M. Stahl is not the first, as M. Pott states, who has given

reasonable and connected ideas as to the substance of Fire which is found in bodies; but he is the first who has reasoned
*Quack Alchemists.
90 The Great Art.
concerning it under the name of Phlogiston.* One has seen the sentiment of the Hermetic Philosophers on this subject. It is only necessary to open their books to be convinced that they know this agent of Nature perfectly; and that