286 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



minutes after the circuit is closed, and sometimes for a much 

 longer time. The examination of this temporary action in 

 the first instance, with the view of ascertaining whether it was 

 a specific action of the nitrogen or attributable to adventitious 

 circumstances, led me to the results which I have the honour 

 of laying before the Royal Society in this paper. 



Before detailing these results I will, for convenience sake, 

 premise that they were all obtained by the form of battery 

 represented in fig. 8 of my last paper (which, with a slight 

 addition, to be referred to presently, is again represented at 

 fig. 2), p. 294, charged with distilled water slightly acidulated 

 with pure sulphuric acid. 



I will also, when alluding to my last paper, to avoid the 

 needless repetition of the word experiment, refer to the number 

 of the experiments as though they were paragraphs, and con- 

 tinue those numbers in the paragraphs of this paper. 



As the form of battery (fig. 2) by which the interfering 

 action of the atmosphere is entirely prevented was not devised 

 until the greater part of the experiments in my last paper had 

 been completed, I repeated some of them which seemed to 

 require such verification with this battery. To one of these 

 only is it essential that I should now refer. I should likwise 

 mention that in the experiments to be described the proper 

 reductions for temperature and pressure have been made 

 when necessary ; where it was practicable the experiments 

 were examined on days when the temperature and pres- 

 sure were, as nearly as may be, the same as when they were 

 set by. 



(31.) Oxygen and deutoxide of nitrogen, which in the 

 open form of battery gave only a temporary action (9), when 

 employed in the closed form (fig. 2) gave a continuous 

 current. The following three sets of experiments were con- 

 tinued each for a month in closed circuit, during which time 

 they were constantly tested by the galvanometer, and evi- 

 denced a continuous voltaic action ; at the expiration of the 

 month the results were as follows : 



Experiment I. Rise of liquid in tubes of Cubic in. 



Oxygen =0*32 



Deutoxide of nitrogen . . =1*26 



