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LXXX. Netu Outlines of Chemical Philosophy. 

 By Ei5. Walker, Esq. of Lynn, Norfolk. 



[Continued from p. 331.] 



JL* ROM that oeconomy which we observe in every part of the 

 creation, it is reasonable to suppose tliat some general law ob- 

 tains, in most of the phsenomena which appear upon the surface 

 of our globe, and in the atmosphere that surrounds it. The 

 Ttsing vapour, the falling rain, the vivid lightning, and the roll- 

 ing thunder, are governed by the same laws that rule all the 

 living functions of plants and animals. 



Now the earth contains two elements., whose joint action on 

 matter causes all those various effects which engage the atten- 

 tion of the chemical j)hilosopher. 



An clement is an active power which is invisible, imponde- 

 rable, and untangible, and of which we know nothing, but from 

 the effects which it produces on matter; gravity, magnetism, 

 and electricity, are not the effects of any knov/n cause, and 

 therefore thev may be called elements. 



The imponderable element of hydrogen gas of Lavoisier, the 

 phlogiston of Scheele and Priestley, and the negative electricity 

 of Franklin, are only different names for the same element. 



And the fire-air of Scheele, the dephlogisticated air of Priest- 

 ley, and the oxygen gas of Lavoisier, are only different names 

 for the same gas, the elementary part of which is the same as 

 the positive electricity of Franklin. 



When a Leyden phial is discharged through the air, a spark 

 is elicited producing both light and heat. This well-known ex- 

 periment seems to establish beyond the reach of doubt, that 

 this effect is produced by the two elements of conibustion ; po- 

 sitive electricity being the element of heat, and negative electri- 

 city that of light. 



Whence it must evidently appear, that heat and light are not 

 elements, but the effects of the two elements of combustion, 

 which exist together in the earth and in all other bodies upon its 

 surface. These elements, when thus united in matter, coun- 

 teract each other, but can be made evident to the senses by 

 several well-known methods. Now fire being produced by fric- 

 tion, collision, percussion, &c. it was supposed that fire existed 

 in bodies in a fixed state, and was, therefore, called caloric or 

 fixed fire. This hypothesis seems to have arisen from the true 

 theory of combu .tion being then unknown. 



Light and heat are two separate and distinct bodies; for we 

 have light without heat, and heat withont light. Animal heat 



produces 



