composed, 85 grs. of oxygen have combined with the iron, so as to convert it into the state of black oxyd, and 15 grs. of a peculiar inflammable gas are disengaged: From all this it clearly follows, that water is composed of oxygen with the base of an inflammable gas, in the respective proportions of 85 parts, by weight of the former, to 15 parts of the latter.
Thus water, besides the oxygen, which is one of its elements in common with many other substances, contains another element as its constituent base or radical, and for which we must find an appropriate term. None that we could think of seemed better adapted than the word hydrogen, which signifies the generative principle of water, from υδορ aqua, and γεινομαι gignor[1] We call the combination of this element with calroic hydrogen gas; and the term hydrogen expresses the base of that gas, or the radical of water.
- ↑ This expression Hydrogen has been very severely criticised by some, who pretend that it signifies engendered by water, and not that which engenders water. The experiments related in this chapter prove, that, when water is decomposed, hydrogen is produced, and that, when hydrogen is combined with oxygen, water is produced: So that we may say, with equal truth, that water is produced from hydrogen, or hydrogen is produced form water.—A.
