LORD BROUGHAM’S APPENDIX. 471 
whole of the inflammable air lose their elasticity, and form by 
their condensation the dew that covers the glass... .. On 
examining the dew, Cavendish found that it consisted of pure 
’ water..... He thence concluded that nearly all the in- 
flammable air and about one sixth of the common air are 
turned into pure water.” 
In a similar way, Cavendish burned a mixture of inflam- 
mable air, and dephlogisticated air (or hydrogen and oxygen) ; 
the fluid that was precipitated was always more or less acid, 
according as the gas burned with the inflammable air contained 
more or less phlogiston. The acid thus engendered was nitric 
acid. 
Mr. Cavendish ascertained that nearly the whole of the in- 
flammable air and the dephlogisticated air are converted into 
pure water ; also, that if those airs could be obtained in a per- 
fectly pure state, the whole would be condensed. If common 
air and inflammable air do not yield any acid when they are 
burnt, it is, according to our author, because the heat is not 
then intense. ’ 
Cavendish declares that his experiments, except in as far as 
they relate to the acid, were made in the summer of 1781, 
and that Priestley was aware of them. He adds, “ One of my 
friends gave some account of them to Lavoisier, in the course 
of last spring (the spring of 1783), and also of the result that 
I had inferred from them, that is to say, that dephlogisticated 
air is water deprived of its phlogiston. But at that time, La- 
voisier was so far from thinking that such a opinion was legiti- 
mate, that until the moment when he determined to repeat 
the experiments himself, he felt some difficulty in believing 
that nearly the whole of the two airs could be converted into 
water.” 
The friend alluded to in the preceding passage was Dr., 
since become Sir Charles Blagden. It is a remarkable cir- 
cumstance, that this passage in the work of Mr. Cavendish 
should not have formed part of the original Memoir that was 
presented to the Royal Society. The Memoir seems to be 
written in the author’s own handwriting ; but the paragraphs — 
