Memoir on the Incombustible Man, &'c. 47 



tides of su^ar acted on at once, the symbol for them will 

 be 10 w + 6 c -f- 8 h. Let three atoms of the carbon be 

 removed by the action of the nitric acid, there will remain 

 10 iv -f 3 c -f 8 h. Now 



A particle of oxalic acid =4iv-{-3c-{-2h 

 Six particles of water = 6 w - - -f- 6 h 



10 w + 3t+S/i 



which is just the quantity of oxalic acid left. This will give 

 us some idea of the way in which the formation of oxalic 

 acid by nitric acid is accomplished. And although the series 

 of changes is probably more complicated, yet they are ulti- 

 mately equivalent to the preceding statement. T allude to 

 the formation of malic acid, which is said to precede the 

 oxalic acid, and afterwards to be converted into it by the 

 subsequent action of nitric acid; but on the composition 

 and formation of this latter acid, I avoid making any obser- 

 vations at present, as 1 propose to make them the subject 

 of a separate dissertation. 



VI. Meynolr on the Incombustible Man ; or the pretended 

 Phenomenon of Incombustibility. Translated from th& 

 Italian of Louis Sementtni, M.D., chief Professor of 



Chemistry in the Royal University of Naples*. 



Preface. 



■L have- undertaken this short treatise after performing se- 

 veral experiments in the presence of some of my learned 

 friends, on the pretended incombustibility. . It is extraordi- 

 nary, that in examining all the phsenomena which Seiior 

 Lionetto has exhibited to the public, no one has mentioned 

 the most extraordinary of them, his proposal to enter an 

 pven, (I know not at what degree of Reaumur's thermome- 



* For this curious memoir we are indebted to Dr. Wollaston, Sec. and 

 F. R. S. We have frequently had occasion to notice the performances of 

 Senor Lionetto in our former volumes, but the above b the only scientific 

 account as yet published. 



ter,) 



