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442 INFLAMMABLE SUBSTANCES. Sett. 229, It is naturally found in fubterraneous cavi ties, in fome coal-pits, and other mines; in ftagnant waters, in the mud of lakes [6], and other it receives the name of inflammable air?’ But fome French Philofophers, at the head of whom is the famous Mr. Lavoifier, pretend, that there does not exifl fuch a being in Nature, as that called, fince the time of Becher and Stahl •by the name of pblogiflon. They fay that the abforption, or combination of dcphlogif- -ticated air, with metallic bodies, by the help of fire, and its expulfion or feparation from their calces by the'fame agent, is all that is required both for their calcination, and for their redu£lion or revification. But there is a vicious circle in this new theory, which eafily evinces the fallacy of their argument againfl the exigence of phlogifton. If it be owing to fire, that pure, or dephlogiflicated air, combines with metals to reduce them to the ftate of calces, why do all metal lic calces (thofe of gold and mercury excepted) require any phlogijnc or inflammable fubftance to reduce them back to their metallic form ? If not, it Ihould naturally follow that the •fimple expulfion of pure air by fire, without any phlogiftic matter being made ufe of, ought to be fully fufficient to effedl that revification. Monfieur de la Metherie, in a letter inierted in the latter part of the Journal de Pbyflque, for June *7®4> P‘ 473j ^ as produced vaiious anti firong reafons againft thefe new, but feeble, attempts for exploding the exiftence of Phlogifton; and Mr. Kirwan is now collefting the moll con- wincing fadts to fet this truth in the moll clear light. See what has been /aid in the Note to the lafi Sedt. pn this fubjetl. The Editor. [£] Mr. Volta, profeffor in the Univerfity at Pavia, has dif- covered a kind of inflammable air, which is very common in Nature, and is found in the mud of various ponds and rivulets. ■When a Hick is thruft into the mud of fuch places, the air rufiiesup in large bubbles; and may be eafily colledted by a funnel, held fall by a metallic ring, into the mouth of an in verted g'afs velfel filled with water, at the end of a flick ; in the fame manner as Dr. Pearfon has propofed to get the me dicinal gas of the Buxton water. This kind of inflammable air fee ms
