Scientific amusements . ome cold, we die away, and cease to live. Mans lifeexemplifies a taper burning ; the carbon waste is con-sumed as the wax is, and when the candle burns away —it dies ! It is a beautiful study, full of suggestiveness toall who care to study the great facts of Nature, which worksby the same means in all matter. We will refer to plantspresently, after having proved by experiment the existenceof nitrogen in the air. Rutherford experimented very cruelly upon a birdwhich he placed beneath a glass shade, and there let it CARBONIC ACID. 55 remain in the carbonic acid exhaled fr
Scientific amusements . ome cold, we die away, and cease to live. Mans lifeexemplifies a taper burning ; the carbon waste is con-sumed as the wax is, and when the candle burns away —it dies ! It is a beautiful study, full of suggestiveness toall who care to study the great facts of Nature, which worksby the same means in all matter. We will refer to plantspresently, after having proved by experiment the existenceof nitrogen in the air. Rutherford experimented very cruelly upon a birdwhich he placed beneath a glass shade, and there let it CARBONIC ACID. 55 remain in the carbonic acid exhaled from its lungs, till theoxygen being at length all consumed by the bird, it the atmosphere had been chemically purified by asolution of caustic potash, another bird was introduced, butthough it lived for some time, it did not exist so long asthe first. Again the. air was deprived of the carbonic acid,and a third bird was introduced. The experiment wasthus repeated-, till at length a bird was placed beneath the. Rutherfords experiment. receiver, and it perished at once. This is at once a crueland clumsy method of making an experiment, which canbe more pleasantly and satisfactorily practised by burningsome substance in the air beneath the glass. Phosphorus,having a great affinity for oxygen, is usually chosen. Theexperiment can be performed as follows with a taper, butthe phosphorus is a better exponent. Let us take a shallow basin with some water in it, a 56 CHEMISTRY. cork or small plate floating upon the water, and in theplate a piece of We must be careful how wehandle phosphorus, for it has a habit, well known, butsometimes forgotten by amateur chemists, of suddenlytaking fire. Light this piece of phosphorus,—a smallpiece will do if the jar be of average shade size,^—andplace the glass over it, as in the illustration (page 57).The smoke will quickly spread in the jar, and the entryof air being prevented, because the jar is resting underwater, phosph
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