phlogistonic

The point which Kuhn brings out particularly in his consideration of attempts to translate between phlogistonic and 'modern' chemistry is this: that not even long 'paraphrases' or complicated multiple uses of symbols can be usefully said to 'capture', to translate, phlogistonic chemistry: 'We have not only to say that phlogiston sometimes referred to hydrogen and sometimes to absorption of oxygen, but we have to convey the whole ontology of phlogiston in order to make plausible why it was taken to be a single natural kind.'