J 



1S13.] M. Lavoisier. 85 



details his experiments upon its composition. In these he had 

 been anticipated by Margraaf, who in the Berlin Memoirs for 

 1750 had shown that gypsum is a compound of sulphuric acid, 

 lime, and water. 



3. In the Memoirs of the Academy for 1"7° are two very 

 elaborate papers by Lavoisier on the Nature of JVater, and on 

 the Experiments which were supposed to prove that it might le 

 converted into an Earth. In the first he gives a very full account 

 of the experiments and opinions of preceding chemists on this 

 subject. He states the experiments of Van Helmont, Boyle, 

 Triewald, Miller, Eller, Gleditch, Bonnet, Kraft, Alston, 

 Wallerius, Beecher, Stahl, and Margraaf. There is some 

 confusion in this historical detail. The experiments of Boyle, 

 Eller, and Margraaf, lead directly to the conclusion that water 

 by long digestion in glass vessels may be converted into earth ; 

 while the other experimenters endeavoured to prove that it 

 might be converted into all the constituent parts of vegetables. 

 In the second part he gives us the result of his own experiments, 

 from which it appears that warm water has the property of 

 decomposing glass ; and that the earth obtained by Boyle, Eller, 

 and Margraaf, was merely a portion of the silicious earth of the 

 glass vessels in which the experiments had been performed. 

 Scbeele came to the same conclusion, and details his experi- 

 ments in his Treatise on Fire, published in 1777- 



4. In the Memoirs of the Academy for 1771 we find his 

 Calculations and Observations on the Project of erecting a Steam 

 Engine to supply Paris with Water. This elaborate dissertation 

 being merely of a local nature, we do not consider it necessary 

 to give any details respecting it. 



5. A Memoir on the Use of Spirit of Wine in the Analysis of 

 Mineral Waters. Mem. Par. 177-- In this paper he details 

 his experiments on the solubility of different salts in alcohol of 

 different strengths. He gives many valuable directions about 

 the method of proceeding in the analysis of water ; -and relates 

 various experiments on the constituents of sea water, and on 

 other particulars connected with this branch of chemistry. 

 Though this paper is not equal in importance to the dissertation 

 published soon after by Bergman on the same subject, it pos- 

 sesses, notwithstanding, considerable value. Hence it is sur- 

 prising that it has been so completely overlooked by succeeding 

 writers on the subject. The greatest fault in it is the not giving 

 the specific gravity of the alcohol employed. 



(1. I'n o Memoirs on the Destruction of the Diamond Im Fire. 



Mem. Par. 1772. Published, I believe, in 1 77<i. The first of 



memoirs contains, according to the plan adopted by La- 



viiicr, an historical detail of t\ic experiments made by others 



