86 



then required nine cubic inches more of water td 

 fill the jar completely, which, consequently, was the 

 bulk of air that had disappeared. Hence, therefore, 

 we have 27 * 9 2 29 ' 8 = 27.5547, but 4 X * 5 * = .22819 

 and 27.554 .22819 = 27.32651, the corrected 

 volume of air at the close of the experiment. But 

 farther, 36 27.32651 = 8.67349, and 3 7 6 -- 9 = 

 ^- 5 ; so that the diminution of bulk which the air 

 suffered in this experiment is rather greater than r^ 



O 4.o4 



the proportion of oxygen gas which the atmosphere 

 contains. In a second experiment, another frog 

 lived in the same volume of air about sixty hours, 

 and the diminution which it suffered, after making 

 the necessary reductions, amounted to ~g of the 

 whole. Where the carbonic acid, formed by the 

 respiration of another frog, was suffered to remain, 

 the jar, after the death of the animal, adhered firm- 

 ly to the saucer in which it was inverted, and, when 

 cautiously elevated, the surrounding mercury rush- 

 ed in, and occupied only about one-tenth of the space 

 which it filled in the above-mentioned cases. The 

 inferences deducible from these facts, instruct us, 

 that the diminution which atmospheric air suffers by 

 the respiration of these animals, bears a near propor- 

 tion to the oxygen gas which it contains, when all 

 the carbonic acid is removed : and, as a small loss 

 ,of bulk likewise takes place when this acid is allow- 

 ed to remain, we must ascribe a part of the observed 

 diminution to the necessary loss which always ac- 

 companies the conversion of oxygen gas into carbo- 

 nic acid. 



