On the Cosmogony of Moses. 179 
composed, and the nature as well as the mode of organization of 
the primitive matter of the globe will thereby be elucidated; and 
we shall extract oxygen from a substance in which its presence 
is least expected. This fact will, besides, denote that the metals 
the oxides of which are reducible by fire, owe this quality to a 
smaller dose of oxygen, which is at the same time the cause of 
their greater weight. 
Juncker had already ascertained that at a very intense heat 
silver is converted into a fused oxide ; and Richter mentions the 
fact of a considerable quantity of silver which a modern alchemist 
had kept in the fire several years, being thereby transformed 
into a mass of fused oxide. "M, Richter having obtained this 
mass, tried to reduce it, first by heat and afterwards by the usual 
reducers, but he was able to extract only a very small portion of 
etal, 
Silver, on being organized, may also become an acidifiable 
combustible; for between an oxide and such a body the distance 
is not great: and if azote is hydrogenated into ammonia, and 
if tellurium and arsenic, by an inverse action, from metals become 
acidifiable combustibles, silver may very well, on receiving ca- 
lorie, without losing hydrogen, become a double super-combina- 
tion of this principle, and constitute either an acidifiable com- 
bustible or the oxide of a different metal, more energetic, because 
it has more hydrogen, and because with precautions we may ob- 
tain it reduced. This will be the second artificial metal, and 
others will soon follow, which, like ammonia, will be deeom< 
posable, because it will exist by composition, and in which 
caloric, favoured by a disposing affinity, may be substituted for 
the hydrogen of the new metallization, and allow the oxide of 
silver to be reduced, per se, into its metal: but hydrogen at ‘a 
lesser heat might also be substituted for the water of the new 
metal, and thus present it to us reduced. How can we see 
oxide of silver resist reduction in the fire, without making such 
2 phenomenon the subject of the most serious meditation ? 
: ———SSS 
XLII. On the Cosmogony of Moses, in Answer to Dr. 
PritcuarD. By F, E——s, 
To Mr, Tilloch. 
Sir, — I FEEL no inclination to involve Doctor Prichard im 
eontroversy ; but as he has had the advantage of fully stating the 
grounds of his opinions, given in your Magazine, relative to 
the Mosaic cosmogony, it will, I presume, be allowed me briefly 
to examine whether he has succeeded in removing the objections 
against them indicated in my former letter, 
M2 
In 
