er affinity with charcoal when at the red heat [1], and then unites with it to form carbonic acid.
Although we are far from being able to appreciate all these powers of affinity, or to express their proportional energy by numbers, we are certain, that, however variable they may be when considered in relation to the quantity of caloric with which they are combined, they are all nearly in equilibrium in the usual temperature of the atmosphere; hence vegetables neither contain oil [2], water, nor carbonic acid, tho' they contain all the elements of these substances. The hydrogen is neither combined with the oxygen nor with the charcoal, and reciprocally; the particles of these three substances for a triple combination, which remains in equilibrium
- ↑ Though this term, red heat, does not indicate any absolutely determinate degree of temperature, I shall use it sometimes to express a temperature considerably above that of boiling water.--A.
- ↑ I must be understood here to speak of vegetables reduced to a perfectly dry state; and, with respect to oil, I do not mean that which is procured by expression either in the cold, or in a temperature not exceeding that of boiling water; which is the only oil declared to be produced by the operation of fire. What I have published upon this subject in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1786 may be consulted.--A.
