■•■■■. • 1 22 °: ' 



ferent kind ; for it was whitifi% whereas the other 

 had a yellowish tinge. Except the firfl quantity 

 •of- this impregnated water, I could never deprive 

 any more that I made of its peculiar tafte. I have 

 even let fome of it {land more than a week, in 

 phials with their mouths open, and fometimes , 

 very near the. fire^. without producing any. altera- 

 tion in it. 



Whether any of the fpirit of nitre be properly 

 contained in the nitrous air* and be mixed witrt, 

 the water in this operation, V have not yet endear 

 voured' to determine. This, however, may pro- 

 bably be the cafe, as the fpirit of nitre is in a con- 

 fiderable degree volatile. 



It will perhaps be thought, that the mofl ufe- - 

 ful, if not the raoft remarkable, of alt the proper- - 

 ties of this extraordinary kind of .air, is its power., 

 of prefer ving animal . fubftances from, putrefac- 

 tion, and of reiloring thole- that are already- 

 putrid, which it poffefTes in a far greater degree" 

 than fixed air. My firfl: obfervation of this was-,. 

 altogether cafual. Having found nitrous air to' « 

 fuffer fo great a diminution as I have already men- 

 tioned by a mixture of iron filings and brimflrone, 

 I was willing, to try whether it would be equally 

 diminifhed by other caufes of the diminution of - 

 common air, efpecially by putrefaction ; and for 

 this purpofe I put a,dead moufe into a quantity or*: 

 it, and placed it near the fire, where the ten- 

 dency to putrefaction was very, great. In this- 

 cafe there was a confiderable diminution, viz. from. 

 5.1 to 3^ ; but not fo great as I had expected, the 

 antifeptic power of the nitrous air having checked' 



the 



