[ *73 I 
flammability may, in fome meafure, arife from the 
air continuing fo much longer in the bladder when 
k is made very flowly y though I think the difference 
is too great for this caufe to have produced the whole 
of it. It may, perhaps, deferve to be tried by a 
different procefs, without a bladder. 
Inflammable air is not thought to be mifcible 
with water, and when kept many months, feems, in 
general, to be as inflammable as ever. Indeed,, 
when it is extracted from vegetable or animal fub- 
ftances, a part of it will be imbibed by the water in 
which it ftands but it may be prefumed, that in this 
cafe, there was a mixture of fixed air extracted from 
the fubftance along with it. I have indisputable 
evidence, however, that inflammable air, Handing 
long in water, has actually loft all its inflammability, 
and even come to extinguish flame much more than 
that air in which candles have burned out.. After 
this change it appears to be greatly diminished in 
quantity, and it ftiil continues to kill animals the 
moment they are put into it. 
This very remarkable fadt flrft occurred to my ob- 
fervation on the twenty- fifth of May 177 1, when I 
was examining a quantity of inflammable air, which 
had been made from sine, near three years before.. 
Upon this, I immediately fet by a common quart 
bottle filled with inflammable air from iron, and 
another equal quantity from zinc ; and examining, 
them in the beginning of December following, that 
from the iron was reduced near one half in quantity-,, 
if I be not greatly miftaken ; for I found the bottle 
half full of water, and I am pretty clear that it was 
full of air when it was fet by.. That which had. 
been 1 
