of Cancer , and on Animal Hepatic Air . 397 
If heat be applied, a larger portion of fetid air, having the 
odour of cancerous matter, may be difengaged ; but in that 
cafe it will be found to be mixed with vitriolic acid air. 
With a view to obtain the former of thefe fluids in as pure 
a ftate as poffible, the experiment was repeated in the follow- 
ing manner, A portion of the cancerous virus, diffufed 
through diftiiled water, was introduced into a fmal! proof ; a 
little vitriolic acid was added ; the veffei was filled with dis- 
tilled- water, and a crooked tube, alfo filled with that fluid, 
was fixed to its neck. The extremity of the tube being then 
introduced into the mouth of an inverted bottle containing 
water, and the flame of a candle being applied to the bottom 
of the proof, a quantity of air was expelled, which was re- 
ceived in the bottle. This air, when it was fir ft difengaged, 
rofe in the form of white bubbles ; it had a very fetid frnell, 
fimilar to that of the cancerous matter ; and the water which 
was impregnated with it occafioned a dark-brown precipitate 
in a foiution of nitrated filver. The crooked tube being fepa- 
rated from the proof, a very offenfive white vapour, refembling 
in its odour the air extricated during the experiment, arofe 
from the mixture, and continued to afcend for nearly half an 
hour. When to a portion of this fmoking liquor, previoufly 
filtered, a little concentrated nitrous acid was added, the fetid 
fmell was entirely deftroyed, a flight effervefcence took place, 
and a flaky fubftance that floated through the mixture was 
difengaged. 
The foregoing experiments prove, in general, that the fetid 
odour of the matter of cancer is increafed by the vitriolic, but 
entirely deftroyed by the concentrated nitrous and dephlogifti- 
cated marine acids ; that the aerial fluid, which is difengaged 
by the vitriolic acid, is foluble in water; and that the foiu- 
tion 
1 
