A HISTORY OF METABOLISM 9 



many animals of different species with a view of isolating that part of 

 the air which was "eminently respirable." Thus he suggests in a sub- 

 division entitled "Of Air in Reference to Fire and Flame" in his work 

 on "The General History of the Air" (1680) the following experiments: 



The burning of candles under a glass bell. 



Tjie burning of spirits of wine under a glass bell. 



The keeping of animals in the same instrument whilst the flame is 

 burning. 



In the "Sceptical Chemist," which appeared in 1661, Boyle thus 

 voices his opinions: 



Now a man need not be very conversant in the writings of chemists to ob- 

 serve in how lax, indefinite and almost arbitrary senses they employ the terms 

 salt, sulphur and mercury. . . . 



But I will not here enlarge upon this subject nor yet will I trouble you 

 with what I have largely discoursed in the "Sceptical Chemist," to call in ques- 

 tion the grounds on which chemists assert that all mixed bodies are compounded 

 of salt, sulphur and mercury. 



Boyle lived in the period of the birth of national scientific societies. 

 The Academie des Sciences was founded in Paris by Louis XIV, who, 

 after the peace of the Pyrenees in the fullness of his power, felt that his 

 kingdom needed nothing further than to be fortified by science, industry 

 and art, and he instructed his minister Colbert to carry out his desires. 

 The members were given stipends from the state. This was the first 

 example of state endowment of science. About the same time the Royal 

 Society of London was established in England, which was the outgrowth 

 of a gathering of men at first held surreptitiously. This older organiza- 

 tion, of which Boyle was a member, is still perpetuated as the Royal 

 Society Club. 



Among those influenced by Boyle was one John Mayow. 



John Mayow (1640-1679), "descended from a genteel family of his 

 name living at Bree in Cornwall, was born in the parish of St. Dunstan- 

 in-the-West, in Fleet Street, London, admitted as a scholar of Wadham 

 College the 23rd of September, 1659, aged sixteen years," (Beddoes). His 

 scientific work was accomplished at All Soul's, Oxford. Some of his ex- 

 periments may be thus recounted : 



Camphor placed in a capacious glass vessel inverted over water is 

 ignited by a burning glass. After cooling, the air is reduced one-thirtieth 

 in bulk. A second piece of camphor will not burn, "a clear proof that 

 the combustion has deprived the air of its fire-air particles so as to 

 have rendered it altogether unfit to support flame." 



A mouse was put into a wire trap and this was placed on a three- 

 legged stool which stood in water and the whoje was covered with a bell 

 jar. The volume of the air diminished one-fourteenth. 



