Elements of chemistry / by Thomas Thomson, M.D.

  • Thomson, Thomas, 1773-1852.
Date:
1810
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of chemistry / by Thomas Thomson, 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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    course exhibited in a separate state ; and those which cannot be confined in any vessels that we possess, and the existence of which is only inferred from certain phenomena exhibited by the first first class of bodies in certain circumstances. The first class of bodies may be called coiifinable, the second uncoufna- ble. DIVISION I. OF CONFUTABLE BODIES. The confinable bodies may be arranged under the four fal- lowing heads: 1. Simple supporters of combustion. 2. Simple combustibles. 3. Simple incombustibles. 4. Metals. These classes shall be treated of in order in the four follow- ing chapters. CHAPTER I. OF SIMPLE SUPPORTERS OF COMBUSTION. The term, Supporter of Combustion, is applied to those sub- stances which must be present before combustible substances will burn. Thus air is a supporter of combustion, because a candle will not burn unless it be supplied with air. All sup- porters, not yet decompounded, are called simple. We know enly one such body, namely oxygen. SECTION I. Of Oxygen. This substance is an air, or, as chemists use to call aerial bodies, a gas* It was discovered by Dr. Priestley. It may be obtained hy heating black oxide of manganese in an iron bottle fitted with a long iron tube. The extremity of the tube is plun- ged into a trough of water having a shelf a little below the sur- face, on which stands an inverted glass cylinder full of water. The open mouth of this cylinder is brought over the extremity * The term ga» is applied by chemists to all airs except com- man air.