1 82 Travels in France 



the same if made from the same materials. A very simple 

 and elegant method of ascertaining the proportion of vital air, 

 he explained to us, by making the experiment; putting a morsel 

 of phosphorus into a glass retort, confined by water or mercury, 

 and inflaming it, by holding a bougie under it. The diminution 

 of air marks the quantity that was vital on the antiphlogistic 

 doctrine. After one extinction, it will boil, but not enflame. 

 He has a pair of scales made at Paris which, when loaded with 

 3000 grains, will turn with the twentieth part of one grain; an 

 air pump, with glass barrels, but one of them broken and repaired; 

 the Count de Buffon's system of burning lens; an absorber; a 

 respirator, with vital air in a jar on one side and lime-water in 

 another; and abundance of new and most ingenious inventions 

 for facilitating inquiries in the new philosophy of air. These 

 are so various, and at the same time so well contrived to answer 

 the purpose intended, that this species of invention seems to be 

 one very great and essential part of Monsieur de Morveau's merit; 

 I wish he would follow Dr. Priestley's idea of publishing his tools, 

 it would add not inconsiderably to his great and well earned 

 reputation, and at the same time promote the inquiries he 

 engages in amongst all other experimenters. M. de Morveau 

 had the goodness to accompany me in the afternoon to the 

 academy of sciences: they have a very handsome salon, orna- 

 mented with the busts of Dijon worthies; of such eminent men 

 as this city has produced, Bossuet — Fevret — De Brosses — De 

 Crebillon — P^Ton — Bonhier — Rameau — and lastly Buffon; and 

 some future traveller will doubtless see here that of a man 

 inferior to none of those. Monsieur de Morveau, by whom I had 

 now the honour of being conducted. In the evening we repaired 

 again to Madame Picardet, and accompanied her promenade: 

 I was pleased, in conversation on the present disturbances of 

 France, to hear Monsieur de Morveau remark that the outrages 

 committed by the peasants arose from their defects of lumieres. 

 In Dijon it had been publicly recommended to the cures to 

 enlighten them somewhat politically in their sermons, but all in 

 vain, not one would go out of the usual routine of his preaching. 

 — Quere, Would not one newspaper enlighten them more than 

 a score of priests? I asked Monsieur de Morveau how far it 

 was true that the chateaus had been plundered and burnt by 

 the peasants alone; or whether by those troops of brigands 

 reported to be formidable. He assured me that he has made 

 strict inquiries to ascertain this matter, and is of opinion that 

 all the violences in this province, that have come to his know- 



