Acid Air .
Queries , Speculations , and Hints .
JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S.,
J. JOHNSON, Bookseller , at No. 72,
THE THEOLOGICAL REPOSITORY.
[Price 5s. unbound.]
Quamobrem, si qua est erga Creatorem humilitas, si qua operum ejus reverentia et magnificatio, si qua charitas in homines, si erga necessitates et ærumnas humanas relevandas studium, si quis amor veritatis in naturalibus, et odium tenebrarum, et intellectus purificandi desiderium; orandi sunt homines iterum atque iterum, ut, missis philosophiis istis volaticis et preposteris, quæ theses hypothesibus anterposuerunt, et experientiam captivam duxerunt, atque de operibus dei triumpharunt, summisse, et cum veneratione quadam, ad volumen creaturarum evolvendum accedant; atque in eo moram faciant, meditentur, et ab opinionibus abluti et mundi, caste et integre versentur.——In interpretatione ejus eruenda nulli operæ parcant, sed strenue procedant, persistant, immoriantur.
Lord Bacon in Instauratione Magna.
EXPERIMENTS
AND
OBSERVATIONS
ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF
AIR.
By JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S.
The SECOND EDITION Corrected.
Fert animus Causas tantarum expromere rerum;
Immensumque aperitur opus.
Lucan
LONDON:
Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, in St. Paul's Church-Yard.
MDCCLXXV.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF SHELBURNE,
THIS TREATISE IS
WITH THE GREATEST GRATITUDE
AND RESPECT,
INSCRIBED,
BY HIS LORDSHIP's
MOST OBLIGED,
AND OBEDIENT
HUMBLE SERVANT,
J. PRIESTLEY.
THE PREFACE.
One reason for the present publication has been the favourable reception of those of my Observations on different kinds of air, which were published in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1772, and the demand for them by persons who did not chuse, for the sake of those papers only, to purchase the whole volume in which they were contained. Another motive was the additions to my observations on this subject, in consequence of which my papers grew too large for such a publication as the Philosophical Transactions.
Contrary, therefore, to my intention, expressed Philosophical Transactions, vol. 64. p. 90, but with the approbation of the President, and of my friends in the society, I have determined to send them no more papers for the present on this subject, but to make a separate and immediate publication of all that I have done with respect to it.
Besides, considering the attention which, I am informed, is now given to this subject by philosophers in all parts of Europe, and the rapid progress that has already been made, and may be expected to be made in this branch of knowledge, all unnecessary delays in the publication of experiments relating to it are peculiarly unjustifiable.
When,
