and attractive Powers of various faline Jubilances, 1 1 
acid and water ; I then added to thele more acid and water, 
and calculated what their fpecific gravities fhould be upon 
the above fuppofition, and finding the refult to tally with the 
fuppofition, I concluded the latter to be exaCh 
The experiments made on the marine acid were as follows. 
I took two bottles, which I filed nearly to the top with dis- 
tilled water, of which they contained in all 1399*9 gr. and in- 
troduced them lucceffively into two cylinders filled with marine 
air, which I had obtained from common fait by means of dilute 
oil of vitriol and heat, in a mercurial apparatus ; and this pro- 
cefs I renewed until the water had imbibed, in eighteen days, 
about 794 cubic inches of the marine air. The thermometer 
did not rife all this time above 5 5% nor fink, unlefs perhaps at 
night, under 50% and the barometer was between 29 and 30 
inches. This water, or rather fpirit of fait, I then found to 
weigh 1920 gr. that is 520,1 more than before. The quantity 
of marine air abforbed amounted then to 520,1 gr. I then exa- 
mined the fpecific gravity of this fpirit of fait, and found it to 
be 1,225. Its lofs of weight in water (that is, the weight of 
an equal bulk of water) fhould then be 1567,346 gr. nearly; 
but it contained only, as we have feen, 1399,9 gr. of water; 
therefore fubtrafting this from 1567,346, the remainder (that is, 
1 67,446) muft be the lofs of 520,1 gr. of marine acid ; and con- 
fequently the fpecific gravity of the pure marine acid, in fuch 
a condenfed ftate as it is in when united to water, muft be 
l|“~r=3, io °. But ftill it might be fufpeCted, that the den- 
fity of this fpirit did not intirely proceed from the mere denfity 
of the marine acid, hut in oart alfb from the attraction of this 
acid to water, and though the length of time requifite to make 
water imbibe this quantity of acid made me judge that the 
C 2 attraction 
