[ l8 9 ] 
as I can pofflbly contrive it, appeared to be very 
great; indeed, much greater than I had expe&ed. 
I put a dead moufe into a tali glafs vefiel, and 
having filled the remainder with quickfilver, and let 
it, inverted, in a pot of quickfilver, I let it Hand 
about two months, in which time the putrid effluvium 
ifluing from the moufe had filled the whole vefiel, 
and part of the diffolved blood, which lodged upon 
the furfaee of the quikfilver, began to be thrown out. 
I then filled another glafs vefiel, of the fame fizeand 
fhape, with as pure fixed air as I could make, and 
expofed them both, at the fame time, to a quantity 
of lime-water.. In both cafes the water grew turbid 
alike, it rofe equally fall in both the vefiels, and like- 
wife equally high ; fo that about the fame quantity 
remained unabforbed by the water. One of thefe 
kinds of air, however, was exceedingly fweet and. 
pleafant, and the other infufferably ofienfive 5 one of 
them alfo would have made an addition to any 
quantity of common air with which it had been* 
mixed,, and the other would have diminished it. 
This, at leafi, would have been the confequence, if 
the moufe itfelf had putrefied in any quantity of air. 
It feems to depend, in fome meafure, upon the 
time, and other circumftances, in the difloiutibn of 
animal or vegetable fubftances, whether they yield- 1 
the proper putrid effluvium, or fixed, or inflammable 
air; but the experiments which I have made upon 
this fubjedt, have not been numerous enough to- 
enable me to decide with certainty concerning, thofe-' 
circumftances. Putrid cabbage, green, or boiled, in- 
fers the air in the very fame manner as putrid animal: 
fubftances.. Air thus tainted is equally contracted. 
