English

Noun

mephitic acid ‎(uncountable)

1. (chemistry, obsolete) Synonym of carbonic acid
   • 1776, Joseph Priestley, Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air, volume 2:

     The fact is, that fixed air is so rare a vapour and the Mephitic Acid, as I shall already venture to call it, is so greatly diluted in water, which is even saturated with it, that many of the blue juices relist its action upon them; while others, more sensible tests of acidity (such as infusions of Litmus, Cyanus, or Corn-flower, and a few others) readily announce its acid quality.

   • 1790, The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, page 1017:

     During the inspiration, while the mephitic acid is in a state of chemical union with phlogiston, it pastes through the lime-water without affecting its transparency; but no sooner is the air decompounded ia the lungs, and the phlogiston absorbed, than the fixed air is set at liberty, and manifests itself by the turbid precipitation of lime.

   • 1830, The manual for invalids, page 88:

     The carbonic acid has been called the mephitic acid; nitrogen has been called the mephitic air; but the true derivation of this term, from which it ought never to have been diverted, is mephuhith.