5^2 Sir *H. Davy's Experiments on the 
minutes in the focus, appeared to undergo no further diminu- 
tion : two fragments remained, wliich, as it was afterwards 
found, weighed .52 of a grain ; the barometer during the ex- 
periment was at 29.9 inches, the thermometer at 56° Fahren- 
heit. When the original temperature of the globe was re- 
stored, there was not the slightest appearance of vapour or 
humidity; the interior was as clear as before the experiment, 
and there was no solid matter of any kind separated in the 
tray. The fragments of diamond which remained were not 
black, but had lost their lustre like glass that has been acted 
on by fluoric acid, nor at any period of the process was any 
carbonaceous appearance perceived upon them. When the 
communication was made by the stop-cock between the inte- 
rior of the globe and a surface of mercury, a minute quantity 
entered equal to 1.5 grain only. 
A portion of the gas in the globe was transferred into a tube 
in the mercurial apparatus, and the oxy gene it contained ab- 
sorbed by the combustion of phosphorus ; 3.5 parts of gas 
heated in this way left a residuum of 2.5 parts. A portion of 
the gas was agitated with lime water, when seven parts out 
of ten were absorbed. I exposed the gas which remained after 
the combustion of phosphorus to several tests ; it had not only 
the obvious characters of carbonic acid, but exhibited exactly 
the same chemical phenomena. Potassium strongly heated in 
it in a small glass tube over mercury, burnt with a dull red 
light, and formed an alkaline product of the same intense 
black colour as that produced by its combustion in the carbonic 
acid procured by the dissolution of marble : distilled water 
absorbed rather less than its own volume of the gas, and be- 
came subacid, sparkled by agitation, gained the taste and smell 
