"His identification, however, of and phlogiston, and his inheritance of the prejudices of the early phlogiston school, led him to the erroneous conclusion that every combustible contains hydrogen, and that the deoxidation of air and the oxidation of combustibles, are invariably accompanied by the production of water. In this respect he erred, but we may forgive the discoverer of so great a truth as that of the composition of water, for over-estimating its importance. To this, and to the other points glanced at in this sketch of the first series of experiments on air, I have referred fully in the abstract of the paper, and in the chapters devoted to the discussion of the Water Controversy."