Becker's World of the Cell 9th Edition by Lewis Kleinsmith, Jeff Hardin, Gregory Paul Bertoni

تمرين 6

The Mint and the Mouse. Joseph Priestley, a British clergyman, was a prominent figure in the early history of research in photosynthesis. In 1771, Priestley wrote these words:
One might have imagined that since common air is necessary to vegetable as well as to animal life, both plants and animals had affected it in the same manner; and I own that I had that expectation when I first put a sprig of mint into a glass jar standing inverted in a vessel of water; but when it had continued growing there for some months, I found that the air would neither extinguish a candle, nor was it at all inconvenient to a mouse which I put into it.
Explain the basis of Priestley's observations, and indicate their relevance to the early understanding of the nature of photosynthesis.