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trie tendency to putrefaction ; for when, after a 

 week, I took the moufe out, I perceived, to my 

 very great furprize, that it had no offenfive fmell. 



Upon this I took two other mice, one of them 

 jufl killed, and the other foft and putrid, and put" 

 them both into the fame jar of nitrous air, ftand- - 

 ing in the ufual temperature of the weather, in 

 the months of July and Auguft of 1772; and' 

 after 25 days, .having obferved that there was little 

 or no change in the quantity of the air, I took the 

 mice out; - and, examining them, found them both 

 perfectly fweet, even when cut through in all 

 places. That which . had 1 been- put* into- the air 

 when juft dead was quite firm ; and the flefh of the 

 other, which- had been putrid and foft, was ■ftill 

 jfbfr^ but perfectly fweet. , 



In order to compare the antifeptic power of this 

 kind of ; air with that of fixed air, I examined a 

 moufe which I had inclofed in a phial full of fixed 

 air, as pure as I could make it, and which I had 

 corked veryclofe^ but upon opening this phial in 

 water, about a month after, I perceived that a 

 large quantity of putrid effluvium had been gene* 

 rated ; for it rufhed with violence out of the phial 3 

 and the fmell that came from it* the moment the 

 cork was taken, out, was : infufferably ofFenfive. 

 Indeed Dr. Macbride fays, that he* could only re (tore 

 very thin pieces of putrid fiefh by means of fixed 

 air. Perhaps the antifeptic h power of thefe kinds 

 of air may he in proportion to their acidity. If a 

 little pains were taken ■ with this fubjecl, this re- 

 markable antifeptic power of nitrous air- might 

 poffibly, be applied to .various ufes, perhaps to the 



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