First Experiment.—I dissolved one ounce of alkaline liver of sulphur in eight ounces of water; I poured 4 ounces of this solution into an empty bottle capable of holding 24 ounces of water, and closed it most securely with a cork; I then inverted the bottle and placed the neck in a small vessel with water; in this position I allowed it to stand for 14 days. During this time the solution had lost a part of its red colour and had also deposited some sulphur: afterwards I took the bottle and held it in the same position in a larger vessel with water, so that the mouth was under and the bottom above the water-level, and withdrew the cork under the water;
immediately water rose with violence into the bottle. I closed the bottle again, removed it from the water, and weighed the fluid which it contained. There were 10 ounces. After subtracting from this the 4 ounces of solution of sulphur there remain 6 ounces, consequently it is apparent from this experiment that of 20 parts of air 6 parts have been lost in 14 days.
9. Second Experiment.—(a.) I repeated the preceding experiment with the same quantity of liver of sulphur, but with this difference that I only allowed the bottle to stand a week, tightly closed. I then found that of 20 parts of air only 4 had been lost. (b.) On another occasion I allowed the very same bottle to stand 4 months; the solution still possessed a somewhat dark yellow colour. But no more air had been lost than in the first experiment, that is to say 6 parts.
10. Third Experiment.—I mixed 2 ounces of caustic ley, which was prepared from alkali of tartar and unslaked lime and did not precipitate lime water, with half an ounce of the preceding solution of sulphur which likewise did not precipitate lime water. This mixture had a yellow colour. I poured it into the same bottle, and after this had stood 14 days, well closed, I found the mixture entirely without colour and also without precipitate. I was enabled to conclude that the air in this bottle had likewise diminished, from the fact that air rushed into the bottle with a hissing sound after I had made a small hole in the cork.
11. Fourth Experiment.—(a.) I took 4 ounces of a solution of sulphur in lime water; I poured this solution into a bottle and closed it tightly. After 14 days the yellow colour had disappeared, and of 20 parts of air 4 parts had been lost. The solution contained no sulphur, but had allowed a precipitate to fall which was chiefly gypsum. (b.) Volatile liver of sulphur
likewise diminishes the bulk of air. (c.) Sulphur, however, and volatile spirit of sulphur, undergo no alteration in it.
12. Fifth Experiment.—I hung up over burning sulphur, linen rags which were dipped in a solution of alkali of tartar. After the alkali was saturated with the volatile acid, I placed the rags in a flask, and closed the mouth most carefully with a wet bladder. After 3 weeks had elapsed I found the bladder strongly pressed down; I inverted the flask, held its mouth in water, and made a hole in the bladder; thereupon water rose with violence into the flask and filled the fourth part.
13. Sixth Experiment.—I collected in a bladder the nitrous air which arises on the dissolution of the metals in nitrous acid, and after I had tied the bladder tightly I laid it in a flask and secured the mouth very carefully with a wet bladder. The nitrous air gradually lost its elasticity, the bladder collapsed, and became yellow as if corroded by aqua fortis. After 14 days I made a hole in the bladder tied over the flask, having previously held it, inverted, under water; the water rose rapidly into the flask, and it remained only 2⁄3 empty.
14. Seventh Experiment.—(a.) I immersed the mouth of a flask in a vessel with oil of turpentine. The oil rose in the flask a few lines every day. After the lapse of 14 days the fourth part of the flask was filled with it; I allowed it to stand for 3 weeks longer, but the oil did not rise higher. All those oils which dry in the air, and become converted into resinous substances, possess this property. Oil of turpentine, however, and linseed oil rise up sooner if the flask is previously rinsed out with a concentrated sharp ley. (b.) I poured 2 ounces of colourless and transparent animal oil of Dippel into a bottle and closed it very lightly; after the expiry of two months the oil was thick and black. I then held
the bottle, inverted, under water and drew out the cork; the bottle immediately became 1⁄4 filed with water.