Thus, if Paste or Dough with Leaven be placed in an exhausted Receiver, it will, after some Time, by Fermentation, produce a considerable quantity of Air, which will appear very plainly by the Sinking the Quicksilver in the Gage.
Black considered substances containing fixed air to be "mild", and upon expulsion of the gas by heating the resulting state is "caustic" by corroding or burning plants and animals (e.g. CO2 released by chalk upon decomposition to calcium oxide).
Priestley likewise credited the discovery of fixed air to contributions from several scientists including: David Macbride, John Pringle, William Brownrigg (regarded carbonated water to have an acidulous taste), Stephen Hales, and many others.
Source:[9][13] According to Claude Louis Berthollet, "What has long been called fixed, or fixible air, being really an acid in the state of gas, has of late received several new denominations.
It has been called aerial acid, as existing very readily in the state of air, or more properly of gas, and plentifully in the atmosphere.
The word saleratus, from Latin sal æratus (meaning "aerated salt"), was widely used beginning in the 1840s.
[46] She played a pivotal role in advancing the study of factitious airs through partnering with Thomas Beddoes to establish the Pneumatic Institution.
[47][25] This application of factitious air was pioneering research relevant to the modern era as carbon monoxide currently has preclinical evidence of treating Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection progression by inducing dormancy, stimulating host immune response, and ameliorating host inflammation.