CLAIMS OF LAVOISIER, '23i 



VIII. 



On tlie supposed Discoveries of Lavoisier, In a Letter 

 from E. D. 



To Mr, NICHOLSON. 

 SIR, 



-jp Edin. June\5t/i, I8O6. 



JLN addi[ion to my remarks on M. Lavoisier's claims to the Additional re- 



discoverv oi oxidatio?}, inserted in your last number, I now send i"arks on M. 



•^ . ... Lavoisier's pre- 



you som.e other facts on that subject, and on acidification, to- ten ions to 



gether with such observations, as will, I hope, tend to ascer- |, '^,'.*^ 

 tain pretty correctly the justice and true extent of his preten- 

 sions. 



M. Lavoisier himself tells us, that in the year l630, J. Rey, The doctrine 



a physician at Bu^ue, in Periword, combated the opinion of °* •^*^'^" ^^5"' 



^ -^ ° " ' ^ that metals ac^ 



Cardan and others, concerning ihe cause of the augmentation quire weight in 



of weij^ht of metallic oxides : he shewed that it did not proceed oxidation from 



^ . . ' the air. 



from the condensation of the soot in the furnace, nor from the 



vessel, nor from any emantion of the charcoal, nor from the 

 humidity of the air: but by conclusive reG«o?2z/?^ he maintained, 

 that the increase of weight arose from the air of the vessel, 

 %vhich attaches itself to the minutest molecules of the calx, in 

 the same manner as water does to sand, adhering to the smallest 

 grains, and rendering them heavy. These opinions of Rey 

 were afterwards quite forgotten : and Boyle and Lemery attri- 

 buted the augmentation of weight to the fixation of fire.* 



Mayow, in his tract de Sal-Nitro et Sp. Nit. Aereo, pub- Mayow as- 



lished in 1^74, has these words, in speaking of the calcination ^'"''^'^•^ *^^'^ ^"o" 



., . , mentation to 



of antunony : " Neque illud prcetereundum est, quod antimo- mtro-aereal 



** ninm, radiis solaribus calcinatum, baud parum in pondere P^^*;'^'^^ ^''*^°* 



" augetur, uti experientia compertum est : quippe vix concipi 



" potest, unde augmentum illud antimonii, nisi a particulis 



" nitro-aereis, igneisque ei inter calcinandum infixis, procedat. 



" Plane ut antimonii fixatio, non tam a sulphuris ejus externi 



*' absuniptione, quam a particulis nitro-aereis, quibus flamma 



" nitri abundat,"ei infixis provenire videatur.^f 



In 



* Phil. Journ. Jan. 1806, p. 82. 



t Tractat. quinque, p. 28—9. (In English) Neither must it be 

 overlooked, that antimony, calcined by the solar rays, is not a little 



' increased 



