2St6 ABSORPTION or THE GASES. 



Remarks on left I'jr water after ebullition and the operation of the alr-pirmp» 

 for^pdon of cafes '^'^^ ^''^'^'^^''^"'^ articles will, I apprehend, have placed this 

 by denfe fluids, in a clearer point of view. 



^'^' In determining the quantity of gafes abforbed, I had the re- 



fult of Mr. William Henry's experience on the fubjeft before 

 me, an accountof which has been publiQied in the Vhilofophi- 

 cal Tranfaclions for 1803. By the reciprocal communications 

 fince, we have been enabled to bring the refults of our ex- 

 periments to a near agreement ; as the quantities he has given 

 in his appendix to that paper nearly accord with thofe I have 

 liated in the fecond article. In my experiments with the lefs 

 abforbable gafes, or thofe of the 2d, 3d, and 4th claffes, I 

 ufed a phial holding 2700 grains of water, having a very ac- 

 curately ground ftopper; in thofe with the more abforbable of 

 the llrfl clafs, I ufed an eudiometer tube, properly graduated, 

 and of aperture fo as to be covered with the end of a finger. 

 This vvas filled with the gas and a fmall portion expelled by 

 . ^ .,_ introducing a folid body under water; the quantity being no- 



fn":'l. .,:' ,.. ticed by the quantity of water that entered on withdrawing 

 the folid body, the finger was applied to the end and the water 

 within agitated; then removing (he finger for a moment under 

 water, an additional quantity of water entered, and the agi- 

 tation was repeated till no more water would enter, when the 

 quantity and quality of the refiduary gas was examined. In 

 Ja6l, water could never be made to lake its bulk of any gas by 

 this procedure; but if it took -j^, or any other part, and the 

 refiduary gas was -^^ pure, then it was inferred that water 

 would take its bulk of that gas. The principle was the fame 

 in ufing the phial; only a fmall quantity of the gas was ad- 

 mitted, and the agitation was longer. 



There are two very important fafts contained in the fecond 

 article. The firll is, that the quantity of gas abforbed is as 

 the denflty or preflure. This was difcovered by Mr. William 

 Henry, before either he or I had formed any theory on the 

 fubjea. 



The other is, that the denfity of the gas in the W-aler has a 

 fpecial relation to that out of the water, the diftance of the 

 particles within being always fome multiple of that without : 

 ' -• Thus, in the cafe of carbonic acid, &c. the diftance within 



and without is thcfame, or the gas within the water is of the 

 fame dei;ility as without ; in defiant gas the diftance of the 



particles 



