Gas from Drams. — Natur-eof Azote. 137 



or drain ftone Is laid down. Another apparatas, which is ftiil Ampler in its application 

 is caft for that purpofe at fome of our iron founderies, or may be made in wood or- 

 metal by thofe in remote fituations, who may prefer it. A bowl about fix or feven 

 inches in diameter, or even fmaller, is caft with a flanch or flat rim, for the purpofe of 

 fetting it in the pavement. In the bottom, or loweft part of the cavity, there is a round 

 hole, defended by a fhort ^ipright pipe, through which water, if poured into the bowl, 

 would pafs as foon as the bowl is filled to the top of the pipe. A perforated cover, with 

 holes in it, is made fo as to fit in the cavity of the bowl ; and there Is another ftill fmaller 

 bowl rivetted, bottom upwards, to the cover itfelf. When the cover is put on, the fmall 

 bowl therefore furrounds the pipe, and when water is poured through the holes, it runs into 

 the larger bowl, and a quantity always remains therein fufficient to ftand above the edge of 

 the inverted bowl, becaufe the middle pipe rifes higher than that edge. It is fcarcely 

 neceffary to add, that the wafte water will flow through the bowl by means of its pipe ; but 

 that the air of the drains can only have accefs to the infide of the inverted bowl, and cannot 

 enter the houfe unlefs its preflurc were fufficient to fink the furface of the included water, 

 and raife that in the outer bowl as much as the inverted edge lies lower than the top of the 

 pipe. The preflTure is never equal to this quantity. 



IX. 



A Memoir, in which the Queftion is examined, whether Azote be a fimple or compound Body f 

 By Christopher GiRTAifHER, DoSor of Phyjic at Gottingen*. 



X. HE moft celebrated chemifts have long been aware of the important part which is 

 performed by azote in all the operations of nature. Lavoifier, Fourcroy, Berthollet, Van 

 Mens, Guiton, Chaptal, Vauquelin, Prieftley, Van Marum, Goettling, Wiegleb, Von 

 Hauch, Pacts Van Trooflwyck, Deiman, and many other chemifts, have ftudied the nature 

 of this fubftance with various degrees of fuccefs. To thefe united labours it is that we arc 

 indebted for our knowledge of its fingular properties, which are fo very diff^erent from 

 the properties peculiar to other elaftic fluids. 



But this fingular principle appears to be more efpecially of importance with regard to Its 

 efFe£ls in organized bodies. 



In the inquiries which I have made for more than twelve years paft, on the mechanifm 

 of life in animals and plants, I found myfelf every where flopped by this principle fo little 

 known. I faw it appear and difappear in my experiments, without being able to fix it, or 

 to explain the manner in which it had been introduced into the bodies from which I had 

 cxtradled it. I foon began to fufpeft that azote was not a fimple, but a compound body. . 



• Communicated by the author to Citizen Van Mons, and publiihed in the Annales de Chimie, 



xxxrv. I. 

 Vol. IV.— June 1800. T I formed 



