41 4 Dr . ingenuous z’s Account of a 
If the piftol is deftined to be always kindled by the 
flame of a candle or a match, as I have defcribed, it 
would be better to have no pifton to it, as it may then be 
filled by the means of water, and the explolive force will 
be fo much the greater, as fome of the flame makes eafily 
its way over the leather of the pifton, and rufhes out 
backward, which, I find, is often the cafe, if the bullet is 
rammed in the barrel fomewhat too tightly. 
It would, perhaps, not be an eafy undertaking to give 
a fatisfadtory reafon, why a drop of aether communicates 
to dephlogifticated air a much ftronger explofive force 
than common inflammable air from metals. May it not 
be faid, that common inflammable air from metals, hav- 
ing only about one fifth of the fpecific gravity of the 
dephlogifticated air, the two fluids do not penetrate one 
another fo readily and fo intimately as the compound of 
dephlogifticated and aether air, which are both nearly 
of the fame fpecific gravity, each being fomewhat 
heavier than common air? for it feems not improbable, 
that the fwiftnefs with which the flame is propagated 
through the mafs of this compound air, depends partly 
on the intimate mixture of the phlogifton with the de- 
phlogifticated air. Might not this phenomenon be af- 
cribed to the greater bulk of inflammable air from me- 
tals compared with the fmall compafs which one Angle 
drop 
