Note 48 — PART FIRST. (continued 2)

The discoveries of modern chemists have determined that the aerial fluid, termed fixed air or carbonic acid, and which is nearly the same with the vapour arising from fermenting liquor, and is also largely contained in the fume of burning charcoal, is not a simple but a compound substance; one part consisting of the pure part of the atmosphere, or oxygene, the other of real charcoal. The proportions, according to M. Chaptal, are 12,0288 parts of charcoal to 56,687 of oxygen.