Hanslick's Vacuum Jar

On p. 25 of Hanslick's On the Musically Beautiful (Payzant translation), he refers to "a bird in a vacuum jar." I thought you'd be interested to know that Hanslick was referring to a famous set of experiments that helped define the emergence of the scientific thought associated with the Enlightenment--a mode of thought clearly vital to Hanslick's conception of aesthetics. Here is one description of it:

http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/98/1/31

J Appl Physiol 98: 31-39, 2005;

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

“Robert Boyle’s landmark book of 1660 with the first experiments on rarified air”

John B. West

Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California

In 1660, Robert Boyle (1627–1691) published his landmark book New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and its Effects... in which he described the first controlled experiments of the effects of reducing the pressure of the air. Critical to this work was the development of an air pump by Boyle with Robert Hooke (1635–1703). For the first time, it was possible to observe physical and physiological processes at both normal and reduced barometric pressures. The air pump was described in detail, although the exact design of the critical piston is unclear. Boyle reported 43 separate experiments. . . .

[B]y early 1659 Boyle had a much-improved air pump and was ready for experiments. The pump was designed and constructed by Robert Hooke (1635–1703), who was a mechanical genius. He made important contributions to an extremely wide field, including microscopy, horology, mechanics, and architecture. Boyle hardly mentioned Hooke in the 1660 book, but later he acknowledged the great contributions of his assistant. In fact, it seems likely that a number of the experiments described in the 1660 book owed their origin to Hooke’s interests. . . .

These observations led to a much longer account in experiment 41 on studies on the nature of respiration. A lark was placed in the receiver and sprang to a good height on several occasions when the pressure was normal. But when air was removed, it began to "droop and appear sick, and very soon after was taken with as violent and irregular Convulsions as are wont to be observ’d in Poultry, when their heads are wrung off." Another experiment was carried out on a hen-sparrow, and the bird seemed to be dead ~7 min after the pump was employed. However, when the air was restored, the bird revived and nearly escaped through the top cover, which had been removed. But when the air was removed a second time, the bird convulsed and died. A mouse inserted into the receiver behaved in a similar way, being very active initially but when the pressure was reduced appeared giddy and staggered before falling down unconscious. Again, the animal was revived when fresh air was let in.