1815.) the. Gases. ly different Bodies. 345 
14, Simultaneous Alsorption of several Gases by Water. 
_ Probably the absorption of different gases at the same time by 
liquids is analogous to what I observed with respect to solid bodies. 
Henry, Dalton, Von Humboldt, and Gay-Lussac, had already, re- 
marked that water saturated with one gas allows a portion of that 
to escape as soon as it comes in contact with another gas, It is 
indeed evident, according to Dalton’s theory, that two gases ab- 
sorbed into a liquid should really always occupy the same room as 
they would occupy if each of them had been absorbed singly at the 
degree of density which it has in the mixture. To obiain results 
on this subject approaching to accuracy, I was obliged to make mix- 
tures of carbonic acid with oxygen, hydrogen, and azotic gases ; 
for the last three gases are absorbed by water in so small a propor- 
tion, that the different condensations which take’ place cannot be 
confounded with errors in the experiments, * 
Water and a Mixture of equal Measures of Carbonic Acid and 
Hydrogen Gas.—I brought 100 measures of water, at the tempera- 
ture of 624°, in contact with 434 measures of equal volumes of 
carbonic acid and hydrogen. The absorption amounted to 47:5 
volumes, of which 44 were carbonic acid, and 3-5 hydrogen. If we 
compare, in the same way as we did with the charcoal in para- 
gtagh 7, the space which the absorbed gases occupy in the water, 
with that which they would occupy according to paragraph 10, we 
find that the presence of one of the gases has favoured the absorp- 
tion of the other, as far as the relative space goes which each would 
occupy separately in the water. 
Water and a Mixture of equal Parts of Carbonic Acid and 
Oxygen Gas.—100 volumes of water at 621° absorbed from 390 
volumes of this mixture 52-1 volumes, of which 471 volumes were 
carbonic acid and five volumes oxygen gas. Here also the conden- 
sation is greater than when the gases are separate. 7 
Water and a Mixture of Carbonic Acid and Axotic Gas.—100 
volumes of water absorbed, from 357°6 volumes of this mixture, at 
the same temperature, 47°2 volumes, of which 43°9 volumes were 
carbonic acid and 3°3 azote. 
The results of these experiments, as we perceive, agree com- 
pletely with each other;+ but none of them correspond with 
_ * Von Humboldt and Gay-Lussac have found that when they left a mixture of 
oxygen and hydrogen gas standing over water ina receiver, the absorption of the 
hydrogen was far greater than it would have been had it not been for the presence 
of the oxygen gas, I believe that this remarkable result was owing to the filtering 
of the hydrogen through the water into the external air, hastened by the action of 
the oxygen gas, or any other more absorbable gas ; for according to my experi- 
ments pure water in vessels standing over mercury always absorbs from mixtures 
of oxygen and hydrogen a smatier absolute volume of the last than of pure 
drogen, in proportion to the space which the ‘oxygen occupies in the water. 
Owever, itis not the less probable that both gases undergo a certain increase of 
Sernity Sram their mutual contact, 
1 rbonic acid does not appear to favour the absorption of azoteby charcoal, 
The contrary seems to be the case in water, Yet 1 cannot depend upon this differs 
