"Boyle, Hooke and Mayow in England, and Rey in France, besides other early disciples of the school of Bacon, understood the true nature of combustion in air much better than the immediate predecessors of Lavoisier. The former held as we do, that a burning body is literally fed by the air, and they apprehended with considerable clearness, that burning combustibles add something to themselves from the atmosphere. Some of these observers were also well aware that combustibles are converted by combustion into substances possessing greater weight than the original inflammable."