Yes, several: charcoal, and metals, when heated red hot, will attract the oxygen from water, in the same manner as they will from the atmosphere.
CAROLINE.
Hydrogen, I see, is like nitrogen, a poor dependant friend of oxygen, which is continually forsaken for greater favourites.
MRS. B.
The connection, or friendship, as you choose to call it, is much more intimate between oxygen and hydrogen, in the state of water, than between oxygen and nitrogen, in the atmosphere; for, in the first case, there is a chemical union and condensation of the two substances; in the latter, they are simply mixed together in their gaseous state. You will find, however, that, in some cases, nitrogen is quite as intimately connected with oxygen, as hydrogen is.—But this is foreign to our present subject.
EMILY.
Water, then, is an oxyd, though the atmospherical air is not?
MRS. B.
It is not commonly called an oxyd, though, according to our definition, it may, no doubt, be referred to that class of bodies.
CAROLINE.