276 On the Mosaic Cosmogony. 



theory. This labour not being yet terminated, I shall confine 

 myself for the present to saying, 



1. Tliat the neutral pliosphitcs are changed into phosphaten 

 without ceasing to be neutral, as M. Gay-Lussac had already 

 observed. 



2. T!iat the neutral hvpophosphites become acid phosphates, 



3. That the phosplioric acitl stronglv calcined contains a 

 quantity of water, the oxvgcn of which is as the third part as is 

 the case in some phosphates. 



4. That the metallic phosphurets obtained by the process 

 which I have indicated, correspond with the protoxides soluble 

 in the acids ; that by passing the phosphorus to the state of 

 phosphoric acid, and the metal to the state of pratoxide, there 

 results a neutral phosphate, in which the oxygen of the acid is 

 to the oxygen of the base : : 5 : 2 ; and consequently, if the metal 

 passes to a higher degree of oxidation, there is formed a sub- 

 pl'osphate, in which the ratio of the quantities of oxygen be- 

 comes tliat of 5 : .'5 or 5 : 4. 



5. Tliat the phosphites and the phosphates have, with the 

 nitrites and nitrates, a very great analogy as to proj>ortions; — that 

 the same analogy has been already remarked in the proportions 

 of the acids with a base of phosphorus and azote. 



6. That sulphur and phosphorus do not present so many 

 points of contact in their properties as generally supposed. 



7. That the forces which produce the combinations seem to 

 flow from another source than those which determine their pro- 

 portions. 



8. Finally: that when one and the same body can form several 

 acids with oxygen, the same base produces, with these acids, salts 

 so much the more soluble the less oxygen there is in the acid. 



LV. On the Mosaic Cosmogomj. By Mr. A. Horx. 



To Mr. Tilloch. 



Sir, — IN EVER having been a principal in the dispute re- 

 specting the Mosaic Cosmogony, — though it is now terminated, 

 may I be allowed, as an " auxiliary," to make one or two re- 

 marks upon the EUl)ject? I wish the more especially to do so, 

 because the party that has ostensibly left the field, retires as if 

 his positions never have nor ever can be refuted. 



On reviewing the controversy, the anti-cosmoiogist may be 

 compared to a foreigner, who presumes to decide upon the me- 

 rits of our great dramatic poet by a French translation ; and 



though 



