Note 39 — APPENDIX, NO. 1.
Reading edition
Dr. Priestley in his preliminary account of the discoveries and theories on respiration (Exp. on air v. 3 p. 356. abridged edit.) quotes Haller’s great work on Physiology. Haller quotes Mayow in three or four places; but it is no wonder the quotations did not strike Dr. Priestley with any curiosity to examine Mayow’s book, for Haller certainly did not understand his theory. For instance Lib. 8. § 13. Nitrum aereum. Si ad verum sensum nitri aerei hypothesis revocata fuisset parum utique ab eà differt quam novissimè proposuimus. Nitrum quidem ipsum incautiosius olim Physiologi in aere obvolitare scripserunt, et ex pluvià et nive colligi; idemque passim ex rupibus efflorescere (Sprat ex Henshaw p. 264 major cal. hum.) exque plantis et stercoribus educi (Fludd Niewentydt, 563-4. Mayow de nitro aereo. Lower de Corde c. 3. Thurston 52. 53. Besse Analyse tom 1 et en lettre en reponse à M. Helvet. 114.) id nitrum aiunt in pulmonibus ad sanguinem venire, et ab eo ruborem illum elegantem, et fermentationem (Mayow, Thurston penult. ess. T. 3 p. 265) et calorem sanguinis accedere aut vicissim sanguinem condensari.
Certainly the id nitrum, is not Mayow’s. M. Rosel seems first to have ascertained the existence of nitre in plants. A late experiment of Dr. Priestley’s, of which he gave an account in a letter to Dr. Wistar, seems to make it probable that there may be nitre in snow.