[ 15 ] 



III. On the Alsorption of Gases It/ JJ^jter and other Li- 

 quids. iJy John Dalton*. 



I.If a quantity of pure water be boiled rapidly for a short 

 time in a vessel with a narrow aperture, or if it be Sub- 

 jected to the air-pump, the air exhausted from the receiver 

 containing the water, and then be briskly agitated for some 

 time, very nearly the whole of any gas the water may con- 

 tain 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 

 someone of the following fractions, namely, \, -^, -^^, y^-, 

 &c., these being the cubes of the reciprocals of the natural 

 1111- 



numbers 1, 2, 3, &c., or —,, —,, ^^, ^^, 



&;c., the same gas 



always being absorbed in the same proportion, as exhibited 

 in the following table. It must be understood that the 

 quantity of gas is to be measured at the pressure and tempe- 

 rature with which the impregnation is effected. 



• From MaiKlic^te.T Transactions, second series, vol. i. 



f According to Mr. 'William Henry's experiments, water <loe5 not imbilie 

 quite its bulk of nitrous oxide: in one or two instances witli me it has come 

 Very near it. The apparent deviation of this gas may be owing to the diffi- 

 culty of ascertaining the exact degree of its impurity. 



} About l-;2Gth of nitrous (ras is usually absorbed, and l-'-JTih h recovery. 



3. The 



