328 EREMACAUSIS OR DECAY 



The combustibility of potassium is no measure of 

 its affinity for oxygen ; we have reason to believe 

 that the attraction of magnesium and aluminium for 

 oxygen is greater than that of potassium for the 

 same element ; but neither of those metals oxidizes 

 either in air or water at common temperatures, whilst 

 potassium decomposes water with great violence, 

 and appropriates its oxygen. 



Phosphorus and hydrogen combine with oxygen at 

 ordinary temperatures, the first in moist air, the 

 second when in contact with finely-divided platinum; 

 while charcoal requires a red heat before it can enter 

 into combination with oxygen. It is evident, that 

 phosphorus and hydrogen are more combustible 

 than charcoal, that is, that their affinity for oxygen 

 at common temperatures is greater ; and this is not 

 the less certain, because it is found, that carbon in 

 certain other conditions shows a much greater affini- 

 ty for oxygen than either of those substances. 



In putrefaction, the conditions are evidently pres- 

 ent, under which the affinity of carbon for oxygen 

 comes into play; neither expansion, cohesion, nor 

 the gaseous state, opposes it, whilst in eremacausis 

 all these restraints have to be overcome. 



The evolution of carbonic acid, during the decay 

 or eremacausis of animal or vegetable bodies which 

 are rich in hydrogen, must accordingly be ascribed 

 to a transposition of the elements or disturbance in 

 their attractions, similar to that which gives rise to 

 the formation of carbonic acid in the processes of 

 fermentation and putrefaction. 



The eremacausis of such substances is, therefore, 

 a decomposition analogous to the putrefaction of 

 azotized bodies. For in these there are two affini- 

 ties at play; the affinity of nitrogen for hydrogen, 

 and that of carbon for oxygen, and both facilitate the 

 disunion of the elements. Now there are two affini- 

 ties also in action in those bodies which decay with 

 the evolution of carbonic acid. One of these affini- 

 ties is the attraction of the oxygen of the air for the 



