Q.
The following hypothesis, “Plants restore to the air whatever breathing animals and burning candles remove” was given by
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Photosynthesis in Higher Plants
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Solution:
• In 1770 he performed a series of experiments that showed the essential role of air in the growth of green plants. Priestley discovered O2 in 1774.
• He experimented with a mint plant.
• Priestley observed that a candle burning in a closed space—a bell jar, soon gets extinguished. Similarly, a mouse would soon suffocate in a closed space.
• He concluded that a burning candle or an animal that breathe the air, both somehow, damage the air.
• But when he placed a mint plant in the same bell jar, he found that the mouse stayed alive and the candle continued to bum.
• Priestley hypothesis: Plants restore to the air whatever breathing animals and burning candles remove.