CAROLINE.
It appears to me very extraordinary that the same gas, which is produced by the burning of wood and coals, should exist also in such bodies as marble, and chalk, which are incombustible substances.
MRS. B.
I will not answer that objection, Caroline, because I think I can put you in a way of doing it yourself. Is carbonic acid combustible?
CAROLINE.
Why, no—because it is a body that has been already burnt; it is carbon only, and not the acid, that is combustible.
MRS. B.
Well, and what inference do you draw from this?
CAROLINE.
That carbonic acid cannot render the bodies with which it is united combustible; but that simple carbon does, and that it is in this elementary state that it exists in wood, coals, and a great variety of other combustible bodies.—Indeed, Mrs. B., you are very ungenerous; you are not satisfied with convincing me that my objections are frivolous, but you oblige me to prove them so myself.