An essay on phlogiston, and the constitution of acids / [Richard Kirwan].

  • Richard Kirwan
Date:
1787
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on phlogiston, and the constitution of acids / [Richard Kirwan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/154 page 7
    phlogifticated acids, vegetable acids, fixed air, fulphur, phofphorus, fugar, charcoal, and metals. Limited as this controverfy appears to be to a fmall number of bodies, it is neverthelefs of great importance, if an exad arrangement of our ideas, and a diftind and true view of the operations of nature, be of any im¬ portance. The bodies above-mentioned are the fubjed of many, and the inflruments of al« moft all chymical operations: without a knowledge of their compofition, and a clear perception of their mode of adion, it will be impoffible to form even an approximation to a folid theory of this fcience ; the daily accumulation of fads will only increafe per¬ plexity and confufion, and if any ufeful dis¬ covery be made, it will be the mere refult of chance. Many flrong prejudices, I am well aware, favour the new opinion (which I fhall take the liberty of calling the Antiphlogiftic hypothelis, and its fupporters Antiphlogijlians, not by way of obloquy, but to prevent circumlocution) : it has been advanced in an enlightened age and country, it is recoinmendable by its fimpiicity, and it owes its origin to a philofopher of great eminence, who was the firft that introduced an almofi: mathematical precifion into experimen¬ tal philofophy ; but the old fyftem prefents alfo many ftrong prejudices in its favour ; it origi¬ nated, it is true, in a lefs enlightened age, but B 4 it
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3