VOL. LXIV.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 55t<lG 



raise her elbow about 5 or 6 inches from her side, pat her arm back, lace her 

 stays, put on her cap, sew, and do any business, as well as ever, that does not 

 require the elbow to be more raised. The upper end of the humerus played 

 about an inch below the point of the scapula; and the processus acromion and 

 coracoides appeared on each side of the cicatrix, at nearly equal distance. He 

 mentioned this only to point out more exactly the course of the incision. 



XXXIX. Contimialion of an Experimental Inquiry concerning the Nature of 



the Mineral Elastic Spirit, or Air, contained in the Pouhon JVater, and other, 



Acidula. By W. Brownrigg, M. D., F. R. S. i>. 35?. 



Pkop. 1. The ferruginous and absorbent earths, contained in the Pouhon watery' 

 are kept dissolved in it, by means of the mephitic air* to which those earths are 

 united. — In an inquiry concerning the nature of the mineral and elastic spirit, or air, 

 contained in this water, published in the Trans, of the r. s., vol. Iv, [Abrid. vol. xii, 

 p. 235] it has been shown, that when the Pouhon water is excluded from all contact 

 with the common air, in such manner that the mephitic air which it contains has 

 free liberty to fly from it into an empty bladder, this air does not separate from the 

 water by any spontaneous motion, as it would from its rare texture and elastic force, 

 were it at liberty to exert these its qualities: but, on the contrary, in this situa- 

 tion, it remains united to the other ingredients of the water, when exposed to 

 the most intense heat that we usually observe, in the open air, in this our 

 climate. It has been further shown, in the 2d experiment, that this elastic fluid, 

 when excluded from common air, in the manner before related, is but slowly 

 expelled from the Pouhon water by a heat of 110 degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- 

 mometer, though such heat is sufficient to raise water, a much heavier body, in 

 distillation: and so closely is air united to the other ingredients of the water, 

 that it is not wholly expelled from them by a scalding heat of l6o or 170 

 degrees of the scale, when exposed to it for 2 hours. 



Which experiments therefore prove, that this air is not detained in the Pouhon 

 water by the pressure of the atmosphere, or by any other external force, as is the 

 air with which beer, or other fermenting liquors, are often surcharged, while 

 they are confined in bottles; but that this elastic fluid is equally mixed with the 

 watery element, and with the other ingredients of which this mineral water is 

 composed, and exists with them in a state of solution, or in a fixed state, being 

 attached to the water, and to the other ingredients dissolved in it, by a force 

 sufficient to keep them all united together in one uniform compound, while this 

 force is not removed by some external cause. 



It further appears, from the same experiments, that so long as this air con- 

 tinues united to the other ingredients of the Pouhon water, its martial and 



* Now termed Carboiiic Acid Ga«. 



