Gas, (from α, non, and vita). Azote, azotic gas. This is the noxious part of the atmospheric air; see Aer. Formerly called phlogisticated air; and atmospheric mephitis. It has been called azote by modern chemists, because the chemical properties of the noxious portion of atmospheric air being hitherto little known, they have thought it right to derive the name of its base from the known quality of killing such animals as breathe in it. It is a tasteless, inodorous element, existing in a large proportion in the atmosphere, and is obtained copiously from the fibrous parts of animals by means of nitric acid. Mixed with vital air or oxygen, in the proportion of "2 to 28, it forms air similar to atmospheric air; combined with hydrogen, it constitutes volatile alkali; and with carbon, the gluten of animal fibres; it is the basis of the nitrous acid. The weight of this gas, at the temperature of 54, 50, and under a pressure equal to 28 inches of the barometer, is 1 oz. 2 drachms and 48 gr. to the cubical foot, or 0.444 of a grain to a cubical inch; and to common air it is as 942.6 to 1000. See Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry. According to Kirwan, it is as 985 to 1000. We have much reason to suppose, as already hinted, that a larger proportion of azote in the air we breathe might be medicinally useful; but on this subject there are many doubts; and until it can be separated from ignorance, presumption, and quackery, such doubts must remain.