346 Observations on the Absorption of [Nov. 
Dalton’s theory, according to which the volume of carbonic acid 
absorbed should be just one half that of the absorbing liquid, and 
likewise the volumes of the other gases absorbed should be much 
smaller than I found them to be. 
If oxygen and hydrogen gases, mixed in the proportions necessary 
for forming water, were capable, by the increase of density pro- 
duced in them by the liquid, of combining and constituting water, 
their absorption could not be determined. But we are able by 
strong agitation to bring the absorption of these gases by water to a 
conclusion in a few minutes, so that it shall not be increased’ by 
continuing the agitation much longer. In my trials it did not’ 
exceed 51 hundred parts of the volume of the liquid. la 
We obtain similar results with the gaseous constituents of ammonia 
and nitric acid, Even the addition of an alkali or an acid to the 
water is not capable of making the gases combine. But we do not 
yet know the effect which would be produced by a contact of several 
months or years between these gases and the liquid. As little are 
we aware of the effect of atmospherical influence upon common air 
in a state of liberty. Perhaps the experiments which I have related 
in this paper may threw some light-on the subject. ‘They show that 
the absorption of gases depends partly upon the physical properties, 
and partly upon the chemical aflinities, of the bodies in contact, and 
penetrating each other; and that in this respect solid bodies and 
liquids are in general subjected to the same law. 
APPENDIX. 
Method of uniting with Water those Gases which are absorbed only 
in small Quantity. 
As the quantity of gases absorbed by water, according to my ex- 
periments, often differs from that obtained by Henry and Dalton, I 
think it necessary to state the degree of care which I took to make, 
my experiments as accurate as possible. ‘The description of these 
artifices, however, can only interest those who wish to repeat the, 
experiments. 
1. In order to free the water from air, I employed the following 
method. A small flask was filled with distilled water, and placed 
open under water in a bason, filled with that liquid, and the whole 
water was kept boiling violently for at least three hours. That the 
water had been freed from its air as completely as possible *. this 
way, I knew by bending down the flask during the boiling, and 
ence, as the whole depends upon estimating 13 hundred parts of azote, which are’ 
within the limits of errors in the experiments. 
* It does not appear possible to deprive water of the whole of its air by long 
continued boiling ; for when the small flask, in the experiments described in the 
text, was fitted with its stopper under the boiling water, a small space was left in 
it empty, in consequence of the contraction of the water by cooling. When the 
flask was opened under mercury, after standing for some days over that liquid, 
this empty space did not completely disappear by the rushing in of the mercury. 
A small air bubble always remained, which was speedily absorbed, This ais, 
ubble was obviously larger ia alcohol and ether than in water, nah —< 
