Why then does he endeavour to evade giving a direct answer, and fly away
to consider the quantity of the product, as if that had any thing to do
with, the question, or as if that quantity were not sufficient, neither
of which is the case. In short, our author's whole observation, on this
occasion, looks as if he were willing to destroy, by insinuation, the
force of an argument which proves the theory of mineral fusion; and that
he wishes to render doubtful, by a species of sophistry, what in fair
reasoning he cannot deny.
Our author has written upon the subject of phlogiston; one would suppose
that he should be well acquainted with inflammable bodies at least; let
us see then what he has to observe upon that subject. He quotes from
my Theory, that spar, quartz, pyrites, crystallised upon or near each
other, and adhering to coal, or mixed with bitumen, etc. are found;
circumstances that cannot be explained in the hypothesis of solution
in the moist way.--He then answers;--"Not exactly, nor with certainty;
which is not wonderful: But they are still less explicable in the
hypothesis of dry solution, as must be apparent from what has been
already said.
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