118 
METALLIC COMPOUNDS. 
finite degree, it would appear that there would be no limit to 
the degree of cold which might be produced in this manner. 
I am. Sir, 
Your obedient Servant, 
M. H.B. 
Edinburgh, May 17, 1813. 
VI. 
An explanatory Statement of the Notions or Principles upon 
which the systematic Arrangement is founded, which was 
adopted as the Basis of an Essay on Chemical Nomenclature . 
By Professor J. Berzelius. 
(Continued from p. 47 of the present Volume.) 
Remarkable 
facts of com- 
bustion and 
theory. 
I N order to determine whether this phenomenon of com- 
bustion actually consists in an absorption of oxigen or not, 
I prepared quantities of the stibiates of cobalt and of copper, 
as well as the stibiates of these same metals. By exposing 
them to a cherry red heat, I deprived them of their water of 
crystallization, and when, by a new exposition to this 
same temperature, they did not lose in their weight, I 
considered them as entirely deprived of the water of com- 
bination. I then weighed them very carefully, and heated 
them in a small platina crucible (exactly weighed) to incan* 
descence. They took fire with great brilliancy, and the same 
thing took place in the open crucible, as when it was provided 
with a cover, which shut very closely, and consequently ex- 
cluded the air. When the ignition took place in the small 
crucible, which was closed, it became all at once incandescent, 
and in the lower part, which was in contact with the ignited 
mass j so that the interior of the crucible became visible when 
this phenomenon took place. On making this experiment in 
an open crucible, at the moment of ignition, there arose a 
slight smoke, which, in a crucible with a cover, w'as condensed 
on the top, and proved to be the stibious acid. I have great 
reason to suppose, that this smoke owes its origin to some 
small 
