{ 329 J 
XXV. Thoughts on the conffituent Parts of Water and of De- 
phlogifticated Air ; with an Account of fome Experiments on 
ye Subjed. In a Letter from Mr. James Watt, Engineer, 
to Mr. De Luc, F. RS 
Read April 29, 1784. 
rigger Scie eaeemenene nee 
N compliance! with your defire, I fend you an account of the 
hypothefis I have ventured to form on the probable caufes 
of the produétion ef ‘water from the deflagration of a mixture 
of dephlogifticated and inflammable aS) in fome of our friend 
Dr. Priestiey’s experiments. 
- I feel much relu€tance to lay my thoughts:on thefe fubjects 
before the public in their prefent indigefted ftate, and without 
having been able to bring them to the'teft of fuch experiments 
as would confirm or refute them; and fhould, therefore, have 
delayed the publication of them until thefe experiments had 
been made, if you, Sir, and fome other of my philofophical 
friends, had not thought them as plaufible as any other conjec- 
tures which have been formed on the fubje@; and that though 
they fhould not be verified by further experiments, or approved 
of by men of {cience in general, they may perhaps merit a 
difcuffion, and give rife to.experiments which may throw light 
on fo important a fubjec. 
I firft thought of this way of folving the ‘oer iasad in 
| €ndeavouring to account for an experiment of Dr. PrizstT- 
i 
Vout. LXXIYV. xX x LEY Sy 
