If it be hydrogen,
it will remain here while I hold this jar inverted. [A light was then
applied, when the hydrogen burnt] What is there now in the other jar? You
know that the two together made an explosive mixture. But what can this
be which we find as the other constituent in water, and which must
therefore be that substance which made the hydrogen burn? We know that the
water we put into the vessel consisted of the two things together. We find
one of these is hydrogen: what must that other be which was in the water
before the experiment, and which we now have by itself? I am about to put
this lighted splinter of wood into the gas. The gas itself will not burn,
but it will make the splinter of wood burn. [The Lecturer ignited the end
of the wood, and introduced it into the jar of gas.] See how it
invigorates the combustion of the wood, and how it makes it burn far
better than the air would make it burn; and now you see by itself that
every other substance which is contained in the water, and which, when the
water was formed by the burning of the candle, must have been taken from
the atmosphere. What shall we call it, A, B, or C? Let us call it O--call
it "Oxygen:" it is a very good distinct-sounding name. This, then, is the
oxygen which was present in the water, forming so large a part of it.
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