ZOO Nikv itlcBric Experiments. 



dace the Ieaff gas ; it appeared that the caloric had no" great 

 tendency to unite itfelf with the oxygen. 



Carbonat of potaili, or fufed fait of tartar, treated for a 

 quarter of an hour over mercury with fparks, experienced no 

 change. 



Concrete volatile alkali gave, between mcreurv and air, fo 

 much gas that the whole tube was fdled with it. In this 

 cafe the product was partly inflammable air and partly azot; 

 and it appears from thefe experiments that the formation of 

 gas from both thefe component parts takes place as well iti 

 air as in vacuo. 



Tincture of lackmus did not become rcd > though expofed 

 to (parks for half an hour. 



Profeffor Volta had rcquefted Dr. Van Marum to convey 

 {parks to fufed faltpetre, in order to try whether a decrepita- 

 tion would take place. This, however, was not the cafe; 

 and, after cooling, the faltpetre did not appear to be in the 

 k-aft alkalifcd. 



As oxygen feparates itfelf from horn-filvcr in the light of 

 the fun, Frieftley fir ft propofed to Van Marum to cxpofe it 

 to electricity ; but no air could be obtained from it, either 

 between the mercury and water, or in the Torricellian 

 vacuum. 



Solutions of filvcr, copper, iron, lead, and quickfilver, in 

 nitrous acid, and of gold and tin in aqua-regia, did not give 

 the leaft precipitate in a tube furnifhed with a piatina wire. 

 With filver, lead, tin, and quickfihcr, a little aeriform matter 

 was obferved, which however did not amount to above' one- 

 fourth of an inch, and was again immediatclv abforbed after 

 the experiment. 



6. Experiments which (liow that charcoal contains hy- 

 drogehi 



Thefe experiments were made in confequence of a vifit 

 from Landriani, on the 10th of November 17^8. Lavoifier'S 

 combuftion of charcoal in oxvgen gas had proved merely 

 that carbonic acid is produced from charcoal' and oxygen gas j 

 but he as little proved as any of the antiphloglftians, by a 

 direct experiment, that the charcoal or the carbonic acid*, 

 obtained by its combuftioa in vital air, carried with it no 



water. 



