100 Rev. Mr Robertson's Analysis of the 



It did not explode by the electric spark, when mixed with at- 

 mospheric air. 



The oxygen gas which it contained being previously removed 

 by phosphorus, it was mixed with chlorine gas, and exposed to 

 the Hght for some hours. The chlorine was then removed by 

 agitation with lime-water, and the oxygen, which the action of 

 the light might have extricated, by phosphorus. The diminu- 

 tion amounted to one and a half per cent., which might have 

 been carburetted hydrogen, or may have arisen from absorption, 

 by the water confining the gas, during so many agitations with 

 it. 



The residual gas, which was probably nitrogen, after the pro- 

 per allowances were made, amounted to .900 



The Oxygen 085 



The carburetted Hydrogen or Loss .015 



1.000 



A large flask, fitted with a bent tube, and containing eighteen 

 and a half ounces of the water, yielded, by a slight boiling, half 

 a cubic inch of gas, which, from the want of a mercurial trough, 

 was collected over water. This is in the proportion of about 

 .42 of a cubic inch from an English pint. 



Four and a half per cent, of this gas were absorbed by lime- 

 water ; the lime-water, at the same time, becoming milky. This 

 gives of carbonic acid .02 of a cubic inch from the pint. 



By phosphorus there was a farther loss of seven per cent., to 

 which the correction for augmentation in volume of the residual 

 nitrogen being applied, gives of 



Oxygen, . ... .095 

 Carbonic Acid Gas, . . .045 

 Nitrogen, 860 



1.000 



A large flask, with a bent tube, containing twenty-seven oun- 

 ces of the water, was strongly boiled for a very considerable 

 time, until bubbles of gas ceased to come over. The quantity 

 collected was two and a half cubic inches. Of this, when treated 

 as before, .75 of a cubic inch were found to be carbonic acid, 

 .317 of a cubic inch oxygen, and 1.43 cubic inches nitrogen, 



