By referring to the table of combining weights given in a previous paper, it will be seen that 100 parts of calcium carbonate will yield 44 parts of carbonic acid. Instead of hydrochloric acid any other acid may be used, and in the practical manufacture of carbonic acid for aerated waters sulphuric acid is the one usually employed. Carbonic acid is colorless and inodorous, but has a peculiar sharp taste; it is half as heavy again as air, its exact specific gravity being 1529; one hundred cubic inches weigh 47.26 grains. It is uninflammable, and does not support combustion or animal respiration. Under a pressure of about 38 atmospheres, at a temperature of 32° F., carbonic acid condenses into a colorless liquid, which may also be frozen into a compact mass resembling ice, or into a white powder like snow. Carbonic acid is soluble in water, and at the ordinary pressure and temperature one volume of water will hold in solution one volume of the gas; under increased pressures, far larger quantities of the gas can be held in solution, but this is rapidly evolved as soon as the excess of pressure is removed. Upon this property the manufacture of aerated waters depends. The presence of free carbonic acid can be easily detected by causing the gas to pass over the surface of some clear lime-water. If any be present a white film of carbonate of lime will at once be formed. In testing carbonic acid in a state of combination, the gas must first be liberated by acting upon the substance with a stronger acid, and then applying the lime-water test. The presence of large quantities of carbonic acid in a gaseous mixture can be readily detected by plunging into the vessel a lighted taper, which will be immediately extinguished. This ought always to be adopted in a brewery, where many fatal accidents have happened through workmen going down into empty fermenting vats and wells without first taking this precaution. The presence of carbon in this colorless gas can be demonstrated by causing some of it to pass over a piece of the metal potassium placed in a hard glass tube, and heated to dull redness; the potassium then eagerly combines with the oxygen, forming oxide of potassium, and the carbon is liberated and can be separated in the form of a black powder by washing the tube out with water.