184 FLUORIC ACID AND ITS COMPOUNDS. 



tages in accounting for the phenomena. And as no 

 satisfactory evidence of the existence of fluorine 

 had been adduced, I think it safer in the pre- 

 sent state of the subject, to abide by the old 

 opinion, without pretending even to conjecture 

 which of the two opinions will be ultimately es- 

 tablished. Whoever can succeed in extracting 

 from fluoric acid*either a new combustible body, 

 or a new supporter, will settle the point. But 

 the difficulty of experimenting upon fluoric acid 

 is so great, in consequence of the property which 

 it has of decomposing glass vessels, that I was 

 heartily tired of it by the time that I had made 

 out its atomic weight and that of its two com- 

 pounds, which was the object that I had in view. 



