[MD] Oxygen as Virtue ?

[ian glendinning]

Hi folks,
Intrigued, listening to "In Our Time" discussing Priestly, Schaeler
and Lavoisier in the discovery of oxygen in the 1770's ....

.... to hear that Priestly, looking at "dephlogisticated air" (ie
oxygen) refers to the quality (ie goodness / badness) of air to
support life as "virtue" deliberately inferring the moral as well as
physical quality. Well I never.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20071115.shtml
Learn something new every day.
Ian