320 PRESSURE IN THE AIR, 



vegetables in general, more especially when 

 they are exposed to the free influence of the 

 solar rays.* 



Although it is very true, that vegetables, dur- 

 ing the day, excrete a quantity of this parti- 

 cular gas ; they are known to absorb a large 

 proportion of it also. In the oxydation of me- 

 tals, the full quantity is separated from the 

 atmosphere, by the fire, as is given out by the 

 oxyde ; and the intensity of fire which it is ne- 

 cessary to excite in order to obtain oxygen gas, 

 is not found to exist, in the ordinary state of 

 things. Means, therefore, such as these, are 

 altogether, inadequate and insufficient, to ac- 

 count for the actual existence, much less for the 

 reproduction of the immense quantity of oxygen 

 gas which is perpetually separated from the 

 atmosphere by animals and vegetables, during 



* If further evidence of the wretched state of our Nomen- 

 clature were necessary, I should dwell particularly on the 

 term Oxygen Gas. Oxygen means sour, and is supposed to 

 comprehend the solid base, or gravitating matter, and the term 

 Qxygen Gas, the actual existence of this base, in a airiform 

 state ; it is imagined by chemists, that it forms the principle 

 of all acids, and of acid combinations ; and from this circum- 

 stance it is, that its name is derived : it would, however, seem 

 very unscientific to call this gas, Oxygen gas, or sour gas, 

 when it neither is sour to the taste, or produces on other bo- 

 dies any of those effects which acids are prone to do, and bj 

 which they are distinguished from other bodies. 



