ON CHEMISTRY. 
7 
and water, from the union of the two gases, the electric spark, or 
actual lire must he applied to them ; otherwise, as I have seen, the 
gases may be blended in a vessel, and become wholly inactive and 
uninflammable, in a very short space of time. 
The facts already ascertained lead to the following conclusions: 
First. Water, by a variety of agencies can be decomposed ; it can 
also be re-produced by the re-union and deflagration of the two 
actual products of the previous decomposition, and that, to a nice 
degree of accuracy in respect to quantities and calculation ; of these 
facts there is no question or doubt whatsoever. 
Second. As analysis and synthesis tend to establish the nature 
o( water, the proofs deduced from the experiment are irrefragable and 
decisive: the theory is therefore legitimate and not to be impugned. 
Third. Though we can trace effects, we are still lost as to causes. 
One point however, is pretty nearly confirmed, namely, the univer¬ 
sality of the distribution of light, of that all-pervading body, fluid, or 
essence, which is the source of that manifestation which chemists 
style caloric. To it we must look for the solution of all those mighty 
phenomena which astonish the mind when it dwells upon the multi¬ 
form transitions of water and its elements, when it reflects that, the 
bland, cooling fluid, which forms the basis of so many of our enjoy¬ 
ments, may be modified into steam, a floating vapour, rather lighter 
than air, or congealed into a solid mass of rock, hard as adamant, and 
equally capable of emitting flashes of etherial fire. Again, that this 
fluid, which, properly applied, will extinguish fire and flame, may, 
with the utmost facility, be converted into gases capable of producing 
combustion, the light of which, shall vie with that of the sun ; while 
the heat shall surpass in intensity, any that the uninformed human 
mind could have the faintest conception of.* 
I must now hasten to the consideration of the agency exerted by 
water in the processes of vegetable growth and developement. This 
must be most important, for it is impossible that a body so susceptible 
of decomposition, and whose elements are endowed with powers of 
such extraordinary energy, could remain torpid or inactive. But 
one experiment of analysis remains to be noticed, because it will 
tend to introduce the subject of the agency mutally exerted between 
plants and water, and also to prove that the decomposition of that 
* I herein allude to the combination of oxygen and hydrogen gases, when 
brought into action by the blow-pipe. Thereby the combustion of lime is 
effected, accompanied by the most astounding splendour; and bv the same 
machinery, under other circumstances, a degree of heat is produced of une¬ 
qualled intensity. 
