384 Dr. ingen mouse’s Account of a 
the way I had feen it produced at Amfterdam. Soon 
after, hitting upon better and furer methods of fucceed- 
ing, I began to fhow it to thofe who came to vifit me, 
and in the beginning of the fummer I made no fcruple 
of ilie wing it to every body. 
The reafons why I did not fucceed in the beginning I 
found afterwards to be, either that I employed too great a 
quantity of aether, or that the air or vapour of the aether 
was not thoroughly incorporated with the other air ; for 
the fame numbr of drops of aether poured into the air 
piftol, which would not produce an exploiion when the 
piftol was not fhaken, made a very loud one when it was 
forcibly agitated. 
The fureft method of fucceeding I find to be the fol- 
lowing: I dip a fmall glafs tube, open on both fides, 
and the bore of which is one twelfth of an inch in dia.- 
meter into a phial containing aether, and when two or 
three drops of the liquid have entered the tube I apply 
my finger to the upper end of it, to keep the liquor fuf- 
pended. I take the tube out of the phial, and thruft it 
immediately into a fmall caoutchouck , or elaftic gum bot- 
tle : this being done, I withdraw my finger from the 
tube, and take it out of the caoutchouck ; thus the little 
quantity of aether, fufpended in the end of the tube, is 
dropped into the caoutchouck., the neck of which is to be 
immediately 
