( 2^1 ') 



ABSORPTION OF GA^ES 



PP^ater and other Liquids, 



By JOHN DALTON. 



P^cad October ar, 1803. 



1 . IF a quantity of pure water be boiled ra- 

 pidly for a short time in a vessel with a narrow 

 aperture, or if it be subjected to the air-pump, 

 the air exhausted from the receiver containing: 

 the water, and then be briskly agitated for 

 some time, very nqarly the whole of any gas 

 tlie water 'may contain, will be extricated 

 from it. 



2. If a quantity of water thus freed from air 

 be agitated in any kind of gas, not chemically 

 uniting with water, it will absorb its bulk of 

 the gas, or otherwise a part of it equal to some 

 one of the followjng fractions, namely, 4, ^^, 

 TT» t4.t* .^c- ^^^c^*»^ being the cubes of the 

 reciprocals of the natural numbers 1,2, 3, &c. 

 or -^ , ^,,, ,-^. , ^^^ , See. the same gas al- 

 ways being absorbed in the same proportion. 



