390 Dr. ingenhousz’s Account of a 
remains in the piftol is fufficient to produce a loud re- 
port, which is all that is required. Indeed, one fingle 
drop of the aether could he eafily fhaken out of the glafs 
tube immediately into the piftol, without making ufe of the 
elaftic gum bottle; but this drop, evaporating into elaftic 
air, leaves behind it a good deal of moifture, whether in- 
herent in the aether itlelf, or attracted from the atmo- 
lphere. This moifture, in the way I ufe to load the 
piftol, remains in the elaftic gum bottle, which is there- 
fore always found moift when the experiment is re- 
peated feveral times. 
It was, indeed, known before this time, that aether 
and other volatile inflammable liquors fpread by evapo- 
rating inflammable effluvia through the furrounding air, 
efpecially when they are heated; and that thefe effluvia 
have fometimes by the imprudent approach of a candle 
taken fire, and conveyed the inflammation to the liquor 
itfelf : but I never heard that any body employed thefe 
liquors inftead of ordinary inflammable air in commu- 
nicating to common air an explofive quality, or in firing 
inflammable air piftols, before I communicated the ex- 
periment to my friends 
As it will, I think, appear very probable, by what will 
. \ ' t 
be faid hereafter, that little more than a pleafing amufe- 
ment can be expected from the force of any inflammable 
air j 
