in time, became fully saturated with it.

By this means I got a very strong alkaline liquor, from which I could
again expel the alkaline air which I had put into it, whenever it
happened to be more convenient to me to get it in that manner. This
process may easily be performed in a still larger way; and by this means
a liquor of the same nature with the volatile spirit of sal ammoniac,
might be made much stronger, and much cheaper, than it is now made.

Having satisfied myself with respect to the relation that alkaline air
bears to water, I was impatient to find what would be the consequence
of mixing this new air with the other kinds with which I was acquainted
before, and especially with _acid_ air; having a notion that these two
airs, being of opposite natures, might compose a _neutral air_, and
perhaps the very same thing with common air. But the moment that these
two kinds of air came into contact, a beautiful white cloud was formed,
and presently filled the whole vessel in which they were contained. At
the same time the quantity of air began to diminish, and, at length,
when the cloud was subsided, there appeared to be formed a solid _while
salt_, which was found to be the common _sal ammoniac_, or the marine
acid united to the volatile alkali.

The first quantity that I produced immediately deliquesced, upon being
exposed to the common air; but if it was exposed in a very dry and warm
place, it almost all evaporated, in a white cloud. I have, however,
since, from the same materials, produced the salt above-mentioned in a
state not subject to deliquesce or evaporate. This difference, I find,
is owing to the proportion of the two kinds of air in the compound. It
is only volatile when there is more than a due proportion of either of
the constituent parts. In these cases the smell of the salts is
extremely pungent, but very different from one another; being manifestly
acid, or alkaline, according to the prevalence of each of these airs
respectively.

_Nitrous air_ admitted to alkaline air likewise occasioned a whitish
cloud, and part of the air was absorbed; but it presently grew clear
again; leaving only a little dimness on the sides of the vessel. This,
however, might be a kind of salt, formed by the union of the two kinds
of air. There was no other salt formed that I could perceive. Water
being admitted to this mixture of nitrous and alkaline air presently
absorbed the latter, and left the former possessed of i