CHAP. II.
THESE views which I have taken of the formation of elastic aëriform fluids or gasses, throw great light upon the original formation of the atmosphere of the planets, and particularly that of our earth. We readily conceive, that it must necessarily consist of a mixture of the following substances: First, Of all bodies that are susceptible of evaporation, or, more strictly speaking, which are capable of retaining the state of aëriform elasticity, and under a pressure equal to that of a column of twenty-eight inches of quicksilver in the barometer; and, secondly, Of all substances, whether liquid or solid, which are capable of being dissolved by this mixture of different gasses.
The better to determine our ides relating to this subject, which has not hitherto been sufficiently considered, let us, for a moment, conceive what change would take place in the various
