in Chemical Philosophy. 369 
uipon the most delicate balance, they may be deemed im- 
poudeiable. 
When a communication is made between the inside and 
the outside of a charged jar, by some conductor of electri- 
city, combustion is produced. This well known experiment 
shows, that these two invisible imponderable fluids, which 
are generally called positive and negative electricity, are the 
very elements of combustion. 
Now, as the electric machine creates nothing, these fluids 
become an important subject of investigation. 
A Leyden jar cannot be charged when al! communication 
is cut off between it and the earth, nor unless it has com- 
munication, at the same time, with the atmosphere. Now, 
from these unquestionable facts, it appears that one of those 
fluids is derived from the atmosphere, and the other from 
the earth. 
Oxygen and hydrogen gases are diffused throughout all 
nature, in great abundance. More than one-fifth of the 
atmosphere consists of oxygen gas. And that gas found in 
the interior parts of the earth, formerly called inflammable 
air, is hydrogen gas. 
Oxygen gas is composed of oxygen, which is an invisible 
imponderable active element, united toa ponderable base. 
Hydrogen gas is composed of an invisible and imponde- 
rable element, united to ponderable matter*. 
Now, when a Leyden jar is receiving a charge from an 
electric machine, one side of the jar receives oxygen from 
the oxygen gas of the atmosphere, and the other side re- 
ceives hydrogén from the hydrogen gas contained in the 
earth. 
The truth of this theory may be proved by various well 
known experiments. : 
An electric machine acts very imperfectly when many 
candles stand near it, because the candles consume the oxy- 
gen in the air. And for the same reason, all electrical ex 
periments, made with a small apparatus by candle light, are 
inconsistent with those made in day. 
It is known, that, by concentrating the solar rays upon 
any body, a most intense heat is produced ; and that almost 
all the combinations which can be effected by combustion, 
may be in this manner accomplished. 
“ Now the portion of solar light, which contributes to 
these effects, must be the calorific rays ; for neither the il- 
* An clement is not an object of our senses, but an invisible imponde- 
rable power which acts on matter; as gravity, magnetism, &c, : 
‘Vol, 42, No.187. Nov, 1813. Aa laminating 
