unci Dead Animal Sub/lances. 53 



•On this eccafion M. Achard made two experiments alfo, 

 in order to ascertain what effect would be produced on air 

 when electrified without fparks. The object of his firft ex- 

 periment was in particular to difcover whether the atmo- 

 fphere, by being electrified, would become oxygenated, or 

 retain its goodnefs ; and that of the fecond, to determine 

 whether a certain volume of air would be enlarged when 

 electrified pofitively, or be diminiflied when electrified nega- 

 tively. 



For this purpofe he took a Leyden flafk filled with air, 

 the degree of the oxygenation of which he had previoufly 

 afcertained by an eudiometer, and electrified it as ftrongly as 

 poffible : he then let it ftand a few hours, and examined the 

 air again ; he, however, found neither abforption nor di- 

 latation to have taken place : and the cafe was the fame 

 when he expofed the jar to abundance of fparks; from 

 which it appears, that the quality of the air is not changed 

 by electricity. 



He then electrified a jar clofely flopped, through the co- 

 ver of which a bent glafs tabe proceeded downwards paral- 

 lel to the fide of the jar, and the exterior part of the tube 

 was placed in a fmall veffel filled with water. He charged 

 this jar positively and negatively. Had the pofitive electri- 

 city occupied that fpace which the air before occupied, the 

 ■water muft have funk in the tube ; and had this fpace been 

 ltffened by the negative electricity, the water muft have 

 rifen in the tube. As neither of thefe was the cafe, the 

 electric matter muft pafs through the interftices of the air 

 without caufing a farther feparation of its component parts; 

 and that matter alfo which goes out in electrifying nega- 

 tively, muft be contained merely in the interftices, without 

 occafioning any alteration in the particles of the air. 



3E 3 X. Obfer* 



