388 ATMOSPHERIC MATTER. 



a dewy moisture is observable trickling dowra 

 the internal surface of the receiver. 



By the united combustion, in close vessels 

 of different gases, more especially of oxy- 

 gen and hydrogen gas, the same phenomena 

 take place : from being transparent and clear, 

 they become clouded and foggy ; from a state 

 of dryness, they become moist; such is the 

 degree of decomposition in them, which by the 

 combustion has been produced, that in the 

 space of about an hour, nearly the whole of the 

 water which the gases contain, is separated out 

 of them, and precipitated from them to the 

 bottom of the receiver.* This experiment, 

 which is neither more or less than a petty imi- 

 tation of the change which takes place in the 

 great laboratory of the atmosphere, by the 

 effect of lightning, has occasioned as much 

 clatter among experimentalists throughout the 

 world, as if they had discovered the philoso- 

 phers' stone ! ! 



* Under both circumstances fire is produced, manifested 

 by color and heat ; in both the water which was either sus- 

 pended and diffused, or actually gasified in these airs, becomes 

 decomposed and deposited out of them. 



