355 
664. But Dr Klapp farther contends, not only 
that no aeriform fluid is perspired by the skin, but 
that this organ does not change the quality of the air 
that surrounds it. He held his hand and wrist for 
three hours in a vessel of atmospheric air confined 
over mercury, and kept at the temperature of 60 ; 
but on analysing the air > no change was found to have 
taken place either in its composition or its volume. 
A second experiment was made with oxygen gas 
nearly pure, but no carbonic acid was produced ; 
neither did any change take place in the volume of 
the gas *. A similar result had been previously ob- 
tained by Dr Priestley, who kept his arm for an hour 
in warm water, while his hand was passed up into a 
jar of air inverted in water; but the contained air did 
not appear to have suffered any alteration f- 
665. These experiments, to ascertain the action of 
the human skin on the atmosphere, have been lately 
repeated, with great care, by our friend Dr Gordon, 
and with results similar to those which have just 
been stated. He kept his hand and fore-arm, for an 
hour, in a vessel of atmospheric air, inverted over 
water and heated to the temperature of 88 Fahren- 
heit. The arm was then withdrawn, and the air al- 
lowed to cool down to the temperature of the sur- 
rounding atmosphere. Its bulk was now found to 
be exactly the same as before the experiment, and a 
portion of it being analysed by lime-water, and by 
phosphorus, appeared to possess no additional quan- 
* On the Functions of the Skin, p. 25. 
t Obs. on Air, abridged^ vol. ii. p. 195- 
