10 Mayow 



into a hardish mass with a little water, and let a 

 small tube, closed at one end, be densely filled with 

 it by forcibly ramming the stuff in with a stick. 

 Next, let that gunpowder be set on fire at the open 

 end of the tube, and the tube be inverted and plunged 

 into water, and kept there. Then the gunpowder will 

 deflagrate under water until it is all gone. Moreover, 

 that powder, arranged in the manner aforesaid, will 

 burn in a glass containing no air, although other fires 

 are presently extinguished because the aerial food is 

 withdrawn — a sufficiently clear proof that sal niirum 

 contains in itself the igneo-aerial particles necessary 

 to the production of flame ; so that for its deflagra- 

 tion there is no need for a supply of igneous particles 

 from the air. 



That igneo-aerial particles exist in nitre is further 

 evident from this, that flame produced by deflagrating 

 nitre is caused by the igneo-aerial particles residing in 

 it and bursting out in a compact body with fiery 

 motion, but not by its sulphureous particles. For it 

 is probable that nitre has no sulphureous particles as 

 ingredients ; for I cannot agree with the famous Dr 

 Willis, who has stated in his treatise on Fermentation 

 that there is a great deal of sulphur in nitre. His 

 principal arguments are these — that if nitre is thrown 

 upon the fire it will immediately produce a flame, and 

 that it is especially generated in places where there 

 are sulphureous animal excrements. But, with all 

 due respect to so eminent a man, I should have 

 thought that nitre, pure and simple, is in no wise im- 

 pregnated with sulphureous particles. For neither in 

 the rectified spirit of nitre nor in pure sal alkali is 

 any combustible sulphur to be found ; and yet, from 

 the combination of these two, nitre will be produced. 

 But, because nitre produced in this manner will defla- 



