i/i the dijj event Kinds of' Ga^, and in Fluids. 151 



tect, and wliich, as a coinponcut part in atmo-pheric air, 

 must adhere to the azotic gas, and which is also in com- 

 bination with the fiaids tlieniselvcs ? Is artificial phosphorus, 

 which in all probability has a greater affinity for oxvgen 

 than luminous wood, able to decompose the oxvgen gas in 

 •water ? May not it^' being oxidated under water arise rather 

 from the slow decomposition of the water itselr, than from 

 the decomposilioLi of the gasiform oxygen contained in it ? 

 If otherwise, phosphorus would be as luminous in water as 

 wood ; whicli, in the course of my numerous experiments, 

 I did not find to he the ease, though I had often in my hand 

 flasks V. hieh contained half a pound of partly fresh melted 

 and partly weak and strongly oxidated pieces of phospho- 

 rus : and in regard to the limiinous stars which Messrs. 

 Schcrer and .lilger hare described, and which 1 observed in 

 boiling water in u hich phospliorus was put, I consider them 

 to have been fine phosphoric particles whicli emitted light 

 in the small air bubbles separated by means of the heat from 

 the w atcr. I observed also in tlie dark, on opening the above 

 flasks, in which phosphorus had remained for some months, 

 luminous vapours often arise from them. This luminous 

 appearance, however, did not take place in water free from 

 the contact of atmospheric air. It appears to nic also, in 

 consequence of several experiments, made with great care, 

 on the quantity of oxvgen gas decomposed during the com- 

 bustion of phosphorus in atmospheric air, or in non-respira- 

 ble gases in which a certain (juantity of oxygen gas is mixed, 

 possible to determine, in a certain degree, from the known 

 «|uantity of the surface of the phosphorus, from the dura- 

 tion of the light and its intensity, how much oxygen gas is 

 actuallv decomposed ; and if this idea is not entirely ground- 

 less, it appears to me very improbable, that in the interstices 

 of distilled water as much gaseous oxygen exists as is sulH-r 

 cicnt to account for the phosphorescence of rotten wood in 

 it, according to the conjecture of M. Ilumboldl,; and there- 

 fore it appears to me more prcjbable that wood, to produce 

 its pliosphore.secnce, is in no immediate need of oxygen, 

 1 was ijjduced, by some cxjircssions of M.llumboldt, to 

 rnlarge njorc on this point than I otherwise should have 

 done. 



I am not much inclined to believe that wood, as a lumi- 

 nous substance, produces the observed diminution of oxy- 

 gen gajj. According to my opinion this is occasioned much 

 more by the degree of the rottenness, as during all processes 

 of ferment al ion and putrelaction the -above gas is dccom- 

 j'.'.'scfl, M. Ilumboldl does not appear to uk to have 

 K 1 adopted 



