CAROLINE.
There is one—and another. How curious it is!—But I do not understand how this is produced.
MRS. B.
It is the consequence of a display of affinities too complicated, I fear, to be made perfectly intelligible to you at present.
In a few words, the reciprocal action of the potash, phosphorus, caloric, and water are such, that some of the water is decomposed, and the hydrogen gas thereby formed carries off some minute particles of phosphorus, with which it forms phosphoretted hydrogen gas, a compound which spontaneously takes fire at almost any temperature.
EMILY.
What is that circular ring of smoke which slowly rises from each bubble after its detonation?
MRS. B.
It consists of water and phosphoric acid in vapour, which are produced by the combustion of hydrogen and phosphorus.