On the Chemical TFritings of Scheele. 55 



spectability, as experimenters. The authority of Scheele 

 scarcely admits of a doubt, and his statements of che- 

 mical facts and experiments have always been received 

 without hesitation. If errors are committed by men of 

 his eminence, surely, we should be very cautious in re- 

 ceiving, as undeniable, the many discoveries stated by 

 the numerous authors of the present time. 



Scheele wished to ascertain, ■' whether heat alone 

 would produce air from sulphur ?" For this purpose, he 

 *' put a piece of sulphur in a retort, with a bladder tied 

 to it, and kept the sulphur strongly boiling during the 

 space of half an hour*." 



Our author then says, " The air in the retort was 

 neither increased nor diminished, and was changed into 

 foul air." Scheele's Chemical Observations and Expe- 

 riments on Air and Fire. Kirwan's edition, p. 188. 



I suspected the accuracy of the above experiment, be- 

 cause, 1st, I knew that sulphur could be readily oxided in. 

 a low temperature. And, 2dly, because it is stated, that 

 the air in the retort suffered no change as regards its bulk, 

 at the same time that it is asserted to have been changed 

 into '''■foul air.^'' It is well known, that Scheele desig- 

 nates azotic gas by the term of '■'■foul air.'" This, cer- 

 tainly, could not have been the result of his experiment, 

 unless an absorption of the oxygenous portion of the at- 

 mospheric air contained in the retort had previously taken 

 place. 



* It is proper to remark, that, with the sulphur, atmospheric 

 air was confined in the retort. 



