Explanation of the synopsis of chemical nomenclature and arrangement : containing several important alterations of the plan originally reported by the French Academicians / by Samuel L. Mitchill, M.D.

  • Samuel L. Mitchill
Date:
1801
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Explanation of the synopsis of chemical nomenclature and arrangement : containing several important alterations of the plan originally reported by the French Academicians / by Samuel L. Mitchill, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    phlogiston. This word, to <pxwy«<r]ov,- which is one of the best imagined in the whole no- menclature, has been rejected by the French and all their imitators, and, I think, unreasonably and improperly. It means all those atoms in bodies which burn with flame or blaze. This quality distinguishes them from atoms of carbone, which, if pure, burn indeed, but without any blaze whatever. It is the basis of fire-damp or inflammable air, and enters largely into the ordinary composition of sulphur, phos- phorus and metals, giving to them the power of burning with flame. Phlogiston is a plentiful ingredient in animal and ve- getable bodies, and evidently enters into the composition of water; these being all capable of exhibiting blaze as they burn. From its being a constituent part of water, it has been called hydrogen, or the water- getter, and is distinguished by that name in all the modern books. But as generic names ought to be taken from the most obvious quality which any assemblage of atoms possesses, and as the exhibition of blaze is a more glaring appearance than