50 



ON PUTREFACTION. 



The water 

 contained no 

 oxygen. 



Remarks on 

 eudiometry. 



Muscular flesh 1 secured some fresh muscular flesh . (a portion of lamb) in 



vva* included the bottom of a glass jar, and inverted it over distilled water, 



in air above ° J ' 



distilled water, observing that the water within the jar was precisely on a 



level with that which was external ; that any absorption of 



either of the components of the intercluded atmospheric air, 



might be noted by a corresponding absorption of water within 



the jar. 



Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 70°. At which tempera- 

 ture it was kept during the experiment. 



That the distilled water was perfectly free from any oxygen 

 gas, I proved by Mr. Dusseu's method : viz. I tinged a portion 

 of the same water with litmus, and passed nitrous gas through 

 it, which Dr. Priestley proved would combine with the oxygen, 

 and be converted into nitric avid, which would change the 

 litmus red. Dr. Thompsou says, however, that this is not a 

 critical test, and that the litmus will not be charged unless there 

 be an unusual quantity of oxygen gas present. 



Upon the discovery of this property of nitrous gas, by Dr. 

 Priestley, he founded the first eudiometer, which has been since 

 mproved by Falconer, Fontana, Cavendish, Ladriani, Magellan, 

 Baron Von Humboldt, Engenhausz, Dalton, and Gay Lussac, 

 and contributed so much to extend the bounds of philosophical 

 knowledge. Before this important era, the only eudiometer 

 in the hands of the philosophers, was a sparrow, a mouse, or a 

 taper. Since, however, others have been devised - 3 as the 

 sulphuret of iron by Scheele, the liquid hydro-sulphuret of 

 potash by De Marti, the rapid combustion of phosphorus by 

 Humboldt and Seguin, the slow combustion of phosphorus by 

 Berthollet, the green sulphate and muriate of iron impregnated 

 with nitrous gas by Davy, and the detonation of hydrogen gas 

 by Volta. 



The jar remained three days, during which time the flesh 

 rhinwTiVthe nac * undergone the putrefactive process, as was evinced by the 

 "ncludedair offensive odour emitted. But at no time could I observe any 

 absorption of water within the jar : except where there was a 

 corresponding reduction of atmospheric temperature, and in 

 consequence a condensation of the intercluded air. But Dr. 

 Priestley, in a similar experiment, found a small augmentation of 

 • air within the jar j as I have in subsequent experiments. 



The confined air was analysed with the eudiometer of 



Humboldt, 



The putrefac 

 f icu made no 



