Dr. Thomson afterwards observes,--"The discovery which Dr. Black had made, that marble is a combination of lime and a peculiar substance, to which he gave the name of _fixed air_, began gradually to attract the attention of chemists in other parts of the world. It was natural, in the first place, to examine the nature and properties of this fixed air, and the circumstances under which it is generated. It may seem strange and unaccountable that Dr. Black did not enter with ardour into this new career which he had himself opened, and that he allowed others to reap the corn after having himself sown the grain. Yet he did take some steps towards ascertaining the properties of _fixed air_; though I am not certain what progress he made. He knew that a candle would not burn in it, and that it is destructive to life, when any living animal attempts to breathe it. He knew that it is formed in the lungs during the breathing of animals, and that it is generated during the fermentation of wine and beer. Whether he was aware that it possesses the properties of an acid, I do not know; though with the knowledge which he possessed that it combines with alkalies and alkaline earths, and neutralizes them, or at least blunts and diminishes their alkaline properties, the conclusion that it partook of acid properties was scarcely avoidable. All these, and probably some other properties of _fixed air_, he was in the constant habit of stating in his lectures from the very commencement of his academical career; though, as he never published any thing on the subject himself, it is not possible to know exactly how far his knowledge of the properties of _fixed air_ extended. The oldest manuscript copy of his lectures that I have seen was taken down in writing in the year 1773; and before that time Mr. Cavendish had published his paper on _fixed air_ and _hydrogen gas_, and had detailed the properties of each. It was impossible from the manuscript of Dr. Black's lectures, to know which of the properties of _fixed air_ stated by him were discovered by himself, and which were taken from Mr. Cavendish." An idea so novel and important as that of an air possessing properties quite different from that of the atmosphere, existing in a fixed and solid state in various bodies, was not received without doubt, and even opposition. Several German enquirers endeavoured to controvert it. Meyer attempted to show that limestone became caustic, not by the emission of elastic matter, but by combining with a peculiar substance in the fire; the loss of weight, however, was wholly inconsistent with such a view of the question: and Bergman at Upsal, Macbride in Ireland, Keir at Birmingham, and Cavendish in London, fully demonstrated the truth of the opinion of Black, and a few years were sufficient to establish his theory upon an immutable foundation, and to open a new road to most important discoveries.