carbonated hydrogenous Gas. 403 
inflammable gas, were carbon and water ; which last, though 
probably not a constituent of gases, is, however, copiously dif- 
fused through them. If the evolved hydrogen proceeded from 
the decomposition of the former of these two substances, it is evi- 
dent that a certain volume of the carbonated hydrogenous gas 
must yield, after electrization, on combustion with oxygen, less 
carbonic acid than an equal volume of non-electrified gas ; or, 
in other words, the inflammation of 20 measures of carbonated 
hydrogen, expanded by electricity from 10, shoulcHnot afford 
so much carbonic acid as 10 measures of the unelectrified. 
From the fact which has been before stated, respecting the in- 
creased consumption of oxygen by the electrified air, it follows, 
-that in determining the quantity of its carbon by combustion, 
such an addition of oxygen should be made, to that necessary 
for the saturation of the gas before exposure to the electric shock, 
as will completely saturate the evolved hydrogen. For if this 
caution be not observed, we may reasonably suspect that the 
product of carbonic acid is diminished, only because a part of 
the heavy inflammable air has escaped combustion. It might, 
indeed, be supposed, that in consequence of the superior affi- 
nity of carbon for oxygen, the whole of the former substance, 
contained in the dense inflammable gas, would be saturated, 
and changed into carbonic acid, before the attraction of hydro- 
gen for oxygen could operate in the production of water. But 
I have found that the residue, after inflaming the carbonated 
hydrogenous gas with a deficiency of oxygen, and removing 
the carbonic acid, is not simply hydrogenous but carbonated 
hydrogenous gas. 
In the 2d, 5th, and 6th of Dr. Austin’s experiments, in 
which the quantity of carbon, in the electrified gas, was exa- 
mdccxcvii. 3 G 
