EMILY.
You know, Caroline, how very unwholesome the fumes of burning charcoal are reckoned.
CAROLINE.
Yes; but, to confess the truth, I did not consider that a charcoal fire produced carbonic acid gas.—Can this gas be condensed into a liquid?
MRS. B.
No: for, as I told you before, it is a permanent elastic fluid. But water can absorb a certain quantity of this gas, and can even be impregnated with it, in a very strong degree, by the assistance of agitation and pressure, as I am going to show you. I shall decant some carbonic acid gas into this bottle, which I fill first with water, in order to exclude the atmospherical air; the gas is then introduced through the water, which you see it displaces, for it will not mix with it in any quantity, unless strongly agitated, or allowed to stand over it for some time. The bottle is now about half full of carbonic acid gas, and the other half is still occupied by the water. By corking the bottle, and then violently shaking it, in this way, I can mix the gas and water together.—Now will you taste it?
EMILY.
It has a distinct acid taste.
CAROLINE.
Yes, it is sensibly sour, and appears full of little bubbles.