and attraSHve Powers of .various faline Subfiances, 1 1 
acid and water ; I then added to thefe more acid and water, 
and calculated what their fpecific gravities fhould be upon 
the above fuppofition, and finding the refu It to tally with the 
fuppofition, 1 concluded the latter to be exafit. 
The experiments made on the marine acid were as follows. 
I took two bottles, which I filled nearly to the top with dif- 
tilled water, of which they contained in all 1399,9 g r * and in- 
troduced them fucceffively into two cylinders filled with marine 
air, which I had obtained from common fait by means of dilute 
oil of vitriol and heat, in a mercurial apparatus ; and this pro- 
cefis I renewed until the water had imbibed, in eighteen days, 
about 794 cubic inches of the marine air. The thermometer 
did not rife all this time above 55% nor fink, unlefis perhaps at 
night, under 50°, and the barometer was between 29 and 30 
inches. This water, or rather fpirit of fait, I then found to 
weigh 1920 gr. that is 520,1 more than before. The quantity 
of marine air abfiorbed amounted then to 520,1 gr. I then exa- 
mined the fpecific gravity of this fpirit of fait, and found it to 
be 1,225. Its lofs of weight in water (that is, the weight of 
an equal bulk of water) fhould then be 1567,346 gr. nearly; 
but it contained only, as we have feen, 1399,9 g r - °f water : 
therefore fubtra&ing this from 1567,346, the remainder (that is, 
167,446) mull; be the lofs of 520,1 gr. of marine acid ; and coil- 
fequently the fpecific gravity of the pure marine acid, in fhch 
a condenfed flate as it is in when united to water, muff be 
3 ? I0 °- ®ut hill it might be fufpeCted, that the den- 
fity of this ipirit did not intirely proceed from the mere denfity 
of the marine acid, but in part alfo from the attraction of this 
acid to water, and though the length of time requifite to make 
water imbibe this quantity of acid made me judge that the 
C 2 attraction 
\ I 
