190 OXYGEN 



creased, and by great pressure, water will absorb half its bulk, but 

 without any change of properties. 



6. Relation to animal life. 



(a.) Oxygen supports life eminently in respiration, and is the only 

 agent that is adapted to this purpose ; but it is necessary that its 

 great energy should be mitigated by dilution, as will be mentioned 

 again farther on. 



(b.) A bird will live five or six times as long in a confined portion 

 of oxygen gas, as in the same volume of common air ; and several 

 birds will live a short time in oxygen gas, in which others have died ; 

 each successive one will, however, in general, live a shorter time 

 than its predecessor. 



" Count Morozzo placed a number of sparrows, one after another, 

 in a glass bell filled with common air, and inverted over water : 

 The first sparrow lived - - 3^. Om. 



The 2d " " - - 03 



The 3d " " - 1 



" The water rose in the vessel, eight lines during the life of the 

 first ; four during that of the second, and the third produced no ab- 

 sorption. He filled the same glass with oxygen gas, and repeated 

 the experiment. 



The first sparrow lived - - 5h. 23m. 



The 2d " " - - 2 10 



The 3d " 1 30 



The 4th . - 1 10 



The 5th " " - 30 



The 6th - - 47 



The 7th " " 27 



The 8th " - - 30 



The 9th " " 22 



The 10th " " - - 21 



He then put in two together, the one died in twenty minutes, but 

 the other lived an hour longer." Chaptaland Thomson. 



7. Relation to disease. Oxygen gas is eminently salutary in some 

 cases, especially in diseases of the thorax, in paralysis, general de- 

 bility, &c.* 



* Oxygen gas, when respired in the human lungs, generally produces a sen- 

 sation of agreeable warmth about the region of the chest, and some say that they ex- 

 perience a comfortable sensation through the whole body. Chaptal relates the fol- 

 l^wing instance of its effects on a man in consumption. " Mr. De B." says this 

 writer, " was' in the last stage of a confirmed pthisis. Extreme weakness, profuse 

 sweats, and in short, every symptom announced the approach of death. One 

 of my friends, Mr. De P , put him on a course of vital air. The patient respir- 

 ed it with delight, and asked for it with all the eagerness of an infant at the breast. 

 During the time that he respired it, he felt a comfortable heat which distributed it- 

 self through all his limbs. His strength increased with the greatest rapidity ; and 



