23(5 EXPERIMENTS OF GASES ABSORBED BY WATER. 



appear to me worthy of the time and attention which fuch a 



repetition of them would have required. Of the accurac y of 



the following, however, I fatisfied m)fe!f, by repeating each 



two or three times ; and with gafes of the greateit attainable 



purity* 



100 cubic inches of water, at 60°, abfoib, 



Thefe numbers Of nitrous gas - ... 5 inches. 



are corrected Oxygenous gas - - - 2.63 



in the appendix. Pholphuretted hydrogen ditto - 2.14 



Gafeous oxide of carbon - - 2.01 



Carburetted hydrogen gas - - J .40 



Azotic gas .... 1.20 



Hydrogen gas - 1.08 



The folubility of atmofpherical air cannot eafily be afcer- 



tained ; for, as 1 (hall hereafter (hew, in a memoir on the ex- 



pulfion of gafes from water by each other, air is decomposed 



by agitation with boiled water, its oxygenous portion being 



abforbed in preference. 



Fomerftate- -From the ltatements given by various philofophers, (the 



mentsofair Abbe" Nollet, Drs. Hales, Prieilley, and Pearfon,) of the 



feparable from quan tjt y of air feparable from water of different kinds, by heat 



water inaccurate n .,«- t ^ i i ii 



from the portion or a diminiihed prefTure, I expected that a much larger pro- 



ilill left in the portion of the gafes conftituting the atmofphere would have 

 been abforbed by water, than the above numbers affigh. It is 

 to be recollected, however, that no method hitherto discovered 

 detaches from water all its air; and the unknown quantity 

 remaining in it, after thefe modes of feparation have been em- 

 ployed, is to be added to that with which a given volume of 

 water can be artificially impregnated. Dr. Pearfon, in hi» 

 enquiries into the nature of the gas obtained by paffing eleclric 

 difcharges through water, was at great pains to purify the 

 fubjeel of his experiments from air, by boiling and a powerful 

 air pump ; but he always found, that after the full effect of both 

 thefe methods, electricity liberated a further, and not an incon- 

 fiderable, portion of air *. 

 Exoulfionof Common fpring water may, I think, .be fairly taken as a 



gas torn fpring fpecimen of water full charged with atmofpherical air ; and, 

 with the view of determining the quantity and kind of gafes 

 extricated from it, I made the following experiment. A glafs 



Phil. Tranf. for 1797, 



globe 



