4^o Dr. priestley’s Experiments relating to Phlogifton, 
nitre ; though the cork, by which the retort was connedted 
with the pipe, was didblved, and mud: have contributed to 
contaminate it, and give it a flight mixture of fixed air. 
With oil of vitriol I got air confiderably phlogidicated, fo 
that a candle would not have burned in it ; but this I alio attri- 
bute to the cork, which was diffolved in the procefs. The re- 
fult was nearly the fame when I ufed water impregnated with 
vitriolic acid air, though the cork was not diffolved. But this 
acid is known to contain much phlogidon. 
Spirit of fait gave air no purer than the bed atmofpherical 
air. But as by this procefs I never got air fo pure as this from 
water only, I concluded, that even this acid, as well as the 
nitrous and vitriolic, is capable of being turned into dephlo- 
gidicated air. 
When I ufed water impregnated with fixed air, this air was 
expelled by the heat, and came over without any change that I 
could perceive, except that the refiduum was larger, from the 
water that came along with it. The air I got afterwards was 
only that from the water, and of the fame quality as if it had 
not been impregnated with fixed air. 
Water impregnated with alkaline air gave neither fixed nor 
inflammable air, which I had rather expedted, but only air 
confiderably phlogidicated ; though fome of it was fo pure 
that a candle would have burned in it. 
N. B. In all thefe experiments with the tobacco-pipe all the 
air was remarkably turbid, like milk, and even the common air 
in the retort before the procefs properly began. 
In this date of the experiments I think I may venture to 
fay, that no perfon could have feen them without concluding 
that there was a real converfion of water into air, there being 
no known principle or fadt in philofophy, that could have led 
2 any 
