MRS. B.
It would be an extremely expensive, and, I believe, very imperfect method; for the action of the acid on the wood, and the heat produced by it, are far from sufficient to deprive the wood of all its evaporable parts.
CAROLINE.
What is the reason that vinegar, lemon, and the acid of fruits, do not produce this effect on wood?
MRS. B.
They are vegetable acids, whose bases are composed of hydrogen and carbon; the oxygen, therefore, will not be disposed to quit this radical, where it is already united with hydrogen. The strongest of these may, perhaps, yield a little of their oxygen to the wood, and produce a stain upon it; but the carbon will not be sufficiently uncovered to assume its black colour. Indeed, the several mineral acids themselves possess this power of charring wood in very different degrees.
EMILY.
Cannot vegetable acids be decomposed, by any combustibles?
MRS. B.
No; because their radical is composed of two substances which have a greater attraction for oxygen than any known body.