
336 Mr. Wartie’s Thoughts on the conftituent 
6. ** In every cafe, wherein dephlogifticated air has been’ : 
< produced, fubftances have been employed, fome of whofe’ 
** conftituent parts have a {trong attraction for phlogiften, and, 
*¢-as it wouldiappear, a fironger attraction for that fubftance 
‘¢ than umor has; they fhould, therefore, dephlogifticate the 
«¢ water” or fixed air,-and the Aumor thus fet free fhould unite 
to the matter of fire and light and become pure air. Dephlo- 
eiftieated air is produced in great abundance from melted nitre. 
“¢ The acid of nitre has a greater attraction for phlogifton than 
“¢ anyother fubftance is known to have; and.it)1s-alfo certain, 
«s that, nitre, befides, its water of .cryftallization, contains a 
“* quantity of water as one of its elementary parts, which 
s water adheres to the other parts of the nitre;wath a force. 
“s fufficient to enable it to fuftain a red heat. When the nitre’ 
«¢ is melted, or made red-hot, the acid acts upon the water and’ 
“¢ dephlogifticates it; and the fire fupplies the umor with the? 
“¢ due quantity of heat to conftitute it ar, under which forme 
“* it immediately iffues. It is not*eafy to tell what becomes of | 
«the acid of nitre and phlogifton, which are fuppofed to’be! 
‘¢ united,” as they feem to be loft in the procefs. Dr. Priesr- 
LEY has lately made fome experiments, with a view to afcer-. 
tain this point. He diftilled dephlogifticated air from pure 
nitre, in an.earthen retort glazed within and without. He? 
employed 2 0z.=960 grains of nitre: the retort was placed in’ 
an air furnace, and, by means of an intenfe heat, he obtained’ 
from the nitre in,one experiment 7*7, and in another experi 
ment 800 ounce meafures of dephlogifticated air; and he found: 
that, upon weighing the retort and nitre before and after the’ 
procefs, they had fuffered a lofs of. weight equal to’ the weight » 
of the air, and to the water of cryftallization of the mitre, but - 
nothing more. He remarked, that the air had a pungent: 
| {mell, 
