432 CAVENDISH. 



this whole statement. In Mr. Cavendish's paper, of 

 1766, upon fixed and inflammable airs, there is not 

 one word said of the moisture formed by the com- 

 bustion ; and respecting inflammable air, the experi- 

 ments are confined entirely to its burning or exploding, 

 to its specific gravity, and to its production. The paper 

 of 1784 is, in fact, entitled ' Experiments upon Air,' and 

 it commences with stating, not that those experiments 

 were undertaken with any view to the water formed 

 by burning inflammable air, but that they were made 

 " with a view to find out the cause of the diminution 

 which common air is well known to suffer by all the 

 various ways in which it is phlogisticated, and to 

 discover what becomes of the air thus lost or con- 

 sumed ;" and the author adds, that besides " determining 

 this fact, they also threw light on the constitution 

 and means of production of dephlogisticated air." In- 

 stead of referring to any former observation of his own 

 either in 1766, or subsequently, on the moisture left 

 by burning inflammable air, he expressly refers to 

 Mr. Warltire's observation of this moisture, as related 

 by Dr. Priestley : and both Mr. Warltire's observation 

 and Dr. Priestley's publication were made in 1781. 

 Upon this observation Mr. Cavendish proceeded to 

 further experiments, with the view of ascertaining 

 " what becomes of the air lost by phlogistication." 



accounts are plainly given by some persons who never read Mr. 

 Cavendish's writings. But a still greater error occurs in them : 

 they represent him as having first shown that fixed and inflammable 

 airs are separate bodies from common air ; whereas Dr. Black, in his 

 Lectures from 1755 downwards, showed this distinctly by his experi- 

 ments, proving clearly that these gases have nothing in common 

 with the atmospheric air (vol. ii., p. 87, 88). 



