235 CLAIMS or LAVOlSfER. 



Other facts Dr. llales remarked that acid sulphureous fuel attracts and 



acidification, condenses air, from which it may be inferred that he had aC' 

 tually detected an acid in the combustion of sulphur ; hut the 

 acid principle he seems to have considered as residing in the 

 sulphur ar.d not in the air. I have not by me the late Profes- 

 sor Robison's edition of Dr. Black's Lectures, but 1 think I 

 remember to have there seen, that Dr. Rutherford, Professor 

 of Botany in this University, was led, from experiment, to 

 form the same conclusion concerning the formation of sulphu- 

 ric acid, as M.Lavoisier afterwards maintained; and that 

 nothing but the rooted prejudice of Mr. Robison and others 

 prevented Dr. Rutherford from anticipating M. Lavoisier in 

 this theory of acidification. 

 Lavoisier, with Next in order came M. Lavoisier, who having repeated the 

 lesVprevious experiments of Boyle and Hales on the calcinatiop ot metals, 

 discove.yby j^^i^ ascertained that oxigen in all cases combined with them, 



others, has , , , . . , , . , ■ . „ , , 



shewn mich extended his views to the combustion of cei'tain inflammable 

 ehilitv ivi gene- substances, and found the product, instead of calx, to be a 

 ment and in- ^^li^ ^^ gaseous substance, possessed of acid properties. Un- 

 duction, hut doubtedly the confirmation and extension of these facts are 



little disposi- , . , , t , i • i i • r -r 



tioii to display "ighly creditable to the industry and sagacity ot Lavoisier : but 

 those prior fj.(,,^j what has been already stated, it appears that Mayow first 

 shewed that, to the constitution of the acid spirit of nitre, a 

 certain portion of the air of the atmosphere was necessary ^ 

 that Hales had in all probability found this acid by the com- 

 bustion of sulphur ; and that Rutherford had not only done the 

 same thing, but had drawn the proper conclusion from it. Be 

 it remembered also, that the great fact essential to complete' 

 the explanation of acidification, viz. the discovery of oxigen 

 gas, was known to Lavoisier, but at the time unknown to aU 

 these authors ; and that, in truth, oxidation and acidification, 

 effected by combustion, are only particular examples of that 

 iTfiore general law which M. Lavoisier so successfully laboured 

 to establish, — viz. that in every case of combustion, oxigen 

 combines with the burning body, and forms various compounds 

 according to the nature and composition of that body. The 

 nature, however, of these compounds, the phenomena which 

 attend their formation, and all the variation of circumstances 

 with which, and under which, they take place, have not hither- 

 to been distinctly traced out and ascertained; and until this 



be 



