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Conlidering inflammable air as air united to or 

 loaded with phlogifton, I expofed to it feveral fub- 

 flances, which are faid to have a near affinity with 

 phlogifton, as oil of vitriol, and fpirit of nitre (the 

 former for above a month), but without making any 

 fenlible alteration in it. 



I obferved, however, that inflammable air, mixed 

 with the fumes of fmoaking fpirit of nitre, goes off 

 at one explofion, exactly like a mixture of half com- 

 mon and half inflammable air. This I tried feveral 

 times, by throwing the inflammable air into a phial 

 full of fpirit of nitre, with its mouth immerfed in a 

 bafon containing fome of the fame fpirit, and then 

 applying the flame of a candle to the mouth of the 

 phial, the moment that it was uncovered, after it 

 had been taken out of the bafon. This remarkable 

 efTecl: I haftily concluded to have arifen from the in- 

 flammable air having been in part deprived of its in- 

 flammability, by means of the ftronger affinity, 

 w T hich the fpirit of nitre had with phlogifton, and 

 therefore I imagined that by letting them ftand longer 

 in contact, and efpecially by agitating them ftrongly 

 together, I mould deprive the air of all its inflam- 

 mability ; but neither of thefe operations fucceededi 

 for ftill the air was only exploded at once, as before. 

 And laftly, when I parted a quantity of inflammable 

 air, which had been mixed with the fumes, of fpirit 

 of nitre, through a body of water, and received it in 

 another veflel, it appeared not to have undergone 

 any change at all, for it went off in feveral fucceffive 

 explofions, like the pureft inflammable air. The 

 effect abovementioned muft, therefore, have been 

 owing to the fumes of the fpirit of nitre fupplying 



the 



