nitrous airn.

1668 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 3 833 And considering further, what part this Nitrous Air acts, and what operation it performs in the Animal Life, he is of the opinion, that this Niter, mixt with the sulphureous parts of the Bloud, causeth a due fermentation.

1670 W. Clarke Nat. Hist. Nitre 36 The nitrous Air receiv'd into the Lungs.

1720 R. Welton tr. T. Alvares de Andrade Sufferings Son of God I. xiii. 342 My Blood requires the Nitrous Air, to preserve Life by the Respiration of my Breath.

1785 W. Cowper Task iii. 32 The nitrous air Feeds a blue flame, and makes a cheerful hearth.

1988 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 75 932/1 William Clarke (1670) referred to the vegetative nutrition juice as ‘nitrosity’ and believed that nitrous air allowed ‘Nutritive Powers’ to act and thus to cause plant growth.

2008 J. C. A. Boeyens & D. C. Levendis Number Theory & Periodicity Matter iii. 74 John Mayow..concluded that air consisted of nitrous air, which supports combustion and respiration, together with a second inert gas.

1772 J. Priestley in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 62 211 I happened to distinguish it by the name of nitrous air, because I had procured it by means of spirit of nitre only.

1828 R. Hare Compend. Course Chem. Instr. ii. 145 (heading) Of nitric oxide gas, formerly called nitrous air.

1901 M. Foster Lect. Hist. Physiol. 240 On trying it with his nitrous air he [sc. Priestley] found that it was much better than..common air.

1947 Proc. Royal Soc. 189 440 He shows how he gets a mixture of nitrous air and pure air from nitric acid, and how by recombining them he gets nitric acid back again.

2002 R. Siegfried From Elements to Atoms ix. 160 Priestley's chemical way of measuring the goodness of the air..consisted of mixing the air to be tested with nitrous air (nitric oxide, no) confined over water.