p r e s e r - the human body. Rut the chief caufes, originally depofiting the-
oV m a r ^ fomcs ofputrefcence into our body, have in my-opinion, hitherto,
Ne r s . not been attended to, and ftill lefs. havé they been placed in that1
point oFview, in which I flatter myfelf to reprefent it to the-
public; and'which I truft may lead us to find out the remedies-
agai'nft this dreadful fcourge to fea-faring people.
We find that the blood" o f animah imbibes through the lungs a-
confid'erable portion o f phlogiftic matter; for when a quantity o f
inflammable air made by pouring fome weakened oil of vitriol-
on fteel filings; contained in a bladder or veflel, is breathed: into-
the lungs and exhaled again into the fame veflel, it- not only- after
20 or 30 reciprocal breathings ceaffis to Be inflammable, but on
the contrary will extinguifh a burning-candle put into i t ; , which
circumftance inconteflibly proves; that the inflammable air, when
in the lungs had been deprived o f its phlogiflon, and confequently
that the latter had been abforbed into the blood; That- ingenious
and accurate philofopher, Dr. Prieftley, inferred from the experiment
wherein common air becomes, by being inhaled into the
lungs unfit for the purpofes o f refpiration or giving nourifhment to
the flame o f a, candle; “ that the ufe o f the lungs is to carry off a
“ putrid effluvium, or to difcharge; that phlogiflon, which had
££ been taken into the fyftem with the aliment, and' was become,
as it were, effete; the air that is refpired ferving-as a menjiruum
B for
6 i S
l£ for that purpofe.” * And adds, that what he had before p r e s e r -
concluded to be the ufe o f refpiration in general, he had now,
<£ he thinks proved to be effedted by means o f the blood, in con- ^ e r s .
££ fequence of its coming fo nearly into contaft with the air in the
“ lungs; the blood appearing to be a fluid wonderfully formed to
‘ £ imbibe and part with that principle, which the chemifts call
££ phlogiflon.” It appears however from the experiment juft
mentioned, and which may eafily be repeated, that the blood inftead
o f difcharging any phlogiflon, imbibes it only from the air, and
at each inhalation decompounds .the,'common air,-j- which is a
compound of empyreal air,% ( i.'e. dephlogifticated air of Dr.
Prieftley)
* Experiments and Obfervations on different kinds - of air,, by Jofeph PrieiHey; L , L. D. '
vol. Hi. p. $6. In the Phiiof. Tranf. vol.lxi. P. i. p.226.
.. f Dr. Prieftley had no doubt left in his mind, that atmo/plnrteal air eonfifts of the nitrous
acid and earth: Prieftley, vol. ii. • p. 55. Mr.. Sage in his -Elemons de Mineralogie
docimaftique, thinks common air to confift of.phofphOric acid, Phlogiflon and Water, vol. ii.
P- 377» 37§-
t The words empyreal air, are ufed in an acceptation, which is not yet adopted as to the
compofition with a i r : but as this integrant part of air is very pure, gives life and aliment to
fame, and admits more exhalations from the lungs, before it becomes unfit for refpiration
than common air, it may not improperly be called empyreal air : and being a compound o f
a fubtle acid and phlogiflon, it is analogous to a dulcifed acid, which; may by a hi°her rectification
become Ether. The word E ther,has been adopted in c'hemiflry from the notions of
antient Philofophers, who called the fubftanee they fuppofed to ex-ift beyond our atmofphere
by that name : and in the fame manner the more refined and purer regions beyond the
atmofphere-were called by the an t-ients the E m p yr e a l H eave ms. It will therefjre be no
impropriety to call this integrant part of common air, E m p yre a l A ir ,
' I f
|§i ||.
! ’if