Oil of turpentine absorbed this air very fast, turning brown, and almost black. No inflammable air was formed, till I raised more of the acid air than the oil was able to absorb, and let it stand a considerable time; and still the air was but weakly inflammable. The same was the case with the oil of olives, in the last mentioned experiment; and it seems to be probable, that, the longer this acid air had continued in contact with the oil, the more phlogiston it would have extracted from it. It is not wholly improbable, but that, in the intermediate state, before it becomes inflammable air, it may be nearly of the nature of common air.
Bees-wax absorbed this air very slowly. About the bigness of a hazel-nut of the wax being put to three ounce measures of the acid air, the air was diminished one half in two days, and, upon the admission of water, half of the remainder also disappeared. This air was strongly inflammable.
Charcoal absorbed this air very fast. About one fourth of it was rendered immiscible in water, and was but weakly inflammable.
A small bit of phosphorus, perhaps about half a grain, smoked, and gave light in the acid air, just as it would have done in common air confined. It was not sensibly wasted after continuing about twelve hours in that state, and the bulk of the air was very little diminished. Water being admitted to it absorbed it as before, except about one fifth of the whole. It was but weakly inflammable.
Putting several pieces of sulphur to this air, it was absorbed but slowly. In about twenty-four hours about one fifth of the quantity had disappeared; and water being admitted to the remainder, very little more was absorbed. The remainder was inflammable, and burned with a blue flame.
Notwithstanding the affinity which this acid air appears to have with phlogiston, it is not capable of depriving all bodies of it. I found that dry wood, crusts of bread, and raw flesh, very readily imbibed this air, but did not part with any of their phlogiston to it. All these substances turned very brown, after they had been some time exposed to this air, and tasted very strongly of the acid when they were taken out; but the flesh, when washed in water, became very white, and the fibres easily separated from one another, even more than they would have done if it had been boiled or roasted[9].
When I put a piece of saltpetre to this air it was presently surrounded with a white fume, which soon filled the whole vessel, exactly like the fume which bursts from the bubbles of nitrous air, when it is generated by a vigorous fermentation, and such as is seen when nitrous air is mixed with this acid air. In about a minute, the whole quantity of air was absorbed, except a very little, which might be the common air that had lodged upon the surface of the spirit of salt within the phial.
A piece of alum exposed to this air turned yellow, absorbed it as fast as the saltpetre had done, and was reduced by it to the form of a powder. Common salt, as might be expected, had no effect whatever on this marine acid air.
I had also imagined, that if air diminished by the processes above-mentioned was affected in this manner, in consequence of its being saturated with phlogiston, a mixture of this acid air might imbibe that phlogiston, and render it wholesome again; but I put about one fourth of this air to a quantity of air in which metals had been calcined, without making any sensible alteration in it. I do not, however, infer from this, that air is not diminished by means of phlogiston, since the common air, like some other substances, may hold the phlogiston too fast, to be deprived of it by this acid air.