[ 221 ] 



V. Remarks en Dr. Girtanner's Memoir refpeSlhig the 

 Qiirjlion, ivhethcr Azot be a Jiinplc or a compound Bodj\ 

 By C. Berthollet *. 



D, 



R. PRIESTLEY long a^o made experiments \vhic|i a|; 

 fird induced him to belie\e, that water diftillcd from lime, 

 and, above a'l, fropi aroi(, or even without addition in ai} 

 earthen retort, or one of ro,ugh jiiafs, would be converted 

 into air; but he afterwards proved that this plieaomcnou 

 was fallacious, and that a tranfmiflipn only of the furround- 

 ing air took place on this occafion. Guyton added ionie 

 further obfervations to thofe of PrielUeytj and the circum- 

 i^ance fecmed to be fufficiently cleared up. 



Wiegleb, however, publifhed a memoir in which be pre- 

 tended to prove, by his own experiments and thofe of fonic 

 ©ther?, that the gas obtained bv making water pafs through 

 ignited earthen tubes, ought to be afcribcd only to the com- 

 bination of the aqueous vapour with the matter of heat, anfl 

 that this combination gave birth to azotic gas. 



Tliis memoir gave rife to an anfwer publiflied by Deiman, 

 Van Trooftwyk, and Lauwrenburg. Thefe learned chemills 

 examined, with the grcatell care, all the circumftances re- 

 fpefting the pretended produAion of azotic gas by water; 

 and I fliould have believed that no further doubt could exill 

 refpe£ting the confcquence they deduced from their experi- 

 ments, vix. " that the azotic gas"^ obtained in fome cafes by 

 making the fteam of water pafri through ignited tubes, arofp 

 merely from the exterior air deprived of its oxygen gas by th? 

 fire in which the tubes are placed, and that thus the prcr- 

 tended converfiou of \val£r into azotic gas, by its combina- 

 tion wiih the matter of heat, vaniflies." 



Aflcr all thefe difeullions, Girtanner fupports the new ideas 

 whijb he brings forwards in his memoir J on feveral facU, 

 the greater part of them borrowed, and already difculfed with 



* ¥tonn Aiiaa/ci J-Chj?7iii-, No. 103. f Encyclop.VoI. I. p. 674- 

 '^ Sec tliii Mumoir, j-- 333. 



care. 



