Academic Oxygen

[grip at netcom.com]

On Thu, 6 Feb 1997, Mike Beiderbecke wrote:

> 
> >In 1804, English cleric and chemist Joseph Priestley, one of the
> discoverers of >oxygen, died.  
> 
>  What did they breathe before he discovered it? (sorry)
> 

Pretty much what we breathe today; mostly nitrogen with much smaller 
proportions of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

grip, recalling this from his high school chemistry class of 1954.