When we consider that the Phlogistic Theory formed, as it were, the central point round which the facts of chemistry first crystallized into regular scientific form, and that for more than a hundred years it was recognised by all as the foundation of the science, we might reasonably suppose that it should contain at least some germ of truth.

I think I shall be able to show in the following note that not only is this the case, but that the theory itself, as stated by its founders, Beccher and Stahl, is, if not strictly true, a very close approximation to what we now recognise as truth.