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they lived longer than in an equal bulk of atmospheric air ; he then had the curiosity to tnste the gas himself , and aftev two or three respirations , he felt , or fancied he felt , a peculiar sen * sation of lightness and ease of the 1
chest . " Who can tell / says he , " but that in time this pure air may become a fashionable article in luxury ? Hitherto only two mice and myself have had the privilege of breathing it . " To this he foolishly adds , that " the air which nature has provided for us is as good as we deserve . "
We have not yet exhausted Dr . Priestley ' discoveries , but have seen enough to establish his claims to the title of a great benefactor to chemical science . If we compare him with his predecessor Black , he falls short in depth of judgment , but in quickness of conception , and industry of pursuit , he excels even such a standard of
comparison . The one climbed the hill of discovery with slow and cautious steps , and calmly enjoyed the surrounding views ; the other made a more rapid ascent , but was giddy when he reached the summit , hence those distortions and misconceptions , those erroneous notions and hasty conclusions which he who turns over the philosophical writings of Dr . Priestley cannot fail to discern .
Upon the other productions of his pen , metaphysical , political and moral , it is neither my province nor inclination to dwell ; they abound in the defects , but are deficient in the merits , of his tracts upon chemical subjects .
From the commencement to the termination of his busy career , Dr . Priestley was a staunch supporter of the unintelligible system of phlogiston : he adopted it in all its original incoherence and absurdity ; and the
last of his scientific publications was a tract in its defence , in which are adduced a variety of objections to the revived hypotheses of Rey and Mayow and Hooke , which having long lain dormant , were at this time erupted into the chemical world under the specious title of the French theory . *
* The tract alluded to in the text was published by Dr . Priestley after his retirement to America in 1800 , It is entitled . The Doctrine of Phlogiston € sta * blishedj and that of the Composition of
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It will not be denied that the leading facts just detailed threw considerable light upon the nature and pro * perties of atmospheric air \ but those who have entitled Dr . Priestley the discoverer of its composition , have somewhat overstepped the bounds of correctness *
He seems , indeed , to have possessed no just notions of the difference between phlogisticated and dephJogisticated air ; and , instead of legarding them as distinct chemical principles , adopted the notion of one elementarysubstance , charged , in the one
instance , with the imaginary essence of inflammability , and free from it in the other . In these inquiries , he frequently verges upon more correct and refined views , but has no sooner entered the right path , than phlogiston , like an ignis faluus 9 dances before
Water refuted . It contains a variety of miscellaneous observations on the phlogistic and antiphlogistic theories , but it would be useless to follow the author into his unsubstantial speculations on these
subjects . He has , however , thrown out some important considerations relating to his claims of originality as the discoverer of dephlogisticated air . The following" paragraph appears of sufficient importance to be transcribed . " Now that I am on the
subject of the right to discoveries , I will , as the Spaniards say , leave no ink of this kind in my inkhorn ; hoping * it will be the last time that I shall have any occasion to trouhle the public about it . M . Lavoisier says ( J&lements of Chemistry , English translation , p . 36 ) , this species of air ( meaning- dephlog-isticated ) was
discovered almost at the same time by Mr . Priestley , Mr . Scheele and myself . ' The case was this : —Having * made the discovery some time before I was in Paris in 1774 , I mentioned it at the table of M . Lavoisier , when most of the philosophical people in the city were present ; saying * , that it was a kind of air in which a candle
burned mucli better than in common air , but I had not then given it any name . At this all the company , and M . and Madame Lavoisier as much as any , expressed great surprise ; I told them I had g-otten it from precipitate per se , and also from red lead . Speaking French very
imperfectly , and being" little acquainted with the terms of Chemistry , I said ptomb rougey which was not understood , till M . Macquer said , I must mean minium . Mr . Scheele ^ s discovery was certainly independent of mine , though I believe not made quite so early . " P , 88 .
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Mr . Branded Estimate of Dr . Priestley ' ' s Chemical Discoveries . 6 & 1
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voi * . xiii . 4 s
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 681, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/17/
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