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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
129
Other
experiments
led
Lavoisier
to
suspect
that
the
portion
of
the
air
which
had
united
with
the
tin
was
different
from
the
portion
which
had
not
combined
with
that
metal.
He,
therefore,
set
himself
to
discover
whether
there
are
different
kinds
of
"airs"
in
the
atmosphere,
and,
if
there
is
more
than
one
kind
of
"air,"
what
is
the
nature
of
that
"air"
which
combines
with
a
metal
in
the
process
of
calcination.
He
proposed
to
cause
a
metallic
calx
(that
is,
the
substance
formed
by
calcining
a
metal
in
the
air)
to
give
up
the
"air"
which
had
been
absorbed
in
its
formation,
and
to
compare
this
"air"
with
atmospheric
air.
About
this
time
Priestley
visited
Paris,
saw
Lavoisier,
and
told
him
of
the
new
"air"
he
had
obtained
by
heating
calcined
mercury.
Lavoisier
saw
the
great
importance
of
Priestley's
discovery;
he
repeated
Priestley's
experiment,
and
concluded
that
the
air,
or
gas,
which
he
refers
to
in
his
Laboratory
Journal
as
"l'air
dephlogistique
de
M.
Priestley"
was
nothing
else
than
the
purest
portion
of
the
air
we
breathe.
He
prepared
this
"air"
and
burned
various
substances
in
it.
Finding
that
very
many
of
the
products
of
these
combustions
had
the
properties
of
acids,
he
gave
to
the
new
"air"
the
name
oxygen,
which
means
the
acid-producer.
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