vir THE BURNING OF INFLAMMABLE AIR 117 



in the same manner and with the same circumstances as 

 inflammable air burns in vital air " (" Decomposition and 

 Recomposition of Water," Works, II. 334-359 ; p. 336). 



The experiment was repeated twice, with distilled water 

 and with a diluted alkali in place of the lime-water ; the 

 water, after the combustion, was as pure as before ; it gave 

 no signs of acidity, and the alkaline liquor was precisely in 

 the same condition as before the experiment. 



In June, 1783, the experiment was carried out on a larger 

 scale, inflammable air and vital air from two large reservoirs 

 being burnt together in a bell jar, inverted over mercury. 

 Half an ounce of water was collected. 



"This water, submitted to all the tests that one could 

 imagine, appeared as pure as distilled water : it did not 

 redden tincture of tournesol ; it did not turn syrup of violets 

 green ; it did not precipitate lime-water ; finally, by all the 

 known tests, one could not discover the least sign of 

 any impurity " (ibid. p. 338). 



Lavoisier was able to interpret his observations very 

 clearly and simply by means of his theory that burning 

 meant combination with oxygen and not loss of phlogiston. 

 In order to express his view that water was simply a compound 

 of inflammable air with oxygen, in the formation of which 

 "phlogiston played no part whatever," Lavoisier and his 

 colleagues suggested in 1787 the name HYDROGEN, or " water- 

 producer," for the inflammable gas. They say : 



"It is the only substance which produces water by its 

 combustion with oxygen gas . . ., and we have therefore 

 called it hydrogen, from v'Swp, water, and yeiVo/xai, / beget 

 experiments having proved that water is nothing but oxy- 

 genated hydrogen, or the immediate production of the 

 combustion of oxygen gas with hydrogen gas, deprived of 

 the light and caloric which disengage during the combustion" 

 (Chemical Nomenclature, tr. 1788, p. 24). 



