[ 2*8 J 



not be- fttee'of * it, . fbmetimes about three pints of 

 itfeeming to be about half a grain, heavier, and at 

 other times as much lighter than common air. 



Having, among other kinds of air, expofed a 

 quantity of nitrous air, to water out of which the 

 air had been well boiled, in the experiment to 

 which I have more than once referred, as having 

 been the occafion of feveral new and important ob* 

 fervations, I found that 44 of the whole was ah- 

 forbed. Perceiving, to my great furprize, that fot 

 very great a proportion of this kind of air was 

 mifcible with water, I immediately began to agi- 

 tate a confiderable quantity of it,. in a jar {landing* 

 in a trough of the fame kind of water ; and with: 

 about four times as much agitation as fixed air re- 

 quires, it was fo far abforbed by the water, that 

 only about one fifth remained. This remainder 

 extinguiihed flame, and was noxious to animals^. 

 Afterwards I diminished a pretty large quantity of 

 it to one eighth of its original bulk, and the re-, 

 mainder ftill retained much of its peculiar fmell f , 

 and diminifhed common air a little. . A moufe 

 alfo died in it, but not fo fuddenly as it would; 

 have done in pure nitrous air. In this operation, 

 the peculiar fmell. of nitrous air is very manifeil:* 

 the water being fir ft impregnated with, the air,, 

 and then, tranfmitting it to the common atiiiof- 

 phere. 



This experiment gave me the hint of impreg- 

 nating water with nitrous air, in the manner in 

 which I had before done it with fixed air; and I 

 prefently found that diftilled water would imbibe 

 about one tenth of its bulk of this kind of air, and 



that: 



