In proportion as the water in the retort A is evaporated, it fills the tube EF, and drives out the air it contained by the tube KK; the aqueous gas formed by evaporation is condensed by cooling in the worm SS, and falls, drop by drop, into the tubulated bottle H. Having continued this operation until all the water be evaporated from the retort, and having carefully emptied all the vessels employed, we find that a quantity of water has passed over into the bottle H, exactly equal to what was before contained in the retort A, without any disengagement of gas whatsoever: So that this experiment turns out to be a simple distillation; and the result would have been exactly the same, if the water had been run from one vessel into the other, through the tube EF, without having undergone the intermediate substance.
Experiment Second.
The apparatus being disposed, as in the former experiment, 28 grs. of charcoal, broken into moderately small parts, and which has previously been exposed for a long time to a red heat in close vessels, are introduced into the tube EF. Every thing else is managed as in the preceding experiment.
The water contained in the retort A is distilled, as in the former experiment, and, being
