Volume 1

Experiments and observations on different kinds of air, and other branches of natural philosophy, connected with the subject ... / being the former six volumes abridged and methodized, with many additions. By Joseph Priestley.

  • Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804.
Date:
1790
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments and observations on different kinds of air, and other branches of natural philosophy, connected with the subject ... / being the former six volumes abridged and methodized, with many additions. By Joseph Priestley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    78/482 (page 16)
    fig. 2. Thefe I plunge in water, and Aide the jars into them; after which they may be taken out together* and be fet wherever it fhall be moft convenient. For the purpofe of merely removing a jar of air from one place to another, where it is not to Hand longer than a few days, I make ufe of common tea-dijhes, which will hold water enough for that time, unlefs the air be in a ftate of diminution, by means of any procefs that is going on in it. If I want to try whether an animal will live in any kind of air, I firft put the air into a fmall vef-« fel, juft large enough to give it room to ftretch it-, ielf; and as I generally make ufe of mice for this purpofe, I have found it very convenient to ufe the hollow part of a tall beer-glafs, d Fig. i, which contains between two and three ounce meafures of air. In this veffel a moufe will live twenty minutes,- ©r half an hour. For the puipofe of thefe experiments it is moft con- venient to catch the mice in fmall wire traps, out of which it is eafy to take them, and, holding them by the back of the neck, to pafs them through the water into the veffel which contains the air. If I expert that the moufe will live a confiderable time, I take care to put into the veffel fomething on which it may conveniently fit, out of the reach of the water. If the air be good, the moufe will foon be perfe&ly at its eafe, having fuffered no- thing by its palfing through the water. If the 3 air