brighter in vital air, and would therefore be sooner exhausted, so
would the flame of life be sooner burnt out.

On the contrary, if the atmosphere contained a much less proportion
of vital air, it would not stimulate the body sufficiently; the
excitability would morbidly accumulate, and diseases of debility
would occur.

Combustion, putrefaction, and the breathing of animals, are
processes which are continually diminishing the quantity of vital
air contained in the atmosphere; and if the all-wise author of
nature had not provided for its continual re-production, the
atmosphere would in all probability have long since become too
impure to support life; but this is guarded against in a most
beautiful manner.

Water is not a simple element, as has been supposed, but is composed
of vital air, and a particular kind of air which is called
_inflammable_; the same that is used to fill balloons. It has been
found by experiment, that one hundred pounds of water, are composed
of eighty-five pounds of vital air, and fifteen of inflammable
air. [5]

Water may be decompounded by a variety of means, and its component
parts separated from each other.

Vegetables effect this decomposition; they absorb water, and
decompose it in their glands; and taking the inflammable air for
their nourishment, breathe out the vital air in a state of very
great purity; this may be ascertained by a very easy experiment.