256 
542. In our former work, we ascribed the first 
discovery of the specific changes which insects induce 
on the air to M. Vauquelin ; but we have since found, 
that it ought rather to have been given to Scheele. 
He shut up several flies in a phial, and in a few days 
they all died, but had not diminished the volume of 
air. Milk of lime, however, reduced the bulk of re- 
sidual air one-fourth part, and the remaining air ex- 
tinguished a taper. He likewise inclosed a bee in a 
bottle, containing 20 ounce measures of air. A small 
piece of lime was, at the same time, introduced intc* 
the bottle, and in its side, near the bottom, a small 
hole was made. The bottle was then immersed in 
water, and as the water passed in, a quantity of lime- 
water was formed, which attracted the carbonic acid 
produced by the insects. As by this attraction of acid 
the volume of air continued to diminish, the water also 
continued to enter through the hole, until, by the se- 
venth day, it had risen to about one-fourth of the 
height of the bottle. If two bees were put into the 
bottle, the same quantity of air was changed into 
carbonic acid in half the time ; and he found also, 
that caterpillars and butterflies produced similar ef- 
fects in the air. 
543. To prove that it was the oxygenous portion 
of the air that was thus changed into carbonic acid, 
he confined two large bees in the same bottle, when 
it was filled with oxygen gas ; and then set it to 
stand in milk of lime. He observed every day the 
milk of lime to rise through the hole into the bottle; 
and by the eighth day, the vessel was nearly filled 
