[ 35 2 ] 
more water than what would have been fufficicnt 
to diflbl ve it. In making this experiment, the re- 
ceiver (hould not be touched-' by the hand, for its 
parts fuddenly expanding themfelves occafion an 
inftantaneous finking of the water in the tube, as 
I have frequently experienced, and might thus in- 
duce a fufpicion of the water’s not being elevated by 
the addition of fait. 1 would not be underflood from 
thefe experiments to deny the porofity of water, 
fince philofophers have thought;.. that the paf- 
fage of light through ft, and other phenomena 
indicate the exigence of vacuities in it; but I cannot 
believe, however foiution be carried on, that the 
(mailed quantity of filt can he difiolved in the 
larged quantity of water, without increafing its 
magnitude. The caufe of the water’s finking during 
folu'ion doth not appear to be fio certa n ; the 
efcape of air, to which all the appearances induced 
me to refer it, and to which it may perhaps diil be 
owing, feems to be liable to iome objedlions, not only 
from the experiments I have before mentioned, but 
from the following. 
Experiment XII. 
I took two matrafies of eoual dimenfions, one 
filled with common water, the other with boiled 
water. I poured into them equal quantities of oil 
of vitriol ; in the firft there feemed to be an univer- 
fal precipitation of air, as it were, from every 
particle of the fluid, which, by little and little, form- 
ed itfelf into larger bubbles, and afeending through 
