444 Fontana’s Account of Airs 
notion cannot be obferved ; but I fhall referve, for ano- 
ther opportunity, to fpeak of the laws and caufes of thofe 
diminutions and augmentations, and the differences ob- 
ferved between common and other kinds of air, and 
when the experiments are tried in water, See. 
For the prefentlfhall only mention, that if the dephlo- 
gifticated air be fliaken in the tube, in the manner above 
mentioned, not only it does not increafe its bulk, but it 
begins to diminifli from the very beginning of the ope- 
ration, and it continually lofes more and more of its 
bulk, and with its bulk of its purity. 
This laft mentioned property of the dephlogifticated 
air feems to fhew, that this is a fluid much different 
from common air, becaufe it has its peculiar properties 
by which it differs from common air not from more to 
lefs only, but entirely; as is lhewn by the property this 
fluid has of being abforbed by water ; whereas common 
air receives an increafe of bulk and elafticity by being 
fliaken in water. 
All that I have been faying above, in order to give an 
idea of my method, and the words I ufe to exprefs the 
diminutions made by the mixture of nitrous air and 
other kinds of refpirable air, is not fuffleient to obtain 
refults conftant and certain, fo as to deduce any confe- 
quences from them. Even after that all the elements are 
corrected. 
