Ice will not imbibe this air, and therefore freezing expels it from water.
Fixed air extinguishes flame, and is fatal to animals breathing in it. Also water impregnated with this air is fatal to fishes, and highly injurious to plants. But water thus impregnated will prevent, in a great measure, the putrefaction of animal substances.
Fixed air thrown into the intestines, by way of glyster, has been found to give relief in some cases of putrid disease.
Of Hepatic Air.
Another species of air absorbed by water, but not instantly, is termed hepatic air, being produced by the solution of liver of sulphur, or of sulphurated iron, in vitriolic or marine acid.
Water imbibes about twice its bulk of this kind of air, and it is then the same thing with the sulphureous waters of Harrowgate.
Of Phosphoric Air.
Phosphoric air is produced by the solution of phosphorus in caustic fixed alkali. If this air be confined by mercury, it will take fire on being admitted to atmospheric, and much more to dephlogisticated air. After agitation in water it loses this property, and the residuum is merely inflammable air, with no great diminution of its bulk. This kind of air, therefore, probably consists of phosphorus dissolved in inflammable air; though it cannot be made by melting it in inflammable air.