from the Ptrites. 295 



two principles. (1.) An univerfal moifture, or a 

 rarified water. (2.) A fait fit to incorporate into 

 many bodies, not always in the fame manner, but 

 diverfirled according to the nature of the fubjecl: : 

 whence bodies, efpecially the dry, become not 

 only moift, but alio more ponderous : fome, par- 

 ticularly the lixivious falts, entirely liquate, as the 

 oiea per deliquium manifefl: ; fome, and even thefe, 

 moreover, receive another fait, as the bitter vitrio- 

 Icted falts, feparating from liquated pot-afh, fuf- 

 ficiently teftify. Now, tho' the fait of the air, 

 confidered in itfelf, without at prefent regarding 

 its faline nature in this or that particular place, be 

 various •, or, tho' it may differ according to the 

 difference of the fubjecl, to which it gives or com- 

 municates itfelf, yet this is a thing that cannot fufH- 

 ciently be explained. However, from the juft 

 mentioned vitriclated lixivious fait, fo much ap- 

 pears certain, that the vitriol- acid in fuch falts, 

 which differs in nothing from that in vitriol itfelf, 

 may exift, if not formally, yet potentially in the 

 air, and be found actually and formally, as fuch, in 

 thefe falts \ as may inconteftably be fhewn from 

 the genuine mineral fulphur to be thence exhibited : 

 and thus we have in the air not only what apper- 

 tains to the exhibition of a fait as fuch, and to its 

 cryftalline tranfparency, namely the water, as ap- 

 pears from the vitriol, efflorefcent, or ftriking out 

 on pyrites in bare air, without addition of any actual 

 water -, but alfo, what mod properly belongs to 

 the effence of vitriol, namely, the vitriol- acid ; 

 though it be only as an ingredient and immanent in- 

 ftrument in defulphurated pyrites \ but in the crude 

 frefli pyrites, where the acid lies ftiil plentifully in 

 the fulphur, it acts as a penetrating infirument. 



U 4 This 



