[ i8* 3 



finable, and, upon the whole, I concluded that it was 

 fo when it was diminifhed a little more than 

 one half : for a quantity which was diminifhed 

 exactly one half had fomething inflammable in it, 

 but in the flighted degree imaginable. 



Finding that water would imbibe inflammable air, 

 I endeavoured to impregnate water with it, by the 

 fame procefs by which I had made water imbibe 

 fixed air} but though I found that diftilled water 

 would imbibe about one fourteenth of its bulk of in- 

 flammable air, I could not perceive that the tafle o£ 

 it was fenflbly altered. 



IV. 



©F AlRTNFEGTED WTTH ANIMAL RESPIRATION;, 

 OR PUTREFACTION,. 



That candles will burn only a certain time, is a. 

 fact not better known, than it is that animals can 

 live only a certain time, in a given quantity of air ; 

 but the caufe of the death of the animal is not better 

 known than that of the extinction of flame in the. 

 fame circumflances ; and when once any quantity of 

 air has been rendered noxious by animals breathing 

 in it as \ong as they could, I do not know that any 

 methods have been diicovered of rendering it fit for 

 breathing again. It is evident, however, that there 

 miift be fome provifion in nature for this purpofe, as 

 well as for that of rendering the air fit for fuflaining 

 flame -, for without it the whole mafs of the atmo- 

 fphere would, in time, become unfit for the purpofe 

 of animal life ; and yet there is no reafon to think 

 that.it is, atprefent 3 at all lefs fit for refpiration tham 



It: 



