PHLOGISTON, a term employed by chemists to denote a principle which was supposed to enter into the composition of various bodies. The bodies which were thought to con-, tain it in the largest quantity are such as are inflammable; and the property which these substances possess of being susceptible of inflammation was thought to depend upon this principle, so that it was sometimes called the Principle of Inflammability. Inflammation, according to this doctrine, was the separation of this principle, or phlogiston, from the other matter which composed the combustible body. As its separation was always attended with the emission of light and heat, some chemists thence concluded that it was light and heat combined with other matter in a peculiar manner, or that it was some highly elastic and very subtile matter, upon certain modifications of which heat and light depended. Another class of bodies which were supposed to contain phlogiston were the metals; and the chemists supposed that the peculiar lustre of the metals depended on this principle. Of this they thought themselves convinced by the evidence of' their senses in two ways; first, because by exposing a metal to the action of a long-continued heat, it lost its metallic lustre, and was converted into an earthy-like substance called calx metallicus, or oxide; and, secondly, because by mixing this oxide with any inflammable substance whatever, and subjecting the mixture to certain operations, the inflammable matter disappeared, and the metal was restored to its former condition and lustre, without suffering much diminution in quantity, especially if the processes had been conducted with care and attention.

This fact relative to the metals was thought to be a full demonstration of itself, independently of other proofs which were brought to support the doctrine. These were, that a combustible body, by the act of inflammation, that is, by the dissipation of its phlogiston in the form of heat and light, was converted into a body which was no longer combustible, but which might have its property of combustibility restored to it again by mixing the incombustible remains with any kind of inflammable matter, and submitting the mixture to certain processes. In this way the body was restored to its former state of inflammability.

They were also at some pains to prove that the phlogiston, or the principle of inflammability, was the same in all inflammable bodies, and also in the metals. This identity of phlogiston they thought to be evident from the fact, that the calx of a metal might be restored to its metallic state, or that the remains after the combustion of a combustible body might be restored to its original state of combustibility by the addition of any inflammable body whatever, taken either from the animal, the vegetable, or the mineral kingdoms.

These and several other facts were brought to prove, not only the existence of phlogiston, but its effects in mixture with other substances; and the objections which were made against the doctrine were removed with wonderful ingenuity. The chief objection against it was, that if the inflammation of a combustible body, or the conversion of a metal into calx, depends upon the dissipation or extrication of phlogiston, then it must follow, that the remains of a combustible body after inflammation, and the calx of the metal, must be less than the matter from which they were produced. But this is contrary to fact, for when we collect with care all the vapour into which the purest inflammable bodies are converted by combustion, these incombustible remains are much heavier than the inflammable body from which they were produced, and the calx into which a metal is converted by long exposure to the action of heat is heavier than the metal from which it was produced. This consideration made several people doubt of the truth of the doctrine; but the objection was removed by saying, that phlogiston was so subtile, as not only to have no weight, but to possess an absolute levity; and that when it was taken from an absolutely heavy body, that body must, by losing so much absolute levity, become heavier, in the same manner as the algebraists say that a positive quantity is augmented by the subtraction of a negative quantity. This sophism satisfied the minds of most of the chemists, especially those who were algebraists.

The opinion that phlogiston was heat and light somehow combined with other matter, was proved, not only by the fact that heat and light were emitted from a combustible body during its combustion, but from the reduction of certain metallic calces to the original metallic state again, at least in some degree, by simple exposure to heat and light. The white calx of silver, for instance, when exposed in closely-sealed glass vessels to the light and heat of the sun, resumes a black tinge, and is in part restored to its metallic lustre, without any addition whatever; but then this re [7:17:449]storation, like the others above mentioned, is attended with a loss of weight.

Besides constituting the principal portion of inflammable bodies and metals, phlogiston was thought to be the cause of colour in all vegetable and animal substances. This was concluded from the fact of plants growing white when defended from the action of the sun’s rays, and having their green colour restored by fresh exposure to the light; and so far did the chemists suffer themselves to be deceived, that they actually thought the green colouring matter, which they extracted from fresh plants by certain chemical processes, to be an inflammable substance. But a very material objection was made to this argument. If plants owe their colour to phlogiston imparted by the sun’s rays, why do the sun’s rays destroy vegetable colours which are exposed to them? We know that the sun’s rays are very effectual in diminishing the lustre of cloth dyed with vegetable colours, and in bleaching or taking out various stains from linen and other substances. All this, however, was removed by saying, that the sun’s rays possessed different powers on living and on dead vegetable matter, and that the living vegetables had the power of absorbing phlogiston from the sun’s rays, which dead vegetable matter had not.

Since the existence of phlogiston, as a chemical principle in the composition of certain bodies, has now been fully proved to be false, we shall not trouble our readers with any further observations on it, except to add, that although the chemists were satisfied with the proofs they gave of its reality, they were never able to exhibit it in a separate state, or show it in a pure form, unmixed with other matter.

From the time of Sir Isaac Newton till the middle of the eighteenth century, no real improvement was made in scientific chemistry; and the progress this science has made since that period is owing to the important discovery of the existence of heat in a state of composition with other matter. Heat thus combined loses its activity, or becomes insensible, just in the same way as any other active substance loses its apparent qualities in composition. Acids, for example, when combined in a certain proportion with substances for which they have strong attraction, as alkalies or absorbent earths, lose all their obvious acid qualities, and the compound turns out mild, and totally conceals the acid which it contains. In a similar manner, heat, when combined in certain proportions with other matter, loses its sensible qualities, and the compound conceals the heat which it contains. Heat, in this combined state, was denominated by its ingenious discoverer, Dr Black, latent ; and it was found to be very abundant in the atmosphere, which owes its existence as an elastic fluid to the quantity of latent heat that it contains. Arter this discovery was made, Dr Crawford, considering that air was absorbed by a burning body, concluded that the heat which appears in the combustion of a combustible body, is the heat that had before existed in the air which was consumed by the burning body. Μ. Lavoisier and others, prosecuting this inquiry, found that the combustible body, whilst it is burning, unites with the basis of the air, and that the heat which the air contained, and which was the cause of the air existing in the state of air, is expelled. This absorption of the basis of the air by the burning body, and the reduction of this basis to a solid form, accounts for the increase of weight which a body acquires by burning; or, in other words, gives a reason why the matter into which a combustible body is converted by combustion, is heavier than the body from which it was produced. The same absorption of air is observable when a metal is converted into a calx, and the additional weight of the calx is found to be precisely equal to the weight of the air absorbed during the calcination. On these principles, therefore, we now explain the phenomena in a much more satisfactory manner than by the supposition of phlogiston, or a principle of inflammability.