n of some other kind of air, of which it
now principally consisted.

In order to determine whether this effect was produced by the _wire_, or
the _cement_ by which the air was confined (as I thought it possible
that phlogiston might be discharged from them) I made the experiment in
a glass syphon, fig. 19, and by that means I contrived to make the
electric spark pass from quicksilver through the air on which I made the
experiment, and the effect was the same as before. At one time there
happened to be a bubble of common air, without any ether, in one part of
the syphon, and another bubble with ether in another part of it; and it
was very amusing to observe how the same electric sparks diminished the
former of these bubbles, and increased the latter.

It being evident that the _ether_ occasioned the difference that was
observable in these two cases, I next proceeded to take the electric
spark in a quantity of ether only, without any air whatever; and
observed that every spark produced a small bubble; and though, while the
sparks were taken in the ether itself, the generation of air was slow,
yet when so much air was collected, that the sparks were obliged to pass
through it, in order, to come to the ether and the quicksilver on which
it rested, the increase was exceedingly rapid; so that, making the
experiment in small tubes, as fig. 16, the quicksilver soon receded
beyond the striking distance. This air, by passing through water, was
diminished to about one third, and was inflammable.

One quantity of air produced in this manner from ether I suffered to
stand two days in water, and after that I transferred it several times
through the water, from one vessel to another, and still found that it
was very strongly inflammable; so that I have no doubt of its being
genuine inflammable air, like that which is produced from metals by
acids, or by any other chemical process.

Air produced from ether, mixed both with common and nitrous air, was
likewise inflammable; but in the case of the nitrous air, the original
quantity bore a very small proportion to the quantity generated.

Concluding that the inflammable matter in this air came from the ether,
as being of the class of _oils_, I tried other kinds of oil, as _oil of
olives_, _oil of turpentine_, and _essential oil of mint_, taking the
electric spark in them, without any air to begin with, and found that
inflammable air was produced in this manner from them all. The
gener