grs. of charcoal placed in the glass tube have acquired 72 grs. of oxygen from the water; and it follows, that 85.7 grs. of water are composed of 72 grs. of oxygen, combined with 13.7 grs. of a gas susceptible of combustion. We shall see presently that this gas cannot possibly have been disengaged from the charcoal, and must, consequently, have been produced from the water.
I have suppressed some circumstances in the above account of this experiment, which would only have complicated and obscured its results in the minds of the reader. For instance, the inflammable gas dissolves a very small part of the charcoal, by which means its weight is somewhat augmented, and that of the carbonic gas proportionally diminished. Altho' the alteration produced by this circumstance is very inconsiderable; yet I have thought it necessary to determine its effects by rigid calculation, and to report, as above, the results of the experiment in its simplified state, as if this circumstance had not happened. At any rate, should any doubts remain respecting the consequences I have drawn from this experiment, they will be fully dissipated by the following experiments, which I am going to adduce in support of my opinion.
