ABSTRACT
James St John was not an ardent advocate of phlogistic chemistry. In fact, as Maurice Crosland observed, he was “convinced of the superiority of the oxygen theory and the new nomenclature.” In 1788 he prefaced his English translation of the Lavoisians’ seminal Method of Chymical Nomenclature, the work that is regarded to have all but concluded the takeover by the new French chemistry. 1 “Though the late experiments demonstrate,” he admitted,
that phlogiston does not give weight or heaviness to metals, that phlogiston does not disengage itself from the sulphur during formation of the sulphuric acid; yet we still allow the absolute existence of a phlogiston. It is still the matter of fire, of flame, of light, and of heat which is liberated in combustion; the only difference is, that we do not agree with Stahl, that this principle disengages from the body in combustion … [we believe] that it is liberated from the vital air on the precipitation of the oxygen. Yet it is still phlogiston with its most distinguishing attributes. In short, it is still the matter of heat; whether we call it phlogiston, caloric, or in plain English, fire. 2
