That much air- is Incorporated into the substance of' 

 vegetables, appears from the follow ing experiments. 



Forty-two inches of ale,, 1 from the tun, generated, in 

 three months, 636" cubic inches of air: twelve inches of* 

 rnalaga raisins, in six weeks, generated 431 inches: 

 twenty-six inches of apples, . in thirteen days, generated 

 f)6S inches of air. f i hey then, in three or four days, re- 

 sorbed about twelve inches*., and afterwards neither-' 

 generated nor rcsorbed. 



That the air arising from distilled or fermenting 

 bodies is true air appears from hence, that it continues 

 in the same expanded state for weeks, or months, which 

 expanded vapours w.jH not do. And that it is elastic- 

 appears by its dilating and contracting with heat and- 

 cold as common air does. 



Air then makes a very considerable part of the sub- 

 stance of vegetables as well as animals. And beside 

 these particles of air, which strongly adhere- to, and are 

 wrought into their substance, there is in them a large 

 quantity which is upon the wing, and in a very active 

 state. 



To shew how much air is contained in white paper, 

 take as many slips of it as weigh a hundred grains.*- 

 Euro these warily by the flame of a candle, and then 

 weigh the ashes : you will find the hundred grains re- 

 duced to six; so ninety-four grains out of one hundred 

 are undeniably transformed into* sir. They could not 

 be. annihilated; and they could not rise and flyaway 

 without a repelling force to carry them. off. Thus the 

 candle itself is by degrees transformed from heavy, pal- 

 pable wax, into a light, impalpable body- of air. But 

 observe, all bodies which thus become air, pass through 

 the intermediate state of flame ; so that, properly speak- 

 ing, the same body was one moment paper, the second 

 zuameiit jire, and the third, air. How different states . 

 for the same sort of matter to subsist in, in- so*short a.-/, 

 time ! 



The air-pump shews how much air is even in water* 

 Place a tail glass of water in the receiver; turu the* 



