compelling them to 

 undergo the amendments of debate. And I cannot help confidering your refufal lo agree to 

 ^Vthat the New Nomenclature Men have averted and recommended, as a fortunate event 

 inphilofophy; as I am fure. with refpeft to myfelf, the oppofitlon you have made has 

 caufed me to confider the fubjefts in difpute with greatly more attention than I otherwife 

 fliould have done. With much refpe^ I beg leave to aflurc you that I am, &c. 



SAM. L. MITCHILL. 



ASNOTATIONS upon the preceding LEtTSR- 

 Steam in an colifi/e.J It is well known that ignited charcoal in the gun,barrel decompofes 

 .vater, and that the produds are hvdrogene and carbonic acid gas. In this cafe the cnrbone u 

 burned, and the hydrogene unburned. Are we to fuppofe that the water was firft decom- 

 pofed in Dr. Mitchill's experiment, and then rccombined by a fecond combuftion of the 

 hydro-ene? or was the eileft any thing more than an increafed energy of combuftion by 

 the greater afHux of atmofpheric air mechanically impelled by the fleam ? Dr. Lewis * 

 found that the fleam from the eolipile always extinguiftied his fires, unlefs the vapour was 

 made to pafs through a portion of the atmofphere. Whence I infer that the quantities of 

 heat carried ofl" and rendered latent in giving clafticity to the hydrogene and carbonic ac.d 

 are fo great as fpeedlly to diminifli the temperature, and terminate the combuftion of the 

 charcoal; unlefs, as in the experiment of the gun-barrel, there be a fufficient fupplyof heat 



from without. .,. n. i 



h, this unhappy affoclation.] The argument of alTocintion of ideas feems to militate ftrongly 

 againft; the reception of the word phiogifton in a new fenfe. 



Burning with fame or Haze.] Though the author's arguments in favour of hydrogene. as 

 the exclufive caufe of flame, may be hypothetically applied to all the inftances m which this 

 appearance is feen ; yet tlie contrary pofition. namely, tliat bodies, whether mechanically di- 

 vided, fuch as the powder of refin or coal, or chemically, as zinc in the elaftic ftate during 

 fubhmation, may be fet on fire and exhibit the appearance of an ignited tranfparcnt fluid, 

 fuch as flame, feems at leaft equally probable. It cannot therefore be ftatcd as matter of 

 faft, that where flame is there mull neceflarily be hydrogene. 

 ♦ Philofoph. Commerce of Aas, p. n. 



