Dr. ingenhousz’s Account , Sec. 377 
difeovery of that new aerial fluid, which in purity and fit- 
nefs for refpiration fo far furpafles the belt atmofpherical 
air, that an animal protracts his life five times as long, or 
even more, in it than in common air of the beft quality ? 
Dr. Priestley, the firft who difeovered this wonder- 
ful fluid, extracted it from bodies which we ihould ra- 
ther have fufpeCted to have contained deleterious exha- 
lations. He afterwards found it exifted in many other 
bodies in which the moil; accurate obferver never found 
any thing of an approaching nature. 
When I confider the immenfe quantity of this pure 
aerial fluid, called by Dr. priestley. with fo much pro- 
priety dephlogifticated air , which exifts as it were in a fa- 
lid ftate in nitre, in calcined metals,, and even in fome 
other of the moil common fubftances, I cannot exprefs 
the greatnefs of my expectation, as a phyfician, ffom 
fuch an important difeovery (a> . I flatter myfelf, that ere 
long an eafy and cheap method will be difeovered by 
which fuch quantities of this beneficial air may be ob- 
(a) Since Dr. priestxey’s I aft publication on air, he difeovered, that the 
fame" water which, if examined immediately, gives only a fmail quantity 6f 
bad air, yields fpontaneoufly about ten times the quantity of pure dephlogifti- 
cated air after ftanding fome time expofed to the fun. Of this I was an eye- 
witnefs. The important difeoveries of Abbe fontana upon this lubje<ft, 
which he. fhewed me when I was laft in Paris a year and a half ago, will foon 
be publifhed by himfelf. He extracted this wonderful aerial fluid from different 
kinds of water by boiling them oyer a fire# 
2 taineej. 
