(1.) Fire must burn for a certain time in a given quantity of air. (2.) If, so far as can be seen, this fire does not produce during combustion any fluid resembling air, then, after the fire has gone out of itself, the quantity of air must be diminished between a third and a fourth part. (3.) It must not unite with common water. (4.) All kinds of animals must live for a certain time in a confined quantity of air. (5.) Seeds, as for example peas, in a given quantity of similarly confined air, must strike roots and attain a certain height with the aid of some water and of a moderate heat. Consequently, when I have a fluid resembling air in its external appearance, and find that it has not the properties mentioned, even when only one of them is wanting, I feel convinced that it is not ordinary air. 8. Air must be composed of elastic fluids of two kinds. First Experiment.--I dissolved one ounce of alkaline liver of sulphur in eight ounces of water; I poured four ounces of this solution into an empty bottle capable of holding 24 ounces of water, and closed it most securely with a cork; I then inverted the bottle and placed the neck in a small vessel with water; in this position I allowed it to stand for fourteen days. During this time the solution had lost a part of its red colour and had also deposited some sulphur: afterwards I took the bottle and held it in the same position in a larger vessel with water, so that the mouth was under and the bottom above the water-level, and withdrew the cork under the water; immediately water rose with violence into the bottle. I closed the bottle again, removed it from the water, and weighed the fluid which it contained. There were 10 ounces. After substracting from this the four ounces of solution of sulphur there remain six ounces, consequently it is apparent from this experiment that of 20 parts of air six parts have been lost in 14 days. 9. Second Experiment.--(a) I repeated the preceding experiment with the same quantity of liver of sulphur, but with this difference that I only allowed the bottle to stand a week tightly closed. I then found that of 20 parts of air only 4 had been lost. (b) On another occasion I allowed the very same bottle to stand four months; the solution still possessed a somewhat dark yellow colour. But no more air had been lost than in the first experiment, that is to say six parts.