Experimental essays on medical and philosophical subjects ... / By David MacBride ... illustrated with copper plates.

  • David Macbride
Date:
1767
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experimental essays on medical and philosophical subjects ... / By David MacBride ... illustrated with copper plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The reader, upon looking into the table, will find, that there were two little bits of pu¬ trid mutton put into two of the phials, while the mixtures were fermenting; and that thefe bits of fiefh were rendered Tweet. This wras owing to the action of the vapour, fet free du¬ ring the fermentation ; and, as will be fhewn at large in another place, the vapour from the fweet vegetable liquors produceth the very fame effedb It was found, that the vapour from the mix¬ tures agreed likewife in another circumftance with the Subtile Gas, as it was termed by the old chemifts, namely, that of extinguifhing fire ; and, I dare fay, it would alfo fuffo- cate animals. But notwithstanding that this vapour, if applied in large quantity to the lungs, might prove fb very pernicious, yet it does not by any means follow^, that it muft neceffa- rily produce the fame deadly effedt, if pent up in the bowels : we may be very cer¬ tain that it does not; for if that were to be the cafe, people would be in very great danger after that whoever makes the experiment, muft not fuller fuch fubftances to remain too long before they are diftilled, unlefs kept in clofe veflels; becaufe the volatile alcali, which is the offspring of putrefaction, is diflipated as faft as it is gene¬ rated, infomuch that, at length, nothing is left behind but an inftpid water, or a folid matter, being an earth ftmilar to common mould. And it is in this way, that (linking water, after fome time, becomes fweet; the volatile alcali, generated by the putre- faClion of the animal and vegetable iubftances at firft con¬ tained in the water, being, after a while, entirely diflipated, leaves the remainder without any difagreeable fmell.
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