ght that perhaps the great humidity prevented me from drawing this
air into my lungs so often as was really possible. Accordingly I
repeated the same experiment, only with this difference, that I put a
handful of potashes into the bladder before the fire-air was driven into
it. I then began to draw this air into my lungs, and counted 65
inspirations before I was compelled to desist. But when I lowered a
burning candle into this air, it still burned well, although only for a
few seconds.

+91. Eighth Experiment.+--I closed the hole in the bottle at A (Fig. 5)
with a cork, as also the tube B, and then filled the bottle with
fire-air (Sec. 30, _e._). Then I had at hand the glass C, in which I had
placed 2 large bees, and had provided some honey for their stay. I
opened the stopped-up tube, placed this glass over it as quickly as
possible, and pressed it into the ring of pitch. I afterwards placed the
whole in the dish D, which I had filled with milk of lime, and withdrew
the cork at A. In this case I observed the milk of lime to rise a little
into the bottle every day, and after 8 days had elapsed the bottle was
almost completely filled with it, and the bees were dead.

+92. Ninth Experiment.+--Plants, however, will not grow noticeably in
pure fire-air. I filled with this air a bottle capable of holding 16
ounces of water, and which contained 4 peas (Sec. 88). They got roots, but
did not grow up at all; with milk of lime the twelfth part was absorbed.
I then filled this air into another bottle which also contained 4 peas.
After 14 days they had got roots, but also did not grow up, and with
milk of lime likewise only the twelfth part was absorbed. I repeated
this experiment 3 times more with the same air, and it was observed that
the fourth and fifth times the peas had grown upwards a little. There
still remained one-half of the whole air, and in this fire could still
burn. There is no doubt that the whole quantity of fire-air could have
been converted into aerial acid if I had continued the operation longer.
It may also be observed that the peas act more strongly upon the
fire-air when they send out roots than subsequently.

+93.+ Hence it is the fire-air by means of which the circulation of the
blood and of the juices in animals and plants is so fully maintained.
Still it is a peculiar circumstance that blood and the lungs have not
such action upon fire-air as insects and plants have, for the latter
convert it int