relating to Air and Water, 2 S 7 



Jn all the above-mentioned experiments, the inflammable air 

 was that which is produced by the lolution of iron In acid-. 



As before I had finifhed this courfe of experiments I had- 

 fatisfied mvfeif that inflammable air always contains a portioii- 

 of water, and alfo, that: when it has been lome time confined 

 by water, it imbibes more, foas to-be increaied in its fpecinc. 

 gravity by that means, L repeated the experiment w^ith inflam- 

 mable air which had not been confined by water j. but which was- 

 received in a veflel of- dry mercury from tha veflel in which it 

 was -generated ; but I prefently perceived that wrater was oro- 

 duced in this cate alfo, and to appearance as copioufly as in the 

 former experiment, hideed, the quantity of WT.ter produced, 

 which fo greatly exceeded the w^eight of all the inflammable 

 air,^ is fufficient to prove that it muil: have had fom.e other- 

 fource tiian any conflituent part of:that air, or the whole of it.^.. 

 together with the water, conttained in it, without taking into^ 

 confideratlon the correfpondinglofs of weight in the iron.- 



I mufi: here obfervc, tliat the iron flag which I had treated ill- 

 this manner, and which had thereby loft the weight which - 

 it had acquired by melting in dephlogifticated air, became per- 

 feoi iron as at flrft, and was then capable of being melted^ by 

 the burning lens again; fo that the fame piece of iron would" 

 ferve for thefe experiments as long as the operator fhould chufe. 

 It was evident, therefore, that if the iron had loft its phlo- 

 gifton in the preceding fufion, it had acquired it again from the^ 

 inflammable air which it had abforbed ; and I do not fee. how the 

 experiment can be accounted for in any other way,, which ne- • 

 ceflarily implies the reality of phlogifton as a conftituent prin- 

 ciple in bodies. This, at leaft, is the moft natural way of. 

 accouiitiDg for the appearances. - 



5 , Having" 



