Page:Lavoisier-ElementsOfChemistry.pdf/183

 cause of the great disengagement of caloric during the deslagrations of nitre; or, more strictly speaking, upon all occasions of the decomposition of nitric acid. Of the Combustion of Wax. Having examined several cases of simple combustion, I mean now to give a few examples of a more complex nature. One pound of wax-taper being allowed to burn slowly in an ice apparatus, melted libs. 2 oz. 5 $$\tfrac{2}{3}$$ gros. of ice. According to my experiments in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1784, p. 606, one pound of wax-taper consists of 13 oz. 1 gros 23 grs. of charcoal, and 2 oz. 6 gros 49 grs. of hydrogen.

By the foregoing experiments, the above quantity of charcoal ought to melt

and the hydrogen should melt

In all 131.76995 lbs.

Thus, we see the quantity of caloric disengaged from a burning taper, is pretty exactly conformable to what was obtained by burning separately a quantity of charcoal and hydrogen equal O